DreamHack Cluj-Napoca has been a tourney to watch in the CS: GO community, with so many close games, and some upsets that range from big to “oh my god the sky is falling.” So many players have stepped it up out there on the big stage making for very few blowouts and there have been some beat-downs this tourney, but since games like that are the minority we will get to that latter. So let’s give the rundown in pool A which has Fnatic, Cloud 9, Luminosity, and Vexed gaming; group A where before the games began most had Fnatic as the winners of this pool.

The pool started with Fnatic beating Vexed, but Vexed did not make it easy, actually leading the game at halftime 10-5. Good teams can steam roll games, but it’s the elite class of teams that can find themselves down in the game, and find a way to turn it around with proper adjustments. Fnatic came out of the halftime throwing haymakers and winning 11 straight rounds, not giving Vexed the chance to show any of the play that gave them a lead in the first place. The Fnatic charge was led by Flusha and Krimz who put up 50 kills between the two of them. The first mini upset of the week came in the Cloud 9 vs. Luminosity game where despite Cloud 9’s LAN woes they were still seen as the favorite to take the game. The game was back and forth, but Cloud 9 could never roll with any steam they would pick up losing rounds after they won the last one, and dropping anti eco rounds. If there is a story of one player all but single handedly winning the game it was Luminosity’s Cold who lit up Cloud 9’s momentum many times this game. Cold put on a clinic leaving his own teammates behind in terms of numbers, with Cold raking in an unfathomable 31 kills. Another way of looking at this standout performance from Cold is like this his teammates did not go over 18 kills, and Cold had 11 kills more than C9’s top fragger Seangares who had 20.

The win put Luminosity to play Fnatic, with C9 waiting to play the loser of that matchup. This is where the upset of group A, if not the entire tournament, went down a match that will not be soon forgotten. The game itself was a 13-16 nail-bitter on Inferno. Cold picked up where he left off playing out of his mind this tourney, but this win felt more like a team effort. Cold may have finished with 23 kills and a +8 kill-death ratio, but Fallen was right behind him at 23 kill which amounts to a +4. Fnatic would not go down quietly though with Flusha, Olofmeister, and Krimz finishing with 20 or more kills each. Now Fnatic goes down to play Cloud 9 where once again they would be the obvious favorites to win just with the sheer star power the team possess. Luminosity with their win get a bye past the quarter finals.

Now we leave that bonkers group A to discuss a more routine group B where the winners are to the surprise of no one, as it also houses the odds on favorite to win the whole thing. The pool started and ended with the first game where TSM bulldozed Flipside Tactics, with the score reading 16-6 on Cache. TSM was out for blood this game to make a clear statement, and it shows with no player on TSM going negative on it. That’s not to say that Flipside rolled over and died, but they just had no answers to the assault TSM was presenting. Players like Maroloff and Worldedit made some rounds close, but there were too many threats on TSM and they simply could not keep up. TSM just looked like a more complete team and when things are clicking TSM just seems unbeatable.

Their path out of group B showed that they are ready and are in the correct mind set to take the whole thing. Gamers 2 beat Mousesports to play TSM, but after their loss to TSM are looking to beat them again to advance to the semis. G2 played TSM and lost with the same score-line as Flipside losing 16-6. Don’t let the 6 fool you this game because it was nowhere near as close as the Flipside game with every player going negative on Dust 2. TSM rather had every player going positive with Cajunb having the hot hand this game, with 24 kills in a game that felt routine like TSM decided to upload dominate.exe.

From a dominated pool owned from TSM we move to a pool with a strong team in the form of Virtus.Pro who looked great, but took a little longer to hit their stride. However, when they did, games looked automatic even though they hit a few snags on the read to the bye in group C. The First game was Virtus.Pro vs. Team Liquid with a 19-15 final score. This was a fantastic game with it going into overtime before Virtus.Pro decided to seal the deal. If you just looked at the score lines of Team Liquid you would not see the story of how a North American team took one of the world’s best into overtime. Only one player from Team Liquid finished positive with EliGE finishing +3 while every one of his teammates were in the red. Team Liquid stayed in this game with proper calls and precession, which is why they brought on Hiko along with his still elite ability. In overtime, Snax and Taz just proved to be too much of a threat to handle on the map Cobblestone. Take nothing away from Virtus.Pro who may have dropped a few rounds they shouldn’t have, but in the clutch Virtus.Pro turned on the heat and picked up the only thing that matters this weekend, and that’s the win.

Titan would take on and beat Ninjas in Pajamas in a 16-13 nail-bitter on Cobblestone. Looking at the score-line you would not think that Ninjas in Pajamas have any right to be so close to victory in this game. The shot calling on NIP is just so smooth at times that it keeps them in games that should be out of their reach. Nip could not buy kills which could have been what they needed to win those solo duels. While on Titan the shots where all hitting what needed to be hit, but that won’t fly against teams with better gunners like TSM, VP, and Fnatic. The game that pitted Team Liquid, and NIP was fierce ending with an 11-16 score-line in favor of NIP. NIP this time around had the calls and the shots making TL pay on many rounds. Team Liquid could have done it, but they just lost too many anti eco rounds where NIP were running nothing but Desert Eagles. On the other side, VP made quick work of Titan ending it 16-7 in a game where 4 players on VP almost hit 20kills to lift VP in the bye out of group C.

Group D had a very mixed bag group of teams with Envyus as the odds on favorite to make it out, and they did not disappoint. First, they picked apart Dignitas with every player on Envyus going +7 or higher, enough said. Na’Vi vs CLG was closer, but Americans at Dreamhack have not been having a good time, and this match was no different. CLG just could not manage a solid offense on T side, only picking up 4 rounds and the score-lines tell the whole story. Na.Vi’s Guardian went crazy dropping 26 kills going +11 for the match.

The Americans would find their redemption on the second map, in the second most intense match of the day when they were pitted to play against Dignitas on cobblestone. The game ended with a score of 16-14 in favor of CLG. FNS played monstrous with 29 kills, and JDM just stopped any offense that Dig would try to put up as long as he had an awp in his hands. The story this game is how Aizy almost single-handedly kept Dig in position to potentially win the game leaving the game with 37 kills. The force ecos from CLG almost cost them the match with poor money management leaving their awper with and assault rifle or anything that was not an awp. CLG stands as the only American team making it to the best of three round and awaited the loser of Envyus vs Na.Vi. Envyus once again crushed their opponent in every statistical category except deaths. Envyus route Na.Vi 16-9 on Mirage making it look easy, and with that Envyus gets the bye in pool D, and Na.Vi must face off against CLG to make it to the semis.