Preview of DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020

General information

DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 will be taking place in Leipzig, Germany. The venue will be Leipziger Messe, where, by the way, the second Major Dota 2 tournament is taking place. The total prize pool of DH Open Leipzig 2020 will consist of one hundred thousand dollars and the winner will take half of the prize money. The invited teams like BIG, North, Renegades, and Virtus.pro and the qualifier teams like Heroic, MAD Lions, Cloud9, and Sprout will be fighting for $50,000.

Favorites

Virtus.pro (position in the HLTV rating — #19)
Win odds: 4.50

Both in our humble opinion and according to the experts from sportsbook companies, Virtus.pro is the main favorite of winning the championship. As a reminder, VP is represented by AVANGAR that took second place at the Major tournament in 2019. The roster was completed on 25 July when AdreN joined the team so it means that the players have been fighting for one team for more than half a year. Neither of the participants of the upcoming DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 can boast about it. The team took the 7-8 place and was the first to leave the last CS:GO tournament of the previous year and in parallel, the last championship VP participated in. Now winter holidays have already passed and the team must have used the time productively so we are sure that Virtus.pro is going to make it to the playoff. Moreover, we expect to see Jame and his teammates fight for supremacy at the final of the tournament.

Virtus.pro roster and rating of the players:

Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov — 1.11
Alexey ‘qikert’ Golubev — 1.12
Dzami ‘Jame’ Ali — 1.17
Sanjar ‘SANJI’ Kuliev — 0.94
Dauren ‘AdreN’ Kystaubayev — 0.92
Dastan ‘dastan’ Akbayev — coach

MAD Lions (position in the HLTV rating — #18)
Win odds: 4.50

MAD Lions showed a good result at the European qualifier for the tournament and beat SKADE 2-1 there and defeated Defusekids 2-0. If we pay attention to the fact that the participants in the LAN final will form a more serious threat than the opponents of the Danish team at the European qualifiers, the chances to beat MAD Lions are not so high as they would like them to be. Nevertheless, the roster of MAD Lions is quite good and is represented by some famous Danish players like HUNDEN and Bubzkij. We want to remind you about the fact that Lions got completed on 22 August when the players defended Tricked’s interests. Consequently, the esportsmen have been fighting shoulder to shoulder for five months which makes ys more confident in their win and their participation in the final. Nevertheless, in our opinion, this team is weaker than the main favorite so the chances for the team to have a triumph at the final are not so high. Sportsbooks placed MAD Lions on the second position in outrights. Taking all the mentioned facts into account, we are forced to agree with the opinion that MAD Lions is the second team after Virtus.pro that can really claim victory.

MAD Lions roster and rating of the players:

Nicolai ‘HUNDEN’ Petersen — 0.80
Lucas ‘Bubzkji’ Andersen — 1.17
Frederik ‘acoR’ Gyldstrand — 1.14
Rasmus ‘sjuush’ Beck — 1.10
Fredrik ‘roeJ’ Jørgensen — 1.19

Teams that have good chances

North (place in the HLTV rating — #21)
Win odds: 5.00

The North organization has recently had several changes. At first, the representatives reported about rebranding and after that told that they renewed the contract with Kjaerbye. Then they released JUGi from his duties and took MSL instead of him. The esportsman has rich experience of playing for North. Meanwhile, you should understand that Mathias Lauridsen has never played with cajunb before which reduces our trust in them. The captain of the team, MSL, has zero rating at the moment as he has not taken part in any official meeting for more than three months. Lack of practice is going to affect the performance of the team negatively. To make an outright bet on North’s 3 place is a pretty good decision according to the experts of sportsbook but we think that the odds sized 5 for the North’s triumph is too much. In our opinion, North is going to win 3-4 place but if we try to make a more accurate prognosis, we will opt for the outcome where North take 5-6 position in the tournament bracket.

North roster and rating of the players:

Philip ‘aizy’ Aistrup — 1.10
Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjærbye — 1.06
Nicklas ‘gade’ Gade — 0.96
René ‘cajunb’ Borg — 0.95
Mathias ‘MSL’ Sommer Lauridsen — 0.00
Torbjørn ‘mithR’ Nyborg — coach

Heroic (place in the HLTV rating — #16)
Win odds: 5.50

Heroic has good indicators across the board. In the world rating, the team is higher than all the participants as the players are located in the sixteenth position. The roster was completed 3 months ago while the hardcore of the team has been playing together for five months. We should also mark the fact that Heroic is represented by quite famous esportsmen like es3tag, b0RUP, cadiaN, and others. The last matches Heroic participated in ended up with a win for the Danish apart from the last one. The opponents Heroic faced were not the weakest. cadiaN and his teammates beat GODSENT, Gambit Youngsters, and other participants. In total, we think that Heroic’s gaming shape must let them pass to the playoff, and if they try hard enough, even to the grand final.

Heroic roster and rating of the players:

Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen — 1.10
Martin ‘stavn’ Lund — 1.12
Johannes ‘b0RUP’ Borup — 1.07
Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer — 1.05
Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller — 1.14
Frederik ‘LOMME’ Nielsen — coach

Cloud9 (position in the HLTV rating — #17)
Win odds: 8.50

Cloud9 is a roster transferred from ATK. It got completed in the middle of September and since then it has not been changed even once. Within the period, the team surprised spectators with their performance at the tenth season of ESL Pro League. In the American division, the team took the 5-6 place and thanks to that the players made it to the LAN final. The final stage brought ATK 7-8 place when the esportsmen kicked North and G2 Esports out of the competition and for some time it was public fare for some time. This year the new tag Cloud9 took part in the qualifiers for IEM Katowice 2020 and DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 and both elimination rounds got victorious for them which proves their good gaming shape. Nevertheless, it is better not to overestimate C9’s abilities. Yes, the team can make it to the playoff but the other participants in the tournament are unlikely to let the American roster pass to the grand final.

Cloud9 roster and rating of the players:

Johnny ‘JT’ Theodosiou — 0.97
Ian ‘motm’ Hardy — 1.15
Joshua ‘oSee’ Ohm — 1.16
Ricky ‘floppy’ Kemery — 1.17
Aran ‘Sonic’ Groesbeek — 1.14
Tiaan ‘T.c.’ Coertzen — coach

Renegades (position in the HLTV rating — #24)
Win odds: 8.50

Renegades, as well as some other participants in DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020, have recently made some changes in their roster. On 8 January, it became known that DickStacy left the Australian team and four days later the players found a replacement - Jordan ‘Hatz’ Bajic. Despite the lack of experience of playing with Hatz, the team has had a series pf six winning games at ESEA Season 33 and the closed qualifier for IEM Katowice 2020. It would be fair to mark that their opponents were only weak teams, so it means that they may be unprepared for a battle in the international arena.

Renegades roster and rating of the players:

Chris ‘dexter’ Nong — 1.31
Liam ‘malta’ Schembri — 1.08
Simon ‘Sico’ Williams — 1.24
Joshua ‘INS’ Potter — 1.27
Jordan ‘Hatz’ Bajic — 1.15

Outsiders

BIG (position in the HLTV rating — #46)
Win odds: 15.0

BIG is one of the main outsiders. We (and not only we) have reached this conclusion due to two reasons. Firstly, BIG has not been a competitive team for a long time. Secondly, the Germans had a resolution for 2020 - New Year, New Roster. On 1 January, the roster excluded smooya and nex from the team and their roles were taken by syrsoN and k1to. Three official meetings held in 2020 resulted in only one win. A weak team with recent changes in the roster that is not able to beat not strong opponents - this is the way BIG can be described, so that is the reason why we treat the German team as an outsider.

BIG roster and rating of the players:

Johannes ‘tabseN’ Wodarz — 1.12
Tizian ‘tiziaN’ Feldbusch — 0.92
Can ‘XANTARES’ Dörtkardeş — 1.13
Florian ‘syrsoN’ Rische — 1.16
Nils ‘k1to’ Gruhne — 1.12
Tobias ‘tow b’ Herberhold — coach

Sprout (position in the HLTV rating — #30)
Win odds: 25.0

Win odds for Sprout is almost twice bigger than for one of the main outsiders of the championship. The maximum skepticism towards Sprout is explained by recent reshuffles in the roster. Two players from Sprout moved to BIG to continue their careers there. The vacant places were taken by the former player for Aristocracy, Paweł ‘dycha’ Dycha, and the ex-representative of mousesports and HellRaisers, Tomáš ‘oskar’ Šťastný. The latter, by the way, rarely stands out among his teammates whereas dycha is good at the game but still it is unlikely to help the team to reach the level of their opponents. We, as well as the majority of spectators, think that Sprout will be the first to leave the competition. If they can perform better than we expect from them, they are to win the 5-6 position in the best of cases.

Sprout roster and rating of the players:

Timo ‘Spiidi’ Richter — 0.98
Josef ‘faveN’ Baumann — 1.07
Denis ‘denis’ Howell — 0.95
Tomáš ‘oskar’ Šťastný — 0.98
Paweł ‘dycha’ Dycha — 1.25
Niclas ‘enkay J’ Krumhorn — coach