DreamHack Winter 2014


The DreamHack Winter 2014 was the fourth that was held from November 27–29, 2014 at Elmia in Jönköping. It was organized by DreamHack.
The tournament had a total prize pool of $250,000 USD. The eight quarter-finalists from the previous major, ESL One Cologne 2014 were invited, while qualifiers were held for the other eight spots.
Team LDLC was the winner of the event after beating Ninjas in Pyjamas 16-10, 16-4, 19-16 in the finals.

Format

The top six teams of the ESL One Cologne 2014 qualified as Legends. Five teams from Europe, one team from North America, and two teams from the Last LAN Qualifier qualified from the tournament. In addition, two teams were invited to the major.
Teams will be split up into four groups. All group matches are best of one. The highest seed will play the lowest seed in each group and the second and third seeds will play against each other. The winner of those two matches will play to determine which team moves on to the Playoffs; the loser of that match will play another match against the winner of the two losing teams. The loser of the lower match is eliminated from the tournament. The last two teams will play each other and the winner of that match moves on to the playoffs.
The playoffs bracket consists of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches are a best of three, single elimination format. Teams advance in the bracket until a winner is decided.

Map Pool

The same map pool was kept at this major.
There were seven maps to choose from. In the group stage, both teams can delete two maps. From the remaining three maps, the map is randomly selected, which is played in the end. In the playoffs, each team will first remove one map. Then, each side chooses a map, which will be played in the first two matches. If the series were to go to a third map, that map is randomly selected among the three remaining maps.

Regional Qualifiers

European Closed Qualifier

North America Closed Qualifier

Last Call LAN Qualifier

Broadcast Talent

Host
Stage Host
Analyst
Commentators
1Bravado Gaming and myXMG were invited to the tournament. Bravado did not have to play in any qualifier. myXMG failed to qualify through the European qualifier but was still invited.
Prior to the major, changes took place.
The biggest change came after the scandal of three French players. Two teams that achieved Legends statuses at the previous major, ESL One Cologne 2014, were dropped from their Legends spots. Titan, which achieved Legends status with Team LDLC.com, was disqualified from the tournament after Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian was found cheating. In the same incident, Epsilon eSports was disqualified after Gordon "Sf" Giry was found to be cheating. The two players and Simon "smn" Beck were then VAC banned by Valve and were permanently banned from any Valve-sponsored tournaments, including any majors. The two remaining spots were then filled up in the Last Call LAN qualifier, taken by Copenhagen Wolves and Flipsid3 Tactics.
After KQLY, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, and Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez left for Titan, Team LDLC.com released Kévin "Uzzziii" Vernel and signed Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt, Richard "shox" Papillon, Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey, and Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux.
Team Dignitas released Philip "aizy" Aistrup and signed René "cajunb" Borg from the Copenhagen Wolves. Copenhagen Wolves also released Finn "karrigan" Andersen and Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen along with cajunb and sign Casper "cadiaN" Møller, Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye, and Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski.
HellRaisers drop Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev in favor of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
iBuyPower dropped Sam "DaZeD" Marine and Joshua "steel" Nissan despite being considered to be the best North American team. The team brings in Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella and Derek "desi" Branchen in their place.

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Playoffs

Bracket

1The third map originally ended with a Fnatic win. However, the match was to be replayed due to both teams violating in-game rules. Fnatic refused to replay the map and LDLC was given the win

Quarterfinals Scores

HellRaisers vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

HellRaisers had a surprise run to the playoffs, as it easily took down Cloud9 and upset Fnatic in the winner's match to take the first seed of Group A. Meanwhile, Ninjas in Pyjamas easily took down Planetkey Dynamics before losing a close match to Team LDLC.com. The Swedes had to edge its way past ESC Gaming to reach the playoffs.
Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

Virtus.pro vs. PENTA Sports

Virtus.pro took care of business in Group D, giving up only four rounds in two maps to easily move on to the playoffs. PENTA Sports had an early loss to Team Dignitas but came back to defeat Copenhagen Wolves of Denmark and Team iBUYPOWER of the United States to claim the second seed of Group B.
Casters: TosspoT & Fifflaren

Team LDLC.com vs. Fnatic

Team LDLC.com had an easy game against ESC Gaming and took down the Swedish powerhouse of the Ninjas in Pyjamas to top Group C. Fnatic easily took down the South Africans of Bravado Gaming but suffered an upset to HellRaisers. However, it came back and beat Cloud9 in the elimination match. The third map of this series would become one of the most infamous matches in CSGO history.
Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

Team Dignitas vs. Natus Vincere

Team Dignitas topped Group B after defeating Germany's PENTA Sports and USA's Team iBUYPOWER. Natus Vincere defeated Sweden's Flipsid3 Tactics twice in the initial matches and the elimination match, but was stomped on by Poland's Virtus.pro in the winner's match of Group D.
Casters: TosspoT & Fifflaren

Semifinals Scores

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Virtus.pro

The runner-up of Group C faced off against the winner of Group D. The Swedish legends easily took care of HellRaisers, winning each map by 11 rounds. The Polish legends also had a relatively easy time against PENTA Sports, with the Germans not getting to double digits in either of the two maps.
Casters: TosspoT vs. Fifflaren

Team LDLC.com vs. Natus Vincere

After the controversial series against Fnatic, Team LDLC.com had a ticket to the semifinals against the Ukrainians of Natus Vincere which defeated Team Dignitas in a 2-0 sweep.
Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

Finals Scores

The Ninjas in Pyjamas had a close series against Virtus.pro and was back in the finals. NiP was the defending major champions and looked to defend it; it was also NiP's fourth straight major final appearance. Team LDLC.com became the first French team to make it to a major final, taking down Natus Vincere by five rounds in both maps in the semifinals.
Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

Final standings