The Swedish event came to an end and left behind a lot of unforgettable, shocking, questionable and viral moments. The $250,000 DreamHack Winter 2014 CS:GO Championship managed to rewrite couple of records relating not only the viewing base, but also internet activity in the sphere of Counter-Strike history.

Read below to find out in details what happened before and during the Swedish event, what the tournament particularly had done better than the previous majors in terms of production, what to expect next and more from the competitive Counter-Strike scene.




Production:

First of all we want to share that the tournament had over half of a million viewers during the grand final. Also interestingly particularly about the tournament was that for the first time ever we had our own arena designed specially for CS:GO for a major.

Overall the entire tournament went smoothly and had only slight delays, which is completely understandable and expected in the sphere of Counter-Strike.

Furthermore due to the recent cheating issues that hit the professional scene, the DreamHack team took dramatic improvements to prevent players from taking any unfair advantage with the use of hack tools, scripts or simple incorrect settings. The tournament area had no Internet access. No hardware was plugged in without first being checked and approved by an administrator. The players were forced to write a list with all their device settings, in-game configurations and applications needed for further tweaks before the tournament, allowing the DreamHack crew to check everything with enough time to spare. Even the mobile phones of the participants were taken away, turned off and stored in a box during the matches. And the cherry on top was the special improved, more complex and paranoid version of VAC, the Valve Anti-Cheat system.

Please note that those actions do not guarantee complete protection against cheating, but it is definitely an efficient and mandatory approach to ensure fair play. Cyberathlete Professional League is a perfect example of a cheating-free strict structure back in the days of the original version. Nowadays unfortunately the majority of the tournaments ignores such heavy approaches, but hopefully in the near future we will see dramatic changes in this section. DreamHack Winter 2014 was a step forward.

Future:

Before begin with the matches of DreamHack Winter 2014, let us talk a little about what to expect next. To this moment there is no information released to public whenever the next major tournament will take place, nor the expected prize pool or any potential changes.

However we still have one tournament waiting on the calendar before closing the year. The seventeenth season of ESEA League offline finals are only a day ahead from now. The tournament will kick off from December 5-7th at the Doubletree by Hilton hotel in Dallas, Texas. More information about this upcoming tournament will be released soon.

Group Stage:

Finalists of Group A:

The returning champions Fnatic and interestingly HellRaisers survived Group A against the North Americans of Cloud 9 and Bravado Gaming. Ironically the boys of Cloud 9 had nearly one month of bootcamp in Europe, including participating in the official bootcamp organized by Valve Corporation at Inferno Online in Stockholm, Sweden, but still went down in the first day with a disappointing results along. HellRaisers on the other hand showed us something we have not seen from them from a very long time and that is dominance even against the current world's best team. The South African team Bravado Gaming was simply lacking of important experience, so the squad's lost was expected. Team Fnatic fall behind the Ukrainians with only three rounds less, but overall did excellent as predicted.





Finalists of Group B:

Shockingly about Group B is that the German team PENTA Sports managed to secure a spot for the playoffs by defeating Copenhagen Wolves and iBUYPOWER. PENTA Sports are known team featuring experienced players, but based on previous attempts it was highly unlikable for them to move forward. Team iBUYPOWER also struggled a bit, but it is acceptable due to the North American team's recent lineup changes. Team Dignitas topped the group without trouble as expected. The Danes won both matches on Nuke with pretty satisfying score. It seems that Copenhagen Wolves also cannot reach full potential recently.





Finalists of Group C:

Greatly both finalists of this group managed to reach the grand final of the tournament. The match between the French team LDLC and the Swedish giant Ninjas in Pyjamas was closer than it seems. LDLC managed to come on top, but a reason for that may indeed be the now illegal boost that was used against Fnatic later in tournament as well. But besides that both teams were outstanding and performed as good as expected. Aside was the Polish team ESC Gaming, who went down to LDLC fifteen rounds in a row on Cobblestone, but managed to defeat PlanetKey Dynamics and put a great fight against NiP later. PlanetKey Dynamics finished a little behind ESC Gaming in their fight, but did badly against the Ninjas.





Finalists of Group D:

Without a doubt Group D was the most interesting group for some of you. The Polish pride Virtus.pro's performance during the first day was monstrous. The Poles lost only four rounds in total in two matches against strong teams. Natus Vincere finished as runner-ups after defeating myXMG.eSports and surviving versus Flipside Tactics in overtime on Overpass. The Swedes of Flipside Tactics also had satisfying appearance in Jönköping despite dropping out of the competition early. The Danes of myXMG however were unable to surprise, but at least managed to put a fight against the Swedish team.





Playoffs: Round of 8:

The opening match of the playoffs was between the HellRaisers and Ninjas in Pyjamas. Despite the Ukrainian team's devastating performance during the previous day, the Swedes managed to win the match without much resistance from HellRaisers. Great individual performance from all the players of Ninjas in Pyjamas left HellRaisers with only few rounds coming to the second half in both maps, eventually unable to fight back.



The second match was Virtus.pro versus PENTA Sports. The Polish pride continued to play outstandingly well and managed to overwhelm easily. The German team praiseworthy secured total of nine rounds on Cache, the Poles' statistically best map. Unfortunately PENTA Sport failed on Mirage with only five rounds on the board. Aside the match should be a good push for the Germans to be better prepared next time, but overall reaching the playoffs of a major tournament is an achievement to be proud of.



Next on the line was probably the most discussed match in the year. Team LDLC versus the returning champions Fnatic. The French team who were always failing behind Fnatic during the recent couple of months received the chance for the crown. LDLC secured the opening map, which was Dust II, but the Swedes grabbed Cache. The third and deciding map was Overpass, where the miracle happened. During the first half the Frenchmen were absolutely dominating Fnatic scoring thirteen rounds on the heavily favored defensive side of course. The second half again went bad in the beginning for Fnatic, as LDLC managed to secure the all important pistol round and it seemed that LDLC will win the match quite easy, but then during the second round Fnatic came up with an incredible boost on CT spawn, allowing them to see enormous area of the map and seeding death from above. Team Fnatic with the use of this boost won all the needed thirteen rounds in a row to win the match and proceed to the semi-finals. However LDLC filled a report against the Swedish team and after hours of investigating the administrators found out that both teams were actually abusing the map and decided to repeat the third map from scratch. Fnatic declined and forfeited the third map, allowing the French team LDLC to continue forward.

Please note that SK Gaming is at the moment in no position to either agree or deny with the DreamHack experts or with the contenders until further investigation, as the opinions are mixed.



The fourth match of the quarters was Team Dignitas against Natus Vincere. Sadly once again the Danes failed to get through and went down versus the Ukrainian squad. Natus Vincere completely outmatched the Danish team on Cobblestone, but was in trouble during the second map on Mirage, yet eventually winning it with three rounds difference. The folks of Na'Vi have been struggling for months, but are now definitely on the right track. Team Dignitas' style is simply not working. Despite making solid CT approaches, the Danes' offensive side is unpleasant to watch.



Playoffs: Round of 4:

Moving forward to the most likely the most awaited match. The Katowice clash. Virtus.pro against Ninjas in Pyjamas. The Polish pride versus the Swedish giant. Starting on Nuke, both teams were performing equally well on the overpowered CT side, but as well struggling on the T force, as expected. The opening map was so intense that for first and last time during the tournament we went to double overtime, which the Ninjas won with two rounds difference. Cache, which was the second map went unquestionable to the Poles, leaving the Swedish team with only nine rounds considering the side advantage in favor of NiP. Inferno was the last and deciding map, where unluckily Virtus.pro were unable to put a good show as Ninjas in Pyjamas won fourteen rounds during the first half. Ninjas in Pyjamas was the first team to reach the finals of DreamHack Winter 2014 and the only team scoring four of total four major finals.



LDLC versus Natus Vincere was the next match. Na'Vi started as CT on Inferno and managed to end the first half in their favor, but unfortunately without a good stack of rounds. LDLC came back during the second half leaving only three rounds in the hands of the Ukrainians. Team LDLC solid performance during the second map scored the Frenchmen thirteen rounds on the less favored side on Dust II. Natus Vincere managed to make a little come back during the second half, but again went down with total of eleven rounds same as the previous map. Na'Vi did surprisingly well, but simply Team LDLC was superior to this moment.



Grand final: Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. LDLC

Rolling the French team with two kills by each early, friberg and f0rest won the pistol round of the first map Dust II on the offensive side. Ninjas in Pyjamas won the followed two rounds flawlessly without any casualties at all. Team LDLC on the other hand won the first gun round and tied the scores, although that NiP's in-game leader Xizt managed to push them to the limit during the fifth round by scoring four kills, but losing against the round time. Couples of rounds were exchanged, but in the end Ninjas in Pyjamas turned the tide and won the last four remaining rounds.

Luckily the Frenchmen of LDLC scored the pistol round of the second half flawlessly and as well as the first gun round. Team LDLC continued to overpower the Swedes on the offensive side by winning total of eight rounds in a row. NiP Gaming won the twenty-fourth round, but lost the next two, leaving the first map in the hands of LDLC.

Team LDLC starting on the weaker offensive side on Inferno managed to secure the all important pistol round. The Frenchmen won the next second round as well, but lost the third without a bomb plant against Xizt, who managed to take down three opponents in bombsite B. The former SK Gaming trio f0rest, GeT_RiGhT and Maikelele secured four kills each during the next three rounds, but were unable to reflect LDLC during the late eight and ninth round. After that Ninjas in Pyjamas won all six rounds in a row.

The Swedish giant won the pistol round of the second half, thanks to f0rest who scored four frags during it. Maikelele secured the followed round with three more kills on the scoreboard. Ninjas in Pyjamas continued to dominate and won all the needed five rounds in a row to win the map and force third and final map against the French team.

The third and final map was Overpass. Both teams have already competed against each other on that map in the group stage, where the Frenchmen won with three rounds difference. Ninjas in Pyjamas started on the heavily favored CT side and won the pistol round, thanks to f0rest's three kills followed by Maikelele finishing the remaining two players. Unfortunately for the Swedish team, LDLC won the next three rounds against the odds. The ex-SK Gaming star Maikelele arrived with two fantastic rounds taking down three enemies in each with the big green gun. Team LDLC managed to win only one round before the Ninjas to take the rest seven rounds in a row to secure total of eleven rounds advantage for the second half.

The second half however went bad for the Ninjas, as LDLC's Happy scored three frags with USP-S and won a flawless pistol round for his team, followed up by another flawless round. Maikelele and the company managed to secure two more rounds, but LDLC quickly recovered and once again took the map control. Team LDLC won the last round of the second half to secure overtime.

The French team won four rounds during the overtime, while Ninjas in Pyjamas only one. Team LDLC won the fourth community funded $250,000 major tournament DreamHack Winter 2014.






The final standings of DreamHack Winter 2014 are the following:



Although that Ninjas in Pyjamas lost the match, the Swedes are definitely on the right track with Maikelele, as he was NiP's MVP during the entire match. This tournament was his first LAN debut and his performance during the entire event was brilliant.

Congratulations to LDLC for winning DreamHack Winter 2014. Also congratulations to Ninjas in Pyjamas for achieving four grand finals out of four major tournaments.

Stay tuned to SK Gaming for the coverage of the upcoming last tournament of the year. The seventeenth season of ESEA League in Dallas, Texas.