[DHW13] Good LAN Bad LAN

Dreamhack Winter is arguable the biggest event on the eSports calandar for 2013 as far as Valve’s latest FPS title, Counter Strike:Global Offensive goes. With a whopping $250,000 up for grabs teams from all around the world have been fighting for a spot in the invite-only competition. Our CSGO team snagged one of the final 2 spots available by finishing fighting throug the BYOC tournament on day 1 to qualify. Our Heroes of Newerth team were also there after qualifiying for the event.

 Good LAN – BYOC Qualifier 

It was a long way for Reason Gaming CS:GO to the actual main tournament at DreamHack Winter 2013. ”Real heroes are born out of the ashes”, some famous person has already said that, I guess. And yeah, we walked through a lot of ash. We just slightly missed the online qualification and packed our luggage, travelling to Jönköping, without even knowing if we would make it to the main tournament. But we did it! Winning against ‘Nostalgie’ in the finals of the BYOC qualifier brought us back on the path where we belong.

Bad LAN – Groupastage against Astana Dragons

Reason Gaming Lineup 

Group D. Group D? Group D! Are we happy with that? I am not sure. CPH Wolves, Astana Dragons, and SK Gaming, looks like some milestones of CS:GO history in one group. Maybe we should call it group devastation, group desolation, or group domination? But no time for our Danes to let their brave hearts to become assailed by doubts. It’s rather time to shine! The 11:16 result seemed not to be that shiny, but we need to keep in mind that we faced Astana Dragons and played until 3:00 am the day before. So down to the lower bracket, but still with a chance to make it. And we showed that we want to make it, in our next match.

Good LAN – Groupstage against SK Gaming

What a match! After losing against the Ukrainian Dragons, our Danes had to perform in their second match of the groupstage. We had to face the Swedish team from SK Gaming. An organisation which has it roots in Germany and is well known as one of the biggest eSports temas in the world. We played de_inferno again and the community placed it bets. From some sources, the bets were ~80% on SK and ~20% on Reason.

Bad LAN – Groupstage against Astana Dragons -again-

Astana Dragons Lineup

A déjà vu, or a rift in the matrix? No, it’s just DreamHack groupstage against Astana Dragons again. The Ukrainians lost quite devastatingly against CPH Wolves on de_nuke beforehand and especially the casters were sure that they ouldn’t pick de_nuke again. But they did. And it looked quite promising for our Danes on CT-side too, ending 11:04 for Reason Gaming on the first side of the map. A result that already allowed us a glimpse to the playoffs. But what will be, will be. The obviously still clearly CT-sided map presented us a thriller of a match. Finally the outcome was a 13:16 loss and Reason Gaming out of DH Winter 2013 groupstage. 

Good LAN – Overall

Dreamhack Sweden

Still drying our tears, we can still sum up and say that the DreamHack experience for our CS:GO team was a good one. We showed our will to perform and taking the rocky and long way through BYOC qualifier and almost got into playoffs. Of course you might say that only the result counts, but isnt’t that a little onesided? Only playing together for two weeks and with showing a great performance against some top teams, we can say, with one’s head held high, that DH Winter 2013 was a success for us and that we will be back.

P.S. We can also drop the coloN bomb at LAN! What a good LAN!