BIG, Gambit advance to DreamHack Open January Europe semi

Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz and Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov were the difference makers for their teams.

BIG and Gambit are the first teams qualified for DreamHack Open January Europe playoffs as they defeated Evil Geniuses and Spirit in group A and B winners' bracket on Thursday.

They will now rest and prepare for the semifinals on Saturday, while Evil Geniuses and Spirit will have to play an elimination series against the winner of FunPlus Phoenix vs. HellRaisers and Sprout vs. FORZE on Friday.

tabseN led BIG by example

Evil Geniuses had a rough start on their map pick Inferno, losing six of the first eight rounds, but managed to win the first half by 8-7. The North Americans carried the momentum to their CT side and chained six together to put BIG on the ropes. The Germans didn't surrender and almost pushed the game to overtime, but Evil Geniuses closed it 16-13 as Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik had a massive impact in the last two rounds, contributing with seven kills on his own.

BIG had a great start once again, this time on Dust2, and held on to their initial 6-0 lead, winning the half 9-6. The Germans displayed their best once they switched to the T side as they didn't concede a single round to Evil Geniuses. Tizian "⁠tiziaN⁠" Feldbusch and Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne had a great match and finished with 22 and 21 frags respectively.

The scoreboard was tied 4-4 on Nuke when BIG took the reins and won the last seven rounds of the half on their CT side. Evil Geniuses grabbed a lifeline as they won the second pistol, but the Germans denied them any chance of comeback thanks to tabseN's 1v3 Desert Eagle clutch in the antieco. BIG lost only two more rounds after that as the North Americans didn't have the strength nor the economy to fight back.

DreamHack Open January 2021 EuropeBest of 3 BIGMatchpage 2 1 28th January 2021 Evil Geniuses 13Inferno 16 16Dust2 6 16Nuke 7

BIG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Johannes 'tabseN' WodarztabseN	64 - 46	+18	101.5	1.44
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşXANTARES	48 - 39	+9	68.1	1.13
Tizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschtiziaN	50 - 42	+8	72.5	1.12
Nils 'k1to' Gruhnek1to	55 - 52	+3	81.6	1.11
Florian 'syrsoN' RischesyrsoN	44 - 44	0	62.6	1.01

Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ethan 'Ethan' ArnoldEthan	55 - 53	+2	85.2	1.15
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq	50 - 48	+2	71.0	1.02
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	44 - 54	-10	69.4	0.94
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	43 - 51	-8	61.0	0.85
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	31 - 59	-28	49.9	0.64

Spirit played Inferno with Robert "⁠Patsi⁠" Isyanov instead of Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov and their strategy absolutely paid off as the 17-year-old had 22 kills and just 11 deaths, helping them to take down Gambit 16-6.

Spirit curiously left their in-game leader Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov on the bench for Overpass and played with degster and Patsi. They were 14-10 ahead on their T side but failed to close the map as Gambit fixed their setup on the B bombsite. sh1ro and co. carried the momentum to overtime and cleanly swept their adversaries to take the series to Train.

On Train, Nikolay "⁠Certus⁠" Poluyanov subbed in chopper for Patsi and the 23-year-old successfully led his team to win their T side by 9-6. Gambit, however, had a nearly flawless run in the second half after they conceded the pistol round and the antieco. Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov was having a great game, but It was sh1ro who closed the game with an astonishing ace in the after-plant.

DreamHack Open January 2021 EuropeBest of 3 GambitMatchpage 2 1 28th January 2021 Spirit 6Inferno 16 19Overpass 15 16Train 12

Gambit	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolovsh1ro	72 - 51	+21	93.0	1.39
Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovHObbit	59 - 52	+7	80.0	1.12
Sergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovAx1Le	61 - 56	+5	80.1	1.09
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkovnafany	47 - 65	-18	72.3	0.90
Timofey 'interz' Yakushininterz	40 - 53	-13	49.2	0.80

Spirit	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nikolay 'mir' Bityukovmir	58 - 59	-1	77.3	1.16
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakovchopper	32 - 34	-2	78.1	1.07
Abdul 'degster' Gasanovdegster	48 - 43	+5	77.6	1.07
Boris 'magixx' Vorobievmagixx	56 - 58	-2	70.1	1.05
Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhevsdy	48 - 52	-4	67.5	1.05
Robert 'Patsi' IsyanovPatsi	35 - 36	-1	66.7	0.97

HellRaisers #34 Nikolaj 'kalinka' RysakovVadim 'Flarich' KaretinGuy 'anarkez' TrachtmanDmitriy 'ProbLeM' MartinovNikita 'JIaYm' Panyushkin FORZE #22 Dmitriy 'facecrack' AlekseyevAlmaz 'almazer' AsadullinEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevBogdan 'xsepower' ChernikovAndrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz Age: 25 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1613 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.70 Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov Age: 23 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 853 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.67 Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch Age: 24 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 1430 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.66 Sprout #28 Timo 'Spiidi' RichterDenis 'denis' HowellMarko 'kressy' ĐorđevićJosef 'faveN' BaumannFritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich Evil Geniuses #14 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov Age: 18 Team: Gambit Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 634 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.63 Tarik 'tarik' Celik Age: 24 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1388 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.68 Nils 'k1to' Gruhne Age: 22 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 927 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.69 Spirit #20 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovNikolay 'mir' BityukovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevAbdul 'degster' GasanovBoris 'magixx' Vorobiev BIG #4 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşNils 'k1to' Gruhne FunPlus Phoenix #17 Jesse 'zehN' LinjalaChris 'chrisJ' de JongMartin 'STYKO' StykPavle 'Maden' BoškovićAsger 'Farlig' Jensen Gambit #13 Dmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovAbay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov Age: 19 Team: Gambit Rating 1.0: 1.22 Maps played: 571 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.54 Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov Age: 17 Team: SpiritB Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 307 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.67 Abdul 'degster' Gasanov Age: 19 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 1.20 Maps played: 433 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.61 Nikolay 'Certus' Poluyanov Age: 37 Team: SpiritC