BIG defeated Renegades 2-0 today to win DreamHack Open Leipzig, the first CS:GO tournament of the ESL Pro Tour circuit.
The German team had one of its best tournaments in years; the roster didn’t lose a single map during DreamHack Open Leipzig. BIG defeated Virtus Pro and Renegades in the group stage, eliminated Heroic in the semifinals, and dominated Renegades in the grand finals.
Not only will BIG take $50,000 and the trophy home, they also locked down a spot in DreamHack’s first major event of 2020, DreamHack Masters Jönköping in June.
The grand finals started on Mirage, BIG’s map pick. The Germans lost the first three rounds but ended up winning seven rounds in a row after the rough start. After the teams switched sides, BIG closed the game by winning the first six rounds on their CT-side and taking the map 16-5. Nils “k1to” Gruhne and Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş were the top-fraggers with 22 kills each.
The game was much more disputed in the second map, Dust II. BIG dominated the first half and won 11 rounds for their T-side. But Renegades would answer back quickly. The Australians won the first seven rounds of the first half until BIG reacted to close out the game 16-12. Nils “k1to” Gruhne top-fragged again, this time with 26 kills.
This title is a great achievement and for the German Counter-Strike scene as a whole. BIG played so poorly in 2019 that the team decided to go back to their roots and signed k1to and Florian ” syrsoN” Rische from Sprout on Jan. 1.
The roster change worked so quickly. Thanks to that, BIG will have a tier-one event to play in the following months, where they can test their forces against better teams in DreamHack Masters Jönköping.
DreamHack Open Leipzig kicked off the CS:GO calendar and there will be plenty of action to follow with the ICE Challenge and BLAST Spring Series starting next week.
