In the shadow of the Major, Team EnVyUs captured a DreamHack title with an impressive comeback in Atlanta.
While most of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community’s eyes were turned towards Krakow, Poland for the year’s second major, eight teams were battling it out in Atlanta for their share of a $100,000 prize pool. France’s EnVyUs emerged victorious—but not without a dogged fight.
EnVy dropped the first game of the grand final to Scandinavian team Heroic, who were keyed by Jakob “JUGi” Hansen. But the French squad proved able to bounce back in dramatic fashion, sweeping the two following maps while giving up only a combined ten rounds.
The star of the effort was Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom. Long known for his precise aim and lightning reflexes, ScreaM managed to top the scoreboard for EnVy in each of the three finals maps and totaled 62 frags across the series. Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer was the team’s next best contributor with 50.
It wasn’t the first meeting between the two teams in Atlanta. Heroic had won the previous, a single game played during the group stage to earn the group’s high seed and force EnVy to play GODSENT in an elimination series. GODSENT took EnVy to overtime before ceding the first map, and the second proved a much simpler affair for the French side as their Swedish opponents were sapped of confidence.
EnVy continued their trend of struggling early before finishing strong in their semifinal series with Renegades. After dropping the first game, EnVy surged ahead on the back of strong performances from Happy and Cedric “RpK” Guipouy, each of whom totaled better than 70 frags versus Renegades.
Guipoy was also EnVy’s strongest player versus GODSENT, and in spite of the repeated early struggle against their opposition, EnVy was able to take satisfaction in seeing strong contributions from most players on the roster when they were called upon.
Domestic teams Misfits and NRG Esports were unable to progress beyond the group stage. Binary Dragons also struggled in their first trip abroad, being the first team eliminated from competition after being swept by Misfits during group play.
