An unexpected underdog has won a championship at this year’s $100,000 DreamHack Summer event.
The Imperial are the newest DreamHack Open winners, becoming the first non-invited team in CS:GO history to win a DreamHack event. They placed first in the European qualifier over some known names like GODSENT (now Red Reserve) and AGO Esports, who were invited to the tournament anyway. This likely occurred because some top tier teams were attending other events like ESL One Belo Horizonte and the CS:GO Asia Championship this weekend.
Imperial started their weekend in Jönköping, Sweden with a fairly quick time in the group stage on June 16. They surprised North on Train 16-12 in their opening match and stomped AGO 16-4 on Mirage in their group’s winners’ match. Their 2-0 record put them in the semifinals of the tournament, where they played Gambit Esports this morning.
Despite a shaky CT side of Cache against Gambit, the mixed European team still pulled through with two solid scorelines at 16-12 (Cache) and 16-9 (Mirage). AWPer Rokas “EspiranTo” Milasauskas had an insane performance on Cache, accruing 35 kills, averaging 123 damage per round, and reaching a 1.88 HLTV 2.0 rating. His expertise would later prove to be problematic for OpTic Gaming in the grand final. OpTic were coming hot off of a Danish Derby vs. North, which they narrowly won in double overtime on map three Train.
Imperial took map one Overpass with ease, taking it 16-7 thanks to hard hitters EspiranTo and Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas, who topped the server at more than 20 kills. The final map of the tournament, Mirage, was slightly more contested, since the Danes of OpTic were trying to fight back for their right to the trophy. To no avail, Imperial’s overwhelming T side secured them their first offline championship title as a team.
As a new mixed European team led by Kevin “kRYSTAL” Amend, Imperial are proving to be a much better team than what they seem to be on paper. Their wins against North, AGO, Gambit, and OpTic are a true testament that they can compete at the top level in CS:GO. The team didn’t qualify for the European Minor of the FACEIT London Major, however, so they may be out of the international spotlight for some time.
