ATK and Eros top first DreamHack Open September qualifier
The first open qualifier for DreamHack Open September played out over the the tail end of the week, seeing 36 teams participate for a shot to move on to the Closed Qualifier for the $70,000 event.
Given the odd number of teams, the first round saw a scant four matches played, while 28 teams received free passes to the next round.
The second round, fittingly, saw two significant upsets, as Mythic fell to Touch Point 16-12 on Vertigo, and Advanced imports YeniCherry were battered 16-5 on Inferno by Main side Valkyrie. The round also saw a Cameron "cam" Kern-less University of New Haven side sent packing by Uncharted Territory, and X13 defeat Rebirth.
In the round of 16, Northern Forces stunned Third Impact 19-15 in overtime, helped by both Matthew "D4rtyMontana" Paplawskas and Sam "sam" Donaldson dropping 30 or more frags.
In the final round of best-of-one play, Northern Forces defeated upstart Ecuadorian side SKULLCRACKER, and ATK dominated Synergy Reborn. Top Advanced sides Levitate and Touch Point went blow for blow, but the former ultimately emerged with a 19-16 victory, largely helped by stand-in Saad "Pluto" Siraj of Rectify dropping 36 kills.
The second day of play saw the remaining four teams face off in two best-of-threes. Continued strong form from sam helped Northern Forces start off on the right foot against ATK, taking Mirage 16-12. That was by far the most competitive Northern Forces would look in the series, however, as the South African team roared back on Nuke and Dust2, only allowing sam and co. a further eleven rounds.
ATKNorthern Forces| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ian 'motm' Hardy |
56 - 39 | +17 | 77.6 | 81.7% | 1.29 |
 Gareth 'MisteM' Ries |
57 - 39 | +18 | 80.5 | 73.2% | 1.25 |
| Wiljahne 'wilj' Smith |
52 - 47 | +5 | 87.0 | 73.2% | 1.22 |
| Josh 'bLazE' Saunders |
48 - 47 | +1 | 75.3 | 80.3% | 1.13 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
46 - 48 | -2 | 73.8 | 73.2% | 1.03 |
| Northern Forces |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reece 'Wilky' Wilkerson |
47 - 48 | -1 | 81.7 | 74.6% | 1.06 |
| Matthew 'd4rty' Paplawskas |
38 - 53 | -15 | 65.7 | 67.6% | 0.90 |
| Sam 'sam' Donaldson |
46 - 52 | -6 | 68.5 | 53.5% | 0.90 |
| James 'EllisoN' Ellison |
46 - 53 | -7 | 64.9 | 63.4% | 0.86 |
| James 'JAM' H. |
41 - 54 | -13 | 61.5 | 62.0% | 0.74 |
The series between Eros and Levitate was a much closer affair, starting off with a 16-13 win on Inferno for the former side. Levitate returned the favor on Overpass, notching a 16-10 map win to send the series to the decider of Mirage.
With a spot in the Closed Qualifier on the line, Levitate leapt out to a 10-5 lead on their CT-side. Despite fielding Nathan "ram" Trans in place off Matthew "Cryptic" Whitmore, Eros were up to the task of matching the feat, sending the map to overtime, where they would eventually prevail 22-19. While Levitate were actually the statistically superior team on Mirage, Eros secured nine clutches, which were their saving grace.
ErosLevitate| Eros |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nathan 'ram' Trans |
22 - 17 | +5 | 55.0 | 90.2% | 1.14 |
| Umar 'Umar' Qaiser |
75 - 71 | +4 | 78.1 | 65.6% | 1.09 |
| Jason 'jason' Garcia |
60 - 71 | -11 | 71.9 | 69.8% | 0.99 |
| Matthew 'Cryptic' Whitmore |
47 - 52 | -5 | 58.4 | 70.6% | 0.97 |
 Israel 'LEARSI' Vargas |
64 - 69 | -5 | 68.7 | 74.0% | 0.97 |
 Ahmed 'ayy' Mahmoud |
49 - 64 | -15 | 61.6 | 63.5% | 0.86 |
| Levitate |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake 'WOOHOO' J. |
88 - 66 | +22 | 94.6 | 72.9% | 1.35 |
| Mohamed 'Penguin' Algadir |
79 - 63 | +16 | 87.8 | 79.2% | 1.25 |
| Devin 'AtomiK' Ferrell |
67 - 66 | +1 | 68.0 | 66.7% | 1.03 |
 Hien 'HAXX_A' Vo |
59 - 63 | -4 | 70.7 | 75.0% | 1.02 |
| Drew 'Drewtheshrew' Lamb |
51 - 60 | -9 | 62.0 | 65.6% | 0.88 |
The full qualifier bracket is available here.
The team list for the DreamHack Open September Closed Qualifier currently is:
| ChocoCheck |
GGPR |
| Strife |
Triumph |
| ATK |
Eros |
 TBD |
TBD |
The second open qualifier, with two more spots to the Closed Qualifier on offer, will commence later today at 6PM EDT. Registration will be open up to 5:45 PM EDT.
