CR4ZY pip AVANGAR to the post at DreamHack Open Rotterdam

Despite the loss of two high-profile players after the major, CR4ZY managed to conquer the Rotterdam stage in style, only losing their opening match to HAVU en route to the title, beating the two favorites in the playoffs.

A cr4zy outcome

AVANGAR were the runaway favorites for the event off the back of their surprise appearance in the final of the Berlin major and their following win at BLAST Pro Series Moscow – a tournament with its fair share of technical hiccups –, but CR4ZY triumphed over them in a close-fought series, winning 16-13 (Mirage), 14-16 (Dust 2), 16-10 (Inferno), a feat they’ve followed up with an impressive turnaround in the final against Heroic after losing the opening game 16-3 on Nuke. Interestingly, they were the same maps they won against the CIS side: 16-5 on Mirage followed by a 16-12 on Inferno to clinch the title.

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Previous DreamHack Open winners often “graduated” to the big leagues, like karrigan’s mousesports side this May and AVANGAR beating FURIA in the final of the Rio de Janeiro event in April. Before that, it was ENVE and Vitality who won DreamHack Open titles, and even if you don’t expect this CR4ZY side to hit top three in the world, it should be a great confidence boost to a side which lost nexa and huNter.

DreamHack Open Rotterdam was also the first event in the circuit which granted an automatic invite to a female team in the form of Besiktas Esports, the winners of DreamHack Showdown Valencia, a female-only event. The team only managed to win ten rounds across three rounds, prompting predictable outcries from Twitch chat.

Photo credit: HLTV