With the first day of DreamHack Summer 2016 concluded, we present a brief recap of the matches that took place.
Astralis vs. 
ENCE 9:6, 7:0 (16:6)
Winner: Astralis
Map: de_Mirage
MVP: Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye
The first match of the event saw a dominant start from Astralis as the Danes won the pistol round and seven rounds after it including anti-ecos as well as gun rounds. The "Easy for ENCE" phrase was forgotten until the 9th round. Starting from that particular round, ENCE won six of the seven remaining rounds of the first half. With the beginning of the second half, Astralis remembered that they are one of the best teams in the world and completely destroyed ENCE. The 2nd half surely wasn’t easy for ENCE as they’ve failed to win a single round.
NiP vs. Epsilon 11:4, 5:5 (16:9)
Winner: NiP
Map: de_Cache
MVP: Christopher “Get_RiGhT” Alesund
First match of Group B featured two Swedish teams, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Epsilon with the former being absolute favourites on paper. Reality wasn’t much different, they were the better team as expected. At this point, we must do justice to Epsilon, they fought bravely against an elite level team. Their most notable successes were starting both sides strong and winning the round after their time-out. There isn’t a doubt about their mental status, they were well prepared and focused. On the other hand, NiP are such a talented team and this is why they’ve started the tournament with a win. This is an unwritten rule of Counter-Strike: when both team focus and show impressive mental attitudes, the team with more pure talent wins.
Immortals vs. SK Gaming 9:6, 4:10 (13:16)
Winner: SK Gaming
Map: de_Train
MVP: Joao “felps” Vasconcellos
Group A’s second match saw Immortals and SK desperately trying to have an advantage over another and failing to do except for SK’s final effort during the last rounds of the map. SK had two stand-ins going into this match: Valdemar “valde” Bjørn Vangså and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander in place of temporarily unavailable Emil “Magiskb0y” Reif and Team Liquid’s latest signing Jacob “Pimp” Winneche. Fortunately for them, both stand-ins managed to live up to expectations, especially Bjørn Vangså, top-fragger of the Danish team. If we look to the their opponents from Brazil, Immortals, it’s fair to say their performance wasn’t bad at all, but neither was it good enough to overcome SK despite Joao “felps” Vasconcellos’ efforts who had the best Average Damage per Round and Kill/Death Ratio on the server.
GODSENT vs. 
HellRaisers 12:3, 4:4 (16:7)
Winner: GODSENT
Map: de_Cobblestone
MVP: Andreas “znajder” Lindberg
Opening matches of the group stage came to an end with the matchup between Swedish side GODSENT and European mix HellRaisers. Thanks to a monstrous T side, GODSENT controlled the match and earned a place at the winner’s clash with an easy victory. There were concerns regarding the lesser amount of matches played by GODSENT in recent weeks but the Swedes have proven they were not relaxing during that time.
Astralis vs. SK Gaming 6:9, 10:3 (16:12)
Winner: Astralis
Map: de_Overpass
MVP: Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
If a team is to be a title contender, it must have at least two players who can win maps by themselves when another one is not performing. Denmark’s current best team, Astralis, has more than two players like this. On their opening match which was against ENCE, Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye was the hero. But on this occasion, he bottom-fragged so his team needed another player to step up and lead Astralis to victory. Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen answered the call and grabbed 27 kills while ending up dead on just 15 occasions. When he plays like that, even a three round lead at halftime wouldn’t save his opponents from losing the match.
NiP vs. GODSENT 3:12, 5:4 (8:16)
Winner: GODSENT
Map: de_Mirage
MVP: Andreas "znajder" Lindberg
GODSENT’s potential to be a regular top 10 is about to realize as they consistently improve their CS. This time around, it was NiP who suffered an unexpected defeat at the hands of GODSENT. The victors’ CT side was a masterpiece. Losing three rounds on, let’s say, Inferno would be good but not the best, on the other hand losing same amount of rounds on Mirage is almost the best possible scenario especially playing against a team of NiP’s calibre. Believe it or not, this victory over their countrymen has made GODSENT a semi-finalist and excitement is rising among the Counter-Strike community.
