The first group of DreamHack Winter has concluded, seeing SK and TeamShakira move on to the semi finals.
| Groups Stage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Group A | Group B | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | W | L | Points | Teams | W | L | Points | |||||||||||||||||
 TeamShakira | 3 | 0 | 9 |  FnaticMSI | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
 SK Gaming | 2 | 1 | 3 |  BX3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| ND9 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | WHB | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Nook1e | 0 | 3 | 0 | BlitZ | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
The fear of the group competition turning into a two-class society was not unjustified, as the both games of the first round, TS versus ND9-1 and SK versus Nook1e did not exceed 15 minutes play-time.
After the favourites sealed two quick victories, schedule commanded that they turn against each other for the highlight of the group. The Frenchmen had kept the ball low prior to the tournament, after having left Virus whilst exchanging two players in their lineup.
What was left in the dark, were the intense training sessions in the weeks ahead of DreamHack as the match against SK then disclosed. The recent transition-period strengthened the team's play substantially, as the team-fight lineup of SK did eventually not stand a chance despite fighting well during early- and mid-game.
The Danes were then forced to win in the last set against ND9 1, who kept their chance of advancing alive, by beating Nook1e in the second round. The underdog played surprisingly well and kept the score even until a decisive clash during the mid-game, after which SK exploited all measures to gain advantage. By raiding Roshan, the Dire felt secure enough to end the game and did so, through a mid-lane push.
DreamHack Winter will now continue with the arguably more interesting second group, that features three known teams with Fnatic, BX3 and WHB.
Video Spotlight: TeamShakira vs SK finish
