DreamHack Domination

November 26 2016
Liquid and DreamHack: Winter go a long way back. Back in 2011, then-Liquid`HerO won at the event on the way to $28,000 to start a long history with the tournament. In fact, our StarCraft 2 players have won the event 3 times, with HerO winning one more and TaeJa claiming another.

After a hiatus from reigning triumphant in Jönköping, Liquid took the tournament by storm this weekend by claiming two titles and a silver medal, a dominant performance from our boys in blue. Snute and our Dota squad both charged to championships in their respective games, while Hungrybox gave the hometown crowd a scare by coming close against hometown heroes Leffen and Armada.



ASUS ROG DreamLeague Season 6



Decisive. This is a word that many wouldn’t have associated with our Dota team prior to Dreamhack. The team played in multiple qualifiers and fell short at Boston, ESL, and even Elimination Mode. ‘Decisive’ is the last thing that you could say about Team Liquid and there were many questions that needed to be answered when we were given the chance to play in Dream League’s playoffs thanks to a little assistance from NP dropping out of the tournament. However, ‘decisive’ is the exact word that one could use to describe Team Liquid taking Dream League Season 6.





Liquid’s momentum throughout all three games was simply undeniable. Even if Escape found a tiny crack in Liquid’s armor, it was quickly plugged up in the form of aggressive counter-initiation and Liquid got the better of many engagements in the mid-game. GH provided the spark that our support duo required, proving that he was capable of keeping up with MATUMBAMAN's aggressive playstyle or creating space for Miracle- to farm up his necessary items. Kuroky and MinD_ContRoL also gave us standout performances proving that they are as solid as ever. Even if you could argue that this win was simply a moral victory for the squad, there is no denying that it was a decisive one.







StarCraft II Nordic Championships



In StarCraft II's Nordic Championships, Snute once again displayed his mastery of the region. We don't call him the Norse God or the Asgardian for nothing; Snute swatted away both Lillekanin and Zanster in order to make his reign over the northern countries official. A ZvT against Lillekanin could have a stumbling block, but Snute's smooth 3-0 win showed that the Norwegian was in-form and ready to tussle.

His momentum was almost quashed as soon as he stepped into the finals. Zanster leapt into a 2-0 lead with clean, crisp play. After coming close to elimination against Serral, Zanster was ahead for most of both New Gettysburg and Galactic Process and appeared close to sealing the deal. Snute had a mountain to climb, but his experience on the big stage eventually shined through. Snute's roach army trampled all over Zanster's ling-bane composition on Frost, and he recovered from a gold base disadvantage before showing his superiority in ling-bane wars to tie up the series. With the throne on the line, Snute found himself at a disadvantage early on, but a daring mutalisk gamble paid off. 30 supply and a base down at one point, Jens glaived his way back into the game before wrapping up the reverse sweep in style.








Super Smash Bro. Melee



Hungrybox almost upset the home crowd as he laid waste to the bracket until the Winners' Final. With a spotless record, Hbox smacked the likes of Professor Pro and Mango to set up a date with Armada. The Swedish champion himself had a single loss to his name until then—against Crunch!—and it was a bout for the two in-form players of the tournament. Unfortunately for Hbox, The Fox was a little too cunning for Puff, relegating our man to the lower bracket to face the other big Swede, Leffen. This time, however, Hbox prevailed in a tight 3-2 series.

With one hometown hero down and another waiting in the finals, Hbox had it all to do against the man that had taken him out of the Smash Summit 3 and Canada Cup finals. Patience was the name of the game as both players attempted to out-camp each other, but Puff was eventually foiled by his arch-nemesis. This was revenge for last year's DH: Winter victory, but a silver medal is still quite an accomplishment on hostile territory. Hungrybox goes home with $7,500 and another notch on his impressive 2016 resume.



With Thanksgiving weekend wrapping up, Liquid have a lot to be thankful for after such a successful event. Hopefully, we'll have many more reasons to celebrate before the end of another great year.


Writers: Bluemoon, Lichter
Photo Credit: DreamHack
Graphics: shiroiusagi