The Dreamhack Winter 2012 Vengeance Cup was going to top every Swedish LAN event there has ever been for Dota 2.
In terms of tournament organization, production value has always been an issue in the first year of Valve’s new game Dota 2. The International 2 set the bar and Dreamhack has certainly set a bar for tournaments with less prize money.
They acquired The GD Studio to help out with hosting the tournament and producing a very entertaining tournament. Dota 2 got a bigger stage this time and would be on par with CS:GO and Starcraft II in terms of representation.
Everything was set for a good tournament, but would it be Dota if there weren’t any upsets beforehand?
Before the tournament
One week before the tournament, MeetYourMakers officially gave up their invite slot, as the team faced roster changes and would possibly leave their sponsors. We Haz Asian announced their new sponsor Hard2Kill, only to get dropped by them shortly after, as the organization H2k seemed to dissolve entirely.
The community was upset, there as an uproar and people thought about donating money. However, a Swedish Dota 2 player named ‘Tommy’ made it possible for the WhA players to attend Dreamhack, letting them sleep at his place.
Everything seemed fine until two days before the event, European mix mTw announced they weren’t going to go, as well as Clan Poland. Clan Poland had sponsor issues as well, while mTw did not state a clear reason yet.
4Friends+Chrillee, Out of Tangoes and Rigg3d were to replace the three teams.
Group Stage
Groups C&D were supposed to be the “Death Groups”. Each group had 3 teams with the potential to not only grab the first place in their group, but also a potential top 4 slot. It was however Group B that held the first surprise, in which No Tidehunter beat one of the title favorites Evil Genuises to claim group victory. The Americans on the other hand barely made it through the group stage, struggling against 4Friends+Chrillee.
Empire expectedly went through their group stage unharmed, leaving it to We Haz Asian and mousesports to battle it out for second place. The Germans around captain KuroKy failed to bring a 15k Gold and EXP lead home, getting dropped out of the tournament in the group stage. Pulse Gaming had it tough as well, facing Dignitas and Fnatic, both of which advanced with Fnatic being the group winner.
Playoffs
The playoffs being bo3s, the fans expected some close games and action packed tension. It was the opposite, as all winning teams advanced with ease. Fnatic succeeded over fan favorite We Haz Asian, Empire crushed Dignitas, No Tidehunter easily took out Absolute Legends and it was Evil Genuises who took down the title favorite Natus Vincere in an impressive and convincing fashion. While some like to believe it was Na’Vi who was taking the game lightly and some like to think it was EG being in superb form, it was more likely a mix of the two.
No Tidehunter would now face Empire, who have been looking strong as of late and were, now that Na’Vi was out of the tournament, the title favorite. nTh has been convincing as well, making this match-up even more interesting. The Swedes seemed to be better prepared and took game 1 convincingly, only to crush the Eastern Europeans in game 2.
Better prepared fit EG as well, as they took out Fnatic 2-0 with ease. This meant that we would see a rematch of group’s B place 1 decider. No Tidehunter vs Evil Genuises.
Finals
The finals of the Vengeance Cup were once again divided up. The first game would be played out like all other games so far in the players area, whereas games 2 and 3 would be played out in the DreamArena Extreme.
EG took out game 1 very convincingly and it was Demon who made things happen, pulling enemy heroes out of position with his Flaming Lasso. nTh didn’t seem to get a grasp at the game and was one game away from losing the title to EG.
The pause between the two games seemed to help however. Either that or the cheering and screaming crowd were pumping up the Swedes. Game 2 was theirs as they faked a Level 1 Roshan, catching two retreating EG heroes.
Game 3 was fully action packed and EG managed to pressure the Swedes with a heavy pushing line-up, but s4 was on top of his game with his Queen of Pain and all effort was not enough to secure the Americans their win. No Tidehunter crowned themselves victorious.
Production value
Looking back on Dreamhack Summer, in which TobiWan had to cast everything himself, reaching out to a few pro players here and there, Dreamhack Winter surely is on a different level. The panel saw a lot of guest appearances and Draskyl showed he was worth acquiring. GoDz and Tobi proved once again their experience with the crowd and 2GD was just the cream of the crop. Overall, Dreamhack Winter 2012 has set the bar for western LAN tournaments, outside of TI2.
Coverage
Throughout the tournament, we provided intensive coverage, most notably tons of interesting interviews with the players. Is there anything you liked in particular? What interview did you like most? Any follow-up interviews you would be interested in? What could we improve? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll look into it.
Big thanks and shoutout to the on-site crew, who made the whole coverage possible. malnor, Tjerno, Trisnt, Skim and KongoTime made things happen, keeping you constantly updated. Also, check out our coverage hub if you missed anything and want to check up on it.
Photos
Anton 'Trisnt' Nielsen
Interviews and articles
Ulrich 'KongoTime' Hanten
Sovann 'Skim' Kim
Christoph 'Malnor' Helbig