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DH Open Fall Closed Qualifier: Sprout and Mousesports Pull Through!

Sprout were the first to qualify for DreamHack Open Fall, while mousesports had to fight bitterly for the last... Fabio | 25. September 2020

Sprout were the first to qualify for DreamHack Open Fall, while mousesports had to fight bitterly for the last remaining spot in the Lower Bracket Decider. Both can now join all the invited teams of this RMR event.

SPROUT MOUNT THE PERFECT RUN

Josef “faveN” Baumann and the boys had to fight really hard versus FATE. With 16-13 and 19-16 losses, their Bulgarian opponents only narrowly missed out on advancing themselves. But Paweł “dycha” Dycha held his team in the match with 51 kills and a 1.29 rating.

They had a much better time going up against Team Heretics and were even able to finish the last map on a 16-5 scoreline. Again, dycha was the top performer, but faveN joined him with 47 kills this time around. They were able to repeat this performance versus sAw, although it was Michał “snatchie” Rudzki who lead the scoreboard in this match-up. Afterwards, Sprout headed into their very last duel with North.

Both teams were already qualified at this point, but in this game they had to fight for the seeding – and for glory of course! On Dust2, snatchie delivered a glorious performance and basically wiped North off the server all by himself. Poor Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson only got a 0.45 rating, while Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen tried to do his best to keep them in the game. On Vertigo, North turned this around, as Lekr0 was the one leading his team into overtime. MSL was practically absent and with his 22 kills, he was unable to keep Sprout from winning in the second overtime. On a 22-20 scoreline, the German players got their first place and thus qualified for DreamHack Open Fall.

MOUSESPORTS ARE STRUGGLING AGAIN

Just a week ago, they had beaten Team Vitality in the race for the last remaining playoffs spot of ESL Pro League Group B. Now, they only had to face off against Endpoint – a match that they quickly lost. After a double overtime on the first map, they were just unable to keep up. So mousesports dropped into the Lower Bracket already.

There, they were able to win a relatively decisive 2-0 against AGF Esport. The 16-14 on the first map may have been close, but they managed to seal the deal with a confident 16-9. Robin “ropz” Kool earned himself a 1.28 rating and put up a solid display throughout, one of the very few consistent players on the mouz roster.

An incredibly close 2-0 victory over x6tence followed. Afterwards, c0ntact dragged them into a quadruple overtime, which mousesports fortunately managed to win. The two teams then traded 16-14 wins, which gave the mouz players their ticket to proceed. Unfortunately, Endpoint awaited them next.

After the 28-24 map and two 16-14s, mousesports were definitely warmed up – but also completely drained. This actually only showed much later in their match against Endpoint. At the start, they made a strong statement with a 16-1 win. So it looked as if Finn “karrigan” Andersen and company could finally pull off a victory over the Endpoint roster. Maybe they had a false sense of security, as the Brits swiftly retaliated with a 16-12 win of their own. When the teams then entered overtime on the third map, mousesports were at the end of their wits. They gave away a 22-20 map and were unable to succeed over Endpoint, again. Last night, they had their final chance at a DreamHack Open Fall spot against Movistar Riders. So many matches, so many overtimes… had it all been in vain?

With a 16-6, mousesports announced their intentions on the first map. However, the teams then pulled equal on map #2. Once again, mouz headed into overtime, but the consistency of ropz helped them through this for once. The mousesports boys got away with a 19-15 victory. They’re now finally heading for the DreamHack Open Fall main event.

HOW DO MOUZ AND SPROUT COMPARE TO THE REST?

After their fantastic start to ESL One Cologne, Sprout have quickly fallen back to their usual level. They’re now only dishing out wins against Tier 2 opponents. So they’re not particularly looking like they can take on Astralis, Vitality, or OG. With GODSENT, G2 and Heroic, however, there are quite a few shaky teams present, some of which might be in for an upset.

It’s virtually impossible to predict a mousesports performance at this stage. Recently, they looked like they could actually contend with the top teams of ESL Pro League. Now they barely manage to survive a qualifier event and are actually in line behind Endpoint and sAw. Their only consistent player is ropz, the rest seemingly appear to choose their spots on the scoreboard at random. For them, it will be particularly difficult to mount a solid performance. The groups haven’t been announced so far and their outlook heavily depends on who they’ll draft as their immediate opponents.