Outsiders defeat ENCE to win DreamHack Rotterdam

It seems that the analysts were right. ENCE, despite qualifying for IEM Rio Major with a perfect record (3 W – 0 L), are not as strong as they looked in that European RMR. Meanwhile, Outsiders, despite almost getting eliminated, are better than a lot of people think.

In the Grand Final of DreamHack Rotterdam 2022, an ESL Challenger event, the two teams clashed and the winners were Outsiders. This was an A-tier tournament that lasted just three days. But it was fun to watch nonetheless.

All of the favorites survived the group stage and competed in the playoffs, where they put on a great show for the audience. The Rotterdam Ahoy venue might want to repeat this experience in the coming years as a result of what happened here.

DreamHack Rotterdam saw the return of James Bardolph, who is now a Valorant caster and hadn’t been seen since PGL Major Stockholm 2021, where the absence of Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett caused a few misunderstandings that made him quite angry at the time. So it’s good to see that he’s still interested in casting CS:GO.

DreamHack Rotterdam results

Despite having a prize pool of just $100.000, DreamHack Rotterdam was a captivating tournament with hyped matches. Five of the eight teams were regarded as serious competitors and three of them are actually world-class teams. In addition to that, the winner was going to qualify for ESL Pro League Conference Season 17.

The group stage of the competition went almost exactly as planned. The big teams, MOUZ, ENCE, Outsiders, and Eternal Fire survived their respective groups and advanced to the playoffs.

The only surprise in group A was that the Turkish lineup of Eternal Fire bested Movistar Riders. In group B, Outsiders struggled in the opening match against Fluxo (22-18) and then lost against ENCE in the winners match (14-16). Because of this, they had to play a decider match against Fluxo, and once again, they struggled a bit: 19-17 on Dust II and 16-8 on Inferno.

As soon as the playoffs began, Outsiders became a much stronger competitor. It seems that they analyzed their own replays and their opponents’ matches before the playoffs and figured out what they were doing wrong.

In the semifinals, Outsiders encountered MOUZ and won 2-1 thanks to an amazing performance from Dzhami “Jame” Ali, who finished with a K-D score of +24 and a rating 2.0 of 1.31.

In the Grand Final against ENCE, the entire roster of Outsiders had positive K-D scores and the match ended after just two maps: 16-8 on Dust II and 16-14 on Vertigo.

Header: ESL