forZe qualify for Dreamhack Open Anaheim over Heroic

January 19, 2020 Jenard

forZe won a two-map series against Heroic in the DreamHack Open Anaheim Europe Closed Qualifier grand final to secure a ticket to the $100,000 event in California.

Amid talks of Evgeny “FL1T” Lebedev’s future, who was linked to Natus Vincere when the Ukrainian organization came knocking at the door despite eventually backing down, forZe managed to make it all the way to the DreamHack Open Anaheim Europe Qualifier grand final after victories over Winstrike and CR4ZY. On the other side of the bracket, Heroic made their way to the grand final with wins against AVEZ—who eliminated Movistar Riders and BIG in the open qualifier—and GODSENT.

forZe will be contenders at the $100,000 tournament in Anaheim
Heroic won a clean pistol round on the CT side of Inferno, taking the early lead on forZe’s pick, but the second guns were in play it was the Russian side that took the reins of the map, abusing the Danish defenders all the way to a 9-2 lead. Heroic were finally able to get back on the board, and closed the half out with a decent 6-9 thanks to their final four-round streak. The second half didn’t go much better for Heroic, who after losing the pistol round were only able to win three sporadic rounds as the Russian side bagged map one to take the 1-0 lead in the series ahead of Nuke.

Heroic were slow on Nuke as well, giving up the first five rounds as they were unable to set up a threatening offense, and although they found some solace winning three of the following four rounds, forZe quickly regained control as Bogdan “xsepower” Chernikov shined with the AWP to help his team take an 11-4 lead at the half. To secure their pass to the tournament in California, xsepower won a 1vs2 clutch on the attack at 13-4 to further destabilize the Danish team, who were unable to take a single round on the defense and let the series slip 0-2.

The final standings of the European closed qualifier are:

1. forZe – DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020
2. Heroic
3-4. CR4ZY
3-4. GODSENT
5-8. HAVU
5-8. Winstrike
5-8. AVEZ
5-8. SKADE