Gen.G win DreamHack Open Anaheim with a perfect run
Gen.G have produced a remarkable run at DreamHack Open Anaheim, where they bagged the US $50,000 in tournament winnings and spot at DreamHack Masters Jönköping by finishing on top of the competition without dropping a single map.
Formed back on December 6, 2019, Gen.G acquired a quintet of experienced players and a prominent coach in Chris "Rlmapuddy" Tebbit in a bid to make waves in the North American CS:GO scene and the South Korean team did just that earlier this weekend in Ahaheim.
The quintet of Timothy "automatic" Ta, Damian "daps" Steele, Kenneth "koosta" Suen, Sam "s0m" Oh and Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand went above and beyond all expectations at DreamHack Open Ahaheim tournament, where they swept their adversaries to win the organisation's first LAN tournament.
Gen.G started their Ahaheim venture in Group B, where they pocketed two commanding wins over ENCE (16-14) and Complexity (16-13), thus secured a direct promotion into the semi-finals. There they met with North, who proved to be no match for the new North American roster, who swept them with 16-14 on Dust2 and 16-14 on Mirage and booked a spot in the grand finals, where they were to face FURIA, who previously bested Complexity (2-1) in the semi-finals.
The finals took off on Nuke, which was a map FURIA picked, however, it was Gen.G who got off to a stronger start, winning the first pistol round on CT-side. That set the pace of the match, as BnTeT and the company won two more rounds to get 3-0 ahead. FURIA retaliated with three straight rounds of their own to tie the match at 3-3. The Brazilians, however, failed to keep up the pace as they went on to lose seven of the remaining eight rounds thanks to clutches by s0m and automatic, who helped their team secure a commanding 10-5 lead ahead of the swap.
Gen.G continued to put pressure on their adversaries in the second round where they won the opening three rounds and got themselves 13-5 ahead. FURIA had their moments, which allowed them to pick up two more rounds, but eventually fell flat as they had to admit defeat to their North American counterparts. Nuke ended with a 16-7 win for Gen.G, who were now entering their own pick – Inferno.
An aggressive start from FURIA and a triple kill by Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato put the Brazilians 1-0 up, however, Gen.G earned enough money with the plant to buy in the second round and tied the match at 1-1. S0m once more stepped up for his team with dominating displays which helped Gen.G secure a 3-1 lead, before teams traded two rounds apiece. Holding onto a 5-4 lead, Gen.G started to pull away, winning five of the last six rounds, which secured them a commanding 10-5 lead before the teams switched sides.
On T-side, FURIA started strong, won five of the opening six rounds and bridged the gap to 10-11. After losing five maps, Gen.G retaliated and pocketed three rounds in quick succession to set themselves four rounds up.
FURIA started to find openings in the defences and produced a shocking comeback to push the series into overtime. However, it was Gen.G who managed to pull away in the end, as they stomped FURIA 3-0 on the CT side before closing out the map at 19-15.
S0m ended the series with the most kills (50) and the best rating across both teams (1.31). Koosta did the most damage (89.1) and had the series-high 11 assists to his name. Automatic proved to be deadly on AWP with 22 kills, while KSCERATO bagged 10 first kills.
DreamHack Open Ahaheim was Gen.G's first LAN title in their history. They previously pocketed gold at IEM Katowice North American Open Qualifier #2, DreamHack Open Leipzig North American Open Qualifier and the DreamHack Open Anaheim North American qualifiers, which earned them a ticket for the Anaheim tournament.
