DreamHack Rio 2019 or DreamHack Open Rio de Janeiro 2019 is an upcoming CS:GO event of great importance for the South American region. This isn’t necessarily a big tournament, as it only has 8 participants and a prize pool of $100.000, which isn’t that much these days. However, we only get a few events of this caliber in Brazil each year and this is one of them.
DreamHack Rio is scheduled to take place between April 19th – 21st. This translates into a 3-day event held during the weekend. It isn’t much, but the viewers will be able to enjoy the best Counter-Strike that the Brazilian region has to offer, as all of the big names will likely qualify or be directly invited.
DreamHack Rio 2019 Prizes
DreamHack Rio offers $100.000 in prizes. The money will be shared among the 8 participants in the following way:
- 1st place: $50.000
- 2nd place: $20.000
- 3rd – 4th place: $10.000
- 5th – 6th place: $3.000
- 7th – 8th place: $2.000
DreamHack Rio Participants
DreamHack Rio brings together 8 teams for a weekend of CS:GO. Four of these teams have already been announced while the other 4 are yet to be revealed. Of these other 4, 2 will be directly invited and 2 will have to go through qualifiers.
The 4 known teams are the following:
- AVANGAR
- FURIA Esports
- Sharks Esports
- Luminosity Gaming
Apart from these teams, we will almost certainly see MIBR at DreamHack Rio. The tournament takes places on their home soil and we don’t expect either the organizers or the team to not show interest in having the MIBR brand present at the event.
Given the huge number of fans they have in Brazil and the large number that are yet to be converted, we believe that FalleN and his teammates will not want to miss this one. For them, it’s virtually a free check of $50.000 plus the prestige of being crowned champions of a Brazilian tournament.
DreamHack Open Rio de Janeiro 2019 Format
DreamHack Rio will be held in a standard competitive format consisting of 2 stages: Groups and Playoffs.
For the Group Stage, the teams will be divided into 2 groups of 4. Each of these groups will be played in a Double Elimination format. The opening and winners’ matches will be Bo1. The elimination and decider matches will be Bo3. The top 2 teams from each group advance to the Playoffs, which will consist of Semifinals and a Grand Final. All of these matches will be Bo3 series.
Team Analysis
DreamHack Rio brings together the best teams in South America, along with a few other. Here’s a brief analysis of these teams, in case you’re not familiar with the Brazilian CS:GO scene.
We’ll start with the teams that have already been announced.
FURIA Esports
Their playstyle is very strong in the tier 3 division and their results over the past few months have been quite good for a competitor that’s trying to break into the main competitive scene.
The most notable performances of FURIA Esports in 2019 have been the following: participation at the IEM Katowice Major, where they finished 20th – 22nd, and 2nd place at Americas Minor Championship Katowice 2019. This second event was practically the qualification tournament for the Major.
Against tier 2 and tier 3 teams, FURIA has had a long string of positive results in recent weeks, defeating opponents like Luminosity, The Quest, TeamOne, The Fundamentals, Final Feature, Singularity, Party Astronauts and others.
Going into DreamHack Rio, we expect FURIA to finish 3rd – 4th, assuming that MIBR gets invited.
Sharks Esports
This is another solid team that rose from the ashes of anonymity in 2018 and had a number participations at tier 1 events. They finished 13th – 16th at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, 9th – 12th at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, and 3rd – 4th at PLSG Grand Slam 2018.
In 2019, we haven’t heard about them very often, so it’s not yet clear what level they’re at right now. Assuming they can play at the same level of skill that they played at last year, Sharks Esports should be regarded as a strong team in an event like DreamHack Rio. They certainly won’t win it or play in the Grand Final, but a 3rd – 4th place finish should be within their reach.
Luminosity Gaming
There are a lot of big names in this team and yet, they’ve struggled to win matches in over the last month or so. Among the Brazilian rosters mentioned here, only MIBR has better experience, individual talent and past results.
In 2018, Luminosity had the following notable performances: 8th place in the North American league of ESL Pro League Season 7, 7th – 8th place at Esports Championship Series Season 5 Finals, DreamHack Open Valencia 2018, 1st place at GG.BET Summer Brazil, 7th – 8th place at IEM XIII Chicago, 2nd place at DreamHack Open Atlanta 2018 and 7th – 8th place at iBUYPOWER Masters IV.
Keep in mind that Luminosity even has a former MIBR member in their roster. So they’re clearly a top contender at DreamHack Rio, if they can bring back their A game. Because in recent matches, they got crushed by their regional rivals.
The following teams are likely to be announced soon or will have a chance to earn a spot via the regional qualifiers.
MIBR (not confirmed yet)
If they get invited, and they absolutely should get invited at DreamHack Rio, MIBR will be the final boss. And it’s going to be very hard for the other competitors to beat them in their current form.
Since their recent roster changes, MIBR stepped up their game and are now a top 4 team again. At the recent IEM Katowice Major, the Brazilian squad finished 3rd – 4th after losing to Astralis in the Semifinals. They even came close to winning the first map (14 – 16) against the best team in CS:GO, so their level of skill is very high at this point.
With TACO back to the roster and zews as the team’s coach, MIBR is a fully Brazilian team at this point and is headed towards big results in 2019. This mixture of great players who also happen to be good friends, is guaranteed to boost everyone’s morale and completely eliminate the roster’s communication problems.
Going into DreamHack Rio, anything less than a victory would be a disappointment for MIBR. But first they need to be confirmed as one of the participating teams.
INTZ eSports
They are part of the North American qualifier for DreamHack Rio, so there’s a good chance that we will see them at the LAN event. In any case, it will be either them or Team One, so knowing a few things about who they are might be of use later one.
The team is lead by kNgV-, a name you might have heard of before. In terms of important results, INTZ eSports only has one for 2018 (participation at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals) and currently none for 2019. But they still perform well against rival teams from their skill division.
Should they qualify for DreamHack Rio, INTZ eSports is not likely to qualify out of the Group Stage, so you should regard them as an underdog.
