DreamHack MSI BEAT IT goes out with a bang!

After a year of hard work and determination, DreamHack MSI BEAT IT has come to a glorious end for the year.  We saw some of the most amazing gameplay to date through the numerous qualifiers this year.  The best teams from all around the world put it all on the line to prove to the world who the best gamers were.  We saw teams battle it out in Heroes of Newerth and Counter-Strike 1.6 from every corner of the globe.  This weekend, the best of the best converged on Jönköping Sweden to take part in the last major event of 2011.

Fans converged on the Elmia Exhibition center in Jönköping Sweden this week in the thousands.  Fans at home also tuned in by the tens of thousands, watching every single broadcasted match throughout the entire tournament.  With $90,000 on the line, teams were giving it their all as crowds cheered them on throughout the week. 

In Counter-Strike 1.6, old rivalries quickly heated up as many big named teams were forced to play each other early on in the tournament.  Fan-favourites SK Gaming, Natus Vincere and FnaticMSI took the world by storm as they quickly tore through the tournament making it to the championship bracket.  This is where things got interesting.  Natus Vincere and SK Gaming were pitted against each other in the very first round of the championship bracket.  Many people put SK Gaming as the heavy favorites going into the tournament as they have been almost unbeatable all year.  In the end it was Natus Vincere who came out on top, showing the world that they should never be counted out of a major tournament.

FnaticMSI in the grand finals Vs. Lions

On the other side of the championship bracket, the story was all too familiar for fans.  mouz was to play against the recently struggling FnaticMSI.  Having already lost to mouz earlier this year in an important match, many wondered if FnaticMSI could keep on form and move past this hurdle.  In the end FnaticMSI took out the German squad with a final score of 2:1 in order to advance to the next round.  The rest of the tournament went almost as expected as the Swedish team, Lions, pushed Natus Vincere out of the tournament in order to end up facing their fellow Swede’s, FnaticMSI, in the grand finals.

The grand finals were extremely close as fans were at the edge of their seats in anticipation of every frag.  The action was so intense it spilled over onto Twitter as fans updated the world almost frag for frag of what was going on in Jönköping.  The first map went to Lions as they took out FnaticMSI rather handily.  The second map went to FnaticMSI and then it was all down to de_tuscan.  Throughout the past two events, FnaticMSI has not lost a single game out of the five they have played on de_tuscan – making this an extremely tough challenge for the boys in Lions.  In the end, FnaticMSI’s power on de_tuscan proved too much for Lions to handle and FnaticMSI took home their first ever DreamHack Winter title and 100,000 SEK and five brand new MSI GT780 Laptops!

FnaticMSI holding their 100,000 SEK check!

Battling alongside the Counter-Strike 1.6 teams were the Heroes of Newerth teams as they fought for their own 100,000 SEK and MSI GT780 Laptops.  Going into the tournament, FnaticMSI’s Heroes of Newerth team was the heavy favorite, not having lost a DreamHack event since the team came together.

FnaticMSI.HoN on the mainstage!

FnaticMSI wasn’t the only team with a good shot at taking the gold at this year’s DreamHack Winter event, the Australian team Fray also looked incredibly strong going into the event.  As luck would have it, both teams ended up in the same group for the group stage portion of the tournament.  Fray managed to take a win against FnaticMSI in the group, putting them in first place and giving them a rather easy run to the grand finals through the championship bracket. 

In the end, both Fray and FnaticMSI made it to the grand finals just as people predicted.  In the end, the group stage match wdidn’t matter a bit as FnaticMSI made quick work of Fray in the grand finals, making it look like clockwork.  This event marks the third DreamHack title in a row that FnaticMSI has won.

FnaticMSI.HoN Holding their 100,000 SEK check!

Stay tuned to MSI’s Gaming Portal as we will bring you interviews with both our winning teams after the event.  Also, we would like to thank all of the teams, players and fans who participated and came out to enjoy the DreamHack MSI BEAT IT events this year, it was an amazing experience and we cannot wait to see you next time!