Vitality, ENCE win at DreamHack Spring Masters - Europe

Team Vitality and ENCE each swept their opponents Thursday to bag their first wins at the DreamHack Masters Spring - Europe event. Vitality (1-1) bounced back from a loss in Wednesday's Group D opener to sweep Ninjas in Pyjamas (0-1) by a 2-0 margin, and ENCE (1-0) took down Natus Vincere (1-1) by the same score.

The DreamHack Masters Jonkoping, a $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event, originally was scheduled to be contested with 16 teams from June 9-14 in Jonkoping, Sweden. However, the coronavirus pandemic forced the event to move to an online format featuring regional competitions for Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania. The DreamHack Masters Spring - Europe bracket, with 16 teams split into four groups competing for $160,000, runs through June 14. Each group plays a round robin on best-of-three matches.

Groups A and B completed round-robin play last week. Groups C and D will compete through Saturday. The playoffs are scheduled for June 8-14, with all matches best-of-three except for the best-of-five grand final (where the upper-bracket winner will carry a 1-0 advantage into the match). The champion will receive $54,000 from the $160,000 prize pool, plus 400 Pro Tour points.

On Thursday, Vitality was in full control from the start against NiP, running off 10 consecutive rounds to lead 11-2 on Vertigo in the opening map. After closing the map out 16-7, Vitality dominated Dust II 16-4, winning 13 of the final 14 rounds. Four of five Vitality players finished with a kill-death ratio of plus-10 or better, paced by rifler and in-game leader Richard "shox" Papillon at plus-28.

ENCE had to work harder for their sweep, battling back from a big deficit on the first map and then holding off Na'Vi's late charge on the second. On the opening map, Train, Na'Vi led 11-6 before ENCE ran off eight straight rounds and 10 of the final 11 to win 16-12. Then on Dust II, ENCE led 8-2 before Na'Vi clawed back. After Na'Vi saved a pair of match points, ENCE closed it out 16-14.

AWPer Aleksi "allu" Jalli led ENCE with a plus-10 kill-death differential. Na'Vi's Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev had the match high at plus-16, the only member of his team better than even. Group D play continues Friday with Team Vitality battling ENCE and Na'Vi taking on NiP. The group remains up for grabs, with no team yet to tally two wins.

DreamHack Masters Spring - Europe standings, with win-loss record and point differential: Group A

1. G2 Esports, 2-1, +14 2. Astralis, 2-1, +13

3. Heroic, 1-2, +12 4. North, 1-2, -39

Group B 1. BIG, 3-0, +27

2. Complexity Gaming, 2-1, +18 3. MAD Lions, 1-2, +1

4. mousesports, 0-3, -46 Group C

1. FaZe Clan, 3-0, +13 2. Team Spirit, 1-1, +18

3. Fnatic, 1-2, -9 4. GODSENT, 0-2, -22

Group D 1. ENCE, 1-0, +6

T2. Natus Vincere, 1-1, -5 T2. Team Vitality, 1-1, +20

4. Ninjas in Pyjamas, 0-1, -21 

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