An all-Brazilian Counter-Strike final at DreamHack Austin was probably not what the home-crowd wanted to see. But in the wake of today’s games, it’s undeniable that Brazil has become a regional powerhouse. The Sweden of the Americas.
It happened in painful fashion for American fans. While Luminosity Gaming were an easy favorite to win this tournament given their recent form, it looked like the Cloud9 CS:GO team might be able to stop Tempo Storm from making it a finals lock-out. They took a close victory on the first map of their semifinal, and were neck-and-neck with Tempo Storm on the second map.
But halfway through overtime, Tempo Storm’s Henrique “HEN1" Teles seemed to rip the heart out of Cloud9 with a 1-on-3 clutch bomb defense.
Cloud9 were shattered after that, and their broken confidence took North America’s hopes down with it. They were swept in the remaining overtime rounds, and then opened the final map with a debacle of a CT-side on Cache. They rallied late, but that only made the defeat more painful as it showed just how much better Cloud9 were capable of playing, if only they hadn’t gotten so disastrously tilted.
That series ended up being the highlight of the playoffs, because the final was nowhere near as dramatic. After sweeping Team Liquid in their semifinal, Luminosity wasted no time in showing Tempo Storm who is Brazil’s varsity CS:GO team. They easily fended off Tempo Storm’s finals challenge to claim their second championship of the spring.
While it was a smaller, regional tournament worth only a tenth of Luminosity’s triumph at MLG Columbus, Luminosity’s victory put to rest any doubts that DreamHack Malmo may have raised about their form. They are easily the best team in their region, and the gap between them and their rivals seems to be getting wider.