DreamHack Winter 2014

The top eight teams from ESL One Cologne 2014 ("Legends") received direct invitations to DreamHack Winter 2014. Two of these invitations were rescinded after a cheating scandal, leaving ten spots (the "Challengers") to be filled by a mixtures of qualifiers and invites. Five teams from Europe, one team from North America, and two teams from a "Last Call LAN Qualifier" qualified for the tournament. After the scheduled qualifiers were completed, two teams were directly invited to the Major to fill the final two spots.

Teams were split up into four groups, and all group matches were best-of-ones. The highest seed would play the lowest seed in each group and the second and third seeds would play against each other. The winner of those two matches would play each other to determine which team moved on to the playoff stage, while the losers of the first round of matches also played. The loser of the lower match was then eliminated from the tournament. With one team advanced and one eliminated, the two remaining teams would play an elimination match for the second playoff spot. This format is known as the GSL format, named for the Global StarCraft II League.

The playoffs bracket consisted of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches were best-of-three, single elimination. Teams advanced in the bracket until a winner was decided.

Map pool

The seven-map pool did not change from ESL One Cologne 2014. Before each match in the group stage, both teams banned two maps. The map for the match was then randomly selected from the remaining three maps. In the playoffs, each team first banned one map, then chose one map. The two chosen maps were the first two maps in the best-of-three. If the series were to require a third map, the map was randomly selected from the three remaining maps.

DreamHack Winter 2014 was the site of the Fnatic pixel-walking controversy, more commonly referred to as the Olofboost. The dispute centered on a series of controversial plays made by Swedish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) player Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer Gustafsson. Fnatic and Team LDLC.com (LDLC) had advanced in the group stage phase of the tournament, where the would play each other in the quarterfinals. LDLC won the first game of the match on Dust II 16-10 while Fnatic came back to win the second game 16-8 on Cache.

The third game of the match was played on Overpass. LDLC won the first half of the game 12-3. Following a first-round win by LDLC that brought the score to 13-3, olofmeister exploited an invisible "pixel-walk" glitch, allowing him to use a series of illegal boosts and jumps to place himself at an increased height; this enabled him to see a greater portion of the map and shoot from a greater height, unseen by LDLC. Fnatic would win thirteen rounds in a row unanswered and won the game 16-13, advancing to the semi-finals.

Reactions and aftermath

After winning the match, Fnatic coach Jonatan "Devilwalk" Lundberg gave an interview where he revealed that the team had been practicing the boost strat two months before the Major.

Following the matchup, LDLC lodged a protest to DreamHack, the tournament organizers, claiming that Fnatic and olofmeister used an illegal "pixelwalk" on invisible ledges outside of the map geometry not intended for player use. LDLC player Nathan "NBK" Schmidt criticized the move, saying that "the CS:GO scene will turn into a joke" if Fnatic weren't disqualified. Semifinalists Ninjas in Pyjamas and Virtus.pro both supported LDLC, with Virtus.pro tweeting that Fnatic had "no respect for the fans."

DreamHack ruled in favor of LDLC and ordered the second half of the game to be replayed. Fnatic launched a counter-protest claiming LDLC also used a pixelwalk during the match. DreamHack then ordered the entire game to be replayed, but following intense backlash from fans and players Fnatic decided to forfeit the map, becoming the first team to forfeit a match in Major history.

LDLC advanced to the semifinals against Natus Vincere and won the series 2-0. LDLC would defeat defending Major champions Ninjas in Pyjamas in the grand final, winning the organization's first Major championship. Fnatic would later win ESL One Katowice 2015 and ESL One Cologne 2015 to become the first organization to win multiple Majors and the first to win back-to-back Majors.

Legacy

Valve released a patch after the tournament that removed the pixel-walk from the map, which also included a sign reading "Geländer übersteigen verboten!" (German for "Climbing over railings prohibited!") below where the incident took place.

The controversy was featured in Red Bull Gaming's documentary Memories of CS:GO. Devilwalk reflected that Fnatic were "completely isolated" from the professional Counter-Strike scene after the Olofboost controversy. Olofmeister said in an interview that he was "very close to quitting."

European Closed Qualifier

European Qualifier

North America Closed Qualifier

North America Qualifier

Last Call LAN Qualifier

Last Call Qualifier; Stockholm, Sweden

Host

• Scott "SirScoots" Smith

Stage Host

• James Duffield

Analyst

• Duncan "Thorin" Shields

Commentators

• Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat
• Anders Blume
• Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson
• Stuart "TosspoT" Saw

The most notable pre-Major team change came after a cheating scandal involving three French players. Two teams that achieved Legends status at the previous Major were dropped from their Legends spots. Titan, whose roster achieved Legends status as Team LDLC.com, was disqualified from the tournament after Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian was caught cheating. At the same time, Epsilon eSports was disqualified after Gordon "Sf" Giry was found to be cheating. The two players and Simon "smn" Beck were then VAC banned by Valve and were permanently banned from any Valve-sponsored tournaments, including Majors. Titan and Epsilons' spots were then filled by Copenhagen Wolves and Flipsid3 Tactics, teams advancing from a new qualifier.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Bracket

Quarterfinals scores

HellRaisers vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

Virtus.pro vs. PENTA Sports

Casters: TosspoT & Fifflaren

Team LDLC.com vs. Fnatic

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

Team Dignitas vs. Natus Vincere

Casters: TosspoT & Fifflaren

Semifinals scores

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Virtus.pro

Casters: TosspoT vs. Fifflaren

Team LDLC.com vs. Natus Vincere

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

Finals scores

NiP was the defending Major champions and was also making its fourth straight Major final appearance. Team LDLC.com became the first French team to appear in a CS:GO Major final.

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler