DreamHack Winter
The first CS:GO Major Championship, held at DreamHack Winter 2013 in Jönköping, Sweden.
The 2013 DreamHack SteelSeries Counter Strike: Global Offensive Championship, also known as DreamHack Winter 2013, was the first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. The tournament was organized by DreamHack and sponsored by Valve. The competition was held during the Winter 2013 DreamHack digital festival at the Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre in Jönköping, Sweden. Six invitees joined ten qualifiers to form the sixteen team event. Community funding helped to build the US$250,000 prize pool. The tournament had a peak 145,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch and the in-game viewing client.
- Era
- CS:GO
Lore & Background
Six teams – Astana Dragons, compLexity Gaming, VeryGames, Clan-Mystik, Fnatic, and Team iBuyPower – were directly invited to participate in the tournament. In addition to those six teams, ten other teams qualified through other tournaments. For instance, Ninjas in Pyjamas qualified by winning the DreamHack Summer 2013 tournament; Copenhagen Wolves qualified by winning EMS One Fall 2013; LGB eSports qualified through an online qualifier; and Reason Gaming qualified through the BYOC qualifier. 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 playoff 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 final winner was decided, and the eight teams to make the playoff bracket earned automatic invitations to the next Major, EMS One Katowice 2014.
In Their Own Story
The bus doors hissed open, releasing a cloud of warm air into the biting Swedish night. The Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre loomed ahead, lights piercing the darkness. Inside, the roar was deafening—a wall of sound that vibrated through the floorboards. Sixteen teams had arrived: six invitees and ten qualifiers. The prize pool stood at US$250,000, built with community funding. On Twitch and the in-game viewing client, a peak of 145,000 concurrent viewers watched the action unfold. In the quarterfinals, Ninjas in Pyjamas won their series 2–1, VeryGames won 2–1, Fnatic won 2–1, and compLexity Gaming won 2–1. In the semifinals, Ninjas in Pyjamas won 2–1, and Fnatic won 2–0. In the finals, Fnatic won the series 2–1, claiming the title of the first CS:GO Major champions.
Reader's Guide
There were five maps to choose from. In the group stage, each team bans two maps so that one remains. In the playoffs, each team bans one map and chooses one map; the remaining map would be the decider map of the series. Broadcast talent included hosts Scott "SirScoots" Smith and Jonas "bsl" Vikan; commentators Corey "dunN" Dunn, Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen, and Stuart "TosspoT" Saw; and analyst Duncan "Thorin" Shields.
Did You Know?
- The prize pool was US$250,000, funded by community funding according to the source.
- Team iBuyPower was directly invited, not qualified through an online qualifier.
- Ninjas in Pyjamas qualified by winning DreamHack Summer 2013, not directly invited.
- Copenhagen Wolves qualified by winning EMS One Fall 2013, not VeryGames.
More in Majors & Tournaments
Elsewhere in the Counter-Strike universe
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record