DreamHack have confirmed that the upcoming DreamHack Masters event, originally set to take place in Jönköping, Sweden, has been moved to an entirely online format.
The original news that the 2020 DreamHack Masters was postponed did not come as a shock to many competitive CS:GO fans. Almost across the board, the ongoing global health crisis has seen esports events canceled, postponed, or moved online.
Just in the CS:GO community, the ESL One Rio Major, originally scheduled for May, has been pushed back to November. While ESL took the decision to keep it on LAN later in the year, DreamHack have shifted the 2020 DreamHack Masters to online.
DreamHack Masters 2020 Schedule
DreamHack confirmed that the new tournament will take place in two parts across May and June. However, qualifiers will take place from April 16-20, in order to confirm all the teams taking part.
The first part, from May 19 to 30, will be the group stages. These will be split into NA and EU, so as to best to reduce latency and potential internet issues. Both competitions will go ahead simultaneously and will follow identical formats.
The second part of the reorganized tournament will be the playoffs, which will take place from June 8 to 14. This will see victors crowned in Europe and North America.
Similar competitions will take place in Oceania and Asia from June 2 to 7, albeit with significantly smaller prize pools.
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DreamHack Masters 2020 Prize Pool
Despite moving to an online tournament and so losing revenue from ticket sales and other income streams, the tournament will still boast a $300,000 prize pool. This will be split between the four different regions as follows:
- Europe – $160,000
- North America – $100,000
- Oceania – $20,000
- Asia – $20,000
DreamHack Masters 2020 Teams
As any competitive CS:GO fan will know, the major teams are not obligated to attend every tournament. At the time of writing, DreamHack have confirmed that the following teams will be in attendance:
- Europe — Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Vitality, ENCE, BIG, North
- North America — Evil Geniuses, 100 Thieves, Furia, MIBR
- Asia — TyLoo, ViCi Gaming
DreamHack will confirm the participation of more teams as they become available. Online tournaments may be rejected by some teams on the basis of the inconsistencies that can come through internet connection.
“We’re very excited to move to an online format for DreamHack Masters Spring,” said Michael Van Driel, Chief Product Officer at DreamHack. “While not being able to compete on LAN is unfortunate, we’ve developed a structure to support teams, players and fans around the world.”
“We look forward to a great competition,” he finished. “Showing that the world of esports goes on as we’re quick to adapt and find solutions for this new reality.”
We will continue to update you on DreamHack Masters as news becomes available.