There was no shortage of drama throughout the qualifier as Syman, who had raised eyebrows after beating Vitality in the opening bracket, reached the final after beating two top 30 teams, ex-Space Soldiers and AGO, with both teams raising suspicions that the CIS side had been cheating. From the other side of the bracket came Swedish team x6tence Galaxy, who squeezed past LDLC and Fragsters in three-map series with great individual performances from Tim "nawwk" Jonasson in both matches. BARBARR's x6tence Galaxy top DreamHack Winter qualifier André "BARBARR" Möller's men took the lead in the series with a hard-fought victory on Train, where Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora shined with a 30-bomb. Syman left it late to lock down Mirage as they let the Swedes come back from a 5-15 deficit, only to wrap things up in overtime. The series came down to Inferno, where Syman went into the break with a narrow one-round lead after overcoming a 3-6 deficit. The CIS side started the second half the sprightlier and further added to their lead, but all of a sudden they ran out of steam, with x6tence Galaxy putting the game to bed in the 29th round. DreamHack Open Winter 2018 Europe Closed QualifierBest of 3 Syman Matchpage 1 2 28th October 2018  x6tence Galaxy 13Train 16 19Mirage 16 13Inferno 16 Artem 'iDISBALANCE' EgoroviDISBALANCE | 72 - 56 | +16 | 77.7 | 1.19 | Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto | 61 - 51 | +10 | 74.2 | 1.11 | Sanjar 'SANJI' KulievSANJI | 63 - 62 | +1 | 74.9 | 1.10 | Sanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovneaLaN | 61 - 67 | -6 | 76.2 | 0.96 | Maksim 't0rick' Zaikint0rick | 59 - 63 | -4 | 68.5 | 0.93 |
Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez ZamoraPlopski | 64 - 57 | +7 | 73.7 | 1.11 | Linus 'Bååten' AnderssonBååten | 61 - 67 | -6 | 77.9 | 1.05 | André 'BARBARR' MöllerBARBARR | 60 - 62 | -2 | 68.5 | 0.98 | Tim 'nawwk' Jonassonnawwk | 59 - 64 | -5 | 65.2 | 0.96 | Gustav 'ZINKEN' BjörkZINKEN | 54 - 66 | -12 | 60.0 | 0.86 |
x6tence Galaxy will be joined by the winner of the North American qualifier and by six invitees at the Swedish event, which will run from November 30 through December 2 at the Elmia Convention Center, with $100,000 on the line  Fragsters #25  Lucas 'Bubzkji' Andersen Ismail 'refrezh' Ali Jacob 'dragonfly' Lund Nicolai 'torben' Amorim Martin 'stavn' Lund   LDLC #26   Antoine 'to1nou' Pirard Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin François 'amanek' Delaunay David 'devoduvek' Dobrosavljevic Logan 'LOGAN' Corti  Syman  Maksim 't0rick' Zaikin Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliev Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov Artem 'iDISBALANCE' Egorov Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy  Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson Age: 20 Team: x6tence Galaxy Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 126 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.65  AGO #29  Grzegorz 'SZPERO' Dziamałek Damian 'Furlan' Kislowski Dominik 'GruBy' Swiderski Tomasz 'phr' Wójcik Kacper 'kaper' Słoma  Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora Age: 16 Team: x6tence Galaxy Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 222 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.66  ex-Space Soldiers #20  Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın Ahmet 'paz' Karahoca Engin 'ngiN' Kor  x6tence Galaxy #96  André 'BARBARR' Möller Linus 'Bååten' Andersson Gustav 'ZINKEN' Björk Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora  André 'BARBARR' Möller Age: 28 Team: x6tence Galaxy Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 691 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.68  Vitality #41  Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Vincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |