Alessandro "stermy" Avallone (AMD)
LAN form: fifth place or worse at Dubai and Quakecon
An elusive performer, stermy likes to keep his preparation under wraps before a big event and has indeed drifted off the competitive radar since Dubai. There, despite a strong start, the Italian dropped out in the quarter final stage to fox and will be hoping for a better showing at Dreamhack. To do so he'll need to raise his game and keep his rail and LG accuracies as high as ever when it counts. We all know stermy relies heavily on his aim but what's sometimes missing against the better players is the ability to work himself into situations where he can take full advantage of this.
Group G should hold nothing to fear for stermy, even though Chance is likely to be busy talking up his prospects again. The real deal begins in the playoffs and there any number of potential opponents look difficult for the Italian. A big, big win will be needed to earn a top four placing and given his lack of online appearances it's difficult to say whether he's in the form to pull it off. Always the professional, stermy will have been working hard these past few weeks and a good finish at Dreamhack would go far to justify his decision to snub fnatic and stick with AMD as his personal sponsor.
Prediction: looks all too likely to settle for another 5th-8th placing
Brian "dkt" Flander (compLexity)
LAN form: out of action since a 5th-6th placing at Quakecon
One of three American's making the trip to Sweden, dkt definitely goes into the tournament with a question mark hanging over his chances. His failure to appear in Dubai won't have done him any favours but recent interviews suggest he's confident and he can back this up as the top performer in the IEM American Championship so far. Critics claim his high placing at Quakecon was due to wins over two players lacking serious preparation (av3k and l1nkje) but dkt could only beat the players in front of him and a top six finish is not to be sniffed at.
dkt's group C clash with fazz looks likely to give an early indicator of his form coming into this event. The Swede looked impressive despite failing to progress from the group stages in Dubai and should pose the American with a stern opening test. Victory for the old-school compLexity player would definitely cause Europe's bigger names to sit up and take notice but defeat would certainly dampen his hopes of a place in the top eight. In a recent interview with fragster, dkt claimed he has improved since Quakecon but it would be naive to thinks that his opponents here won't have as well.
Prediction: faces a tough task of living up to his top eight seeding
Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira (fnatic)
LAN form: inconsistent, lacking practice in Dubai
Spart1e will want to forget Dubai as soon as possible and a strong showing on home soil here will certainly help. Defeats to Cooller and DaHanG are hard to class as a disaster but the fact remains that Spart1e was the only top seed to fail to make it out of the group stages and was, in his own words, desperately out of form. That suggests that form is precisely what'll matter when it comes to Dreamhack now and fnatic will be hopping their headline dueler will be able to recapture the form that saw him do so well at Quakecon and the Cologne Pro/Am.
A fairly straightforward group for the Swede should see him progress to the playoffs with minimal hassle and it really wouldn't be too much of a surprise to see him do well from there. Spart1e looked weak on a lot of maps in Dubai so he might already have one in mind to eliminate given the chance, perhaps T7 against the Americans and maybe ZTN otherwise. The odd ZOTAC cup appearance suggests Spart1e is at least still around and, unless he wants another embarrassment, you'd expect him to have put in the hours this time around.
Prediction: top four material if he's back to his best, but that's a very big if
Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski (Serious-Gaming)
LAN form: disappointing at Quakecon, absent in Dubai
The only second seed to be featured in this list, av3k has proved somewhat of an enigma in recent times. It's clear he has the potential to go so far - beating toxic in Quake 4 proved that - but time and time again his preparation borders on non-existant and his results reflect this. While this might have worked in the past, it just doesn't cut it in QuakeLive right now. Dreamhack is av3k's chance to prove he's still got what it takes and, if his online appearances are anything to go by, this time he's up for it.
Losing to fox in the group stages could hand the Polish player a tricky opening playoff tie and if this does happen, he'll be hoping to draw the likes of madix, strenx, dkt or maybe even Spart1e. The American from compLexity will have a particular appeal as it was at his hands that av3k suffered a shock defeat back in the Quakecon lower bracket. There'll be no lower bracket here, however, and therefore no margin for error for av3k as he attempts to fight his way back into the spotlight that once was his own.
Prediction: will need a Cooller style comeback to crack the top eight but if he does he may go far
waoh di woah