DreamHack 2022: Atlanta kicks off on Friday, November 18, at Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, with two esports tournaments, including Smash, Fortnite, and StarCraft II. Yet out of the three, it’s the StarCraft II competition that will attract the most attention.
Welcoming 64 StarCraft II players, the DH SCII Masters 2022 Atlanta promises an exciting weekend of action and a plethora of esports betting opportunities, which we’ll explore in our DreamHack 2022 Atlanta best events article.
Tournament Format
The DreamHack SCII Masters 2022 Atlanta will mark the second of two offline Global Events of the ESL Pro Tour 2022/23 season and one of the most significant StarCraft II offline events of the year. Featuring 80 StarCraft II players, the tournament will be divided into five stages, including three group stages, the knockout brackets, and the playoffs.
The tournament will kick off with the First Group Stage, which will welcome 64 players divided into 16 groups of four. The first stage will use a Dual Tournament Format, with all matches played as best-of-three.
The top two players from each group will advance to the next stage, while the losers will drop down to the Knockout Bracket Round 1.
The event will continue with the Second Group Stage, dividing the top 32 players from the first stage into eight groups of four. The second stage will use the same Dual Tournament Format, with all matches played as BO3.
Just like in the first stage, only the top two players from each group will advance, while the rest will drop to the Knockout Bracket, depending on their placement – last-placed players will enter the third round, while third-placed players will advance into the fourth round.
The Final Stretch
The final Group Stage will feature the remaining 16 StarCraft II players who placed top two in their respective Third Group Stage groups and 16 from the Regionals, including some of the top SCII pros in the world.
As the most competitive stage, it also promises plenty of esports betting opportunities and excellent chances to make esports event predictions.
The 32 players will be divided into eight groups of four, following the same format as the first two group stages. The top players from each group will receive a direct invite to the playoffs; Round of 16 for the group winner and Round of 24 for the runner-up.
The third-and fourth-placed players will drop to the Knockout Bracket Round 6 and Round 5, respectively.
Before the DreamHack SCII Masters 2022 Atlanta enters the final stage, we’ll see the Knockout Bracket, which will welcome players who have failed to perform in the group stage, competing for the final spots in the playoffs. This stage will use eight single-elimination brackets, consisting of six rounds each, with only eight tickets for the playoffs on the line.
The top-performing SCII players will then advance into the 24-player single-elimination bracket, where the final race for the DreamHack SCII Masters 2022 Atlanta title will begin.
DreamHack SCII Masters 2022 Atlanta Esports Picks
The upcoming StarCraft II tournament will use quite an extensive format, leaving a lot of room for upsets and shocking results. But while we can be sure that some of the top players will crash and burn, it’s not challenging to decide on our esports picks.
Barring any major upsets, we can for sure say that one of the players from the Regionals will come out on top and claim the lion’s share of the $100,000 prize pool.
The group of players includes some of the highest-rated and most successful SCII pros, including Kim “herO” Joon-ho, Kim “Cure” Doh-wook, Shin “RagnaroK” Hee-beom, Clément “Clem” Desplanches, Joona “Serral” Sotala, Cho “Maru” Seong-ju , and Li “TIME” Peinan, who will all be eager to deliver and take home the coveted trophy.
Yet out of all the participating players, there are two who stand out – Joona “Serral” Sotala and Cho “Maru” Seong-ju.
Maru vs. Serral
Over the last five years, Serral and Maru have elevated themselves to the status of SCII legends and built compelling arguments to be considered the greatest SCII pros of all time. And even if they don’t win in Atlanta, that wouldn’t affect the narrative too much, but it would be nice to add another trophy to their resumes.
So when we talk about esports event predictions, we have to look at Maru vs. Serral head-to-head, as the clash between the two would not only have strong implications of who will win but also be the DreamHack 2022 Atlanta best events’ match.
In this case, Serral has an edge, with a 3-0 lead over Maru this year. It’s also important to note that all of his wins came in big (Bo5) matches and that most seemed very one-sided. But despite what those figures suggest, Maru can be considered the better player.
That’s not because we expect him to defeat Serral if they meet, but because Maru might fare better against everyone else in the tournament. He’s the undisputed favorite in every other clash that he might get involved in, mainly because there is no ZvT threat for him – something we can’t say about Serral, who has had his slip-ups against weaker opponents.
It’s also important to note that Serral will have way more match-ups with upset potential, particularly ZvZ fixtures that tend to be much more unpredictable than TvT. And even if he survives ZvZ scares, Serral will still likely have to make it past herO and Clem, which hasn’t been easy for him recently.
So even though Serral is favored against Maru, he has way more hoops to jump through if he wishes to come out on top and win the tournament.
Admittedly, there are other great players, who can claw their way to the top, but based on the results we’ve seen this season, it will likely come down to Serral and Maru.
And knowing that Maru has a much easier road to the trophy, he is one of the DreamHack 2022 Atlanta best events’ esports picks we have to take.
Prediction: Maru to win
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