HEROIC have defeated LDLC 16-6 on Train, while G2 came from behind to beat ENCE 16-14 on Dust2 in the group stage of DreamHack Winter 2018.

The second Group A opener was played on Train, and it began with LDLC getting off to a flying start after winning their CT pistol on the back of Antoine "⁠to1nou⁠" Pirard's quad-kill in a 2v5 post-plant situation. It was only when HEROIC were down 0-5 that they managed to react, and the rest of the half was all about their water-tight defense as they took nine rounds before switching sides.

HEROIC did not ease off the pace in the second half and won another pistol, this time around with doubles from Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz and Asger "⁠AcilioN⁠" Larsen in a flawless execution. With the 20-year-old leading the way for his team with 23 frags, HEROIC ran all over the French defense to close out the map with a flawless Terrorist side.

LDLC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
François 'amanek' Delaunayamanek	15 - 17	-2	80.8	0.98
Antoine 'to1nou' Pirardto1nou	15 - 19	-4	66.1	0.87
Logan 'LOGAN' CortiLOGAN	10 - 16	-6	59.4	0.78
David 'devoduvek' Dobrosavljevicdevoduvek	8 - 17	-9	49.4	0.55
Alex 'ALEX' McMeekinALEX	8 - 19	-11	48.8	0.43

HEROIC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Patrick 'es3tag' Hansenes3tag	20 - 8	+12	95.7	1.65
Daniel 'mertz' Mertzmertz	23 - 10	+13	95.0	1.58
Andreas 'MODDII' FridhMODDII	18 - 12	+6	88.0	1.50
Asger 'AcilioN' LarsenAcilioN	16 - 12	+4	75.9	1.16
Adam 'friberg' Fribergfriberg	11 - 14	-3	62.7	0.96

The match between ENCE and G2 took place on Dust2, with the Finnish squad winning their Terrorist pistol, an anti-eco and the first gun round to take control of proceedings. G2 then secured their first round with a 1v2 clutch from Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug on a shoddy buy, but that round was immediately traded back as Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo pulled off a clutch of his own in a 1v3 post-plant situation, setting his team up for a 6-1 lead.

G2 won two of the next three rounds to reduce the deficit to 3-7, but then a heroic 1v3 clutch from Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli put ENCE once again in control, with the half ending with an 11-4 scoreline.

Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon's men looked a much livelier side in the second half and won seven of the opening eight rounds to bring the gap to a solitary round. The two teams then traded rounds, with G2 eventually coming out on top of this chaotic period to secure a hard-fought win in the final round of regulation.

ENCE	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jani 'Aerial' JussilaAerial	23 - 20	+3	74.4	1.23
Jere 'sergej' Salosergej	22 - 19	+3	74.9	1.22
Aleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenAleksib	21 - 24	-3	93.2	1.13
Sami 'xseveN' LaasanenxseveN	18 - 22	-4	81.1	1.02
Aleksi 'allu' Jalliallu	17 - 21	-4	56.3	0.87

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS	29 - 20	+9	100.0	1.39
Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianarobodyy	25 - 22	+3	86.6	1.24
Lucas 'Lucky' ChastangLucky	18 - 19	-1	71.5	1.09
Audric 'JACKZ' JugJACKZ	19 - 19	0	57.3	0.93
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	15 - 21	-6	59.2	0.85