Anders: No-one could have predicted TyLoo's performance

DreamHack Masters Malmö turned out to be a crazy and wildly unpredictable tournament. So when we caught the popular caster and commentator Anders Blume during a short break in the quarterfinals, we naturally had to ask him what was going on.

Some of Counter-Strike's best teams faltered early in the tournament, while unknowns and teams who usually struggle made it to the playoffs. "A lot of people are saying that it's because we're right after a Major tournament so all of the big teams are maybe a little bit burnt out," Anders says. "Maybe that's part of it, but I'm not sure. So many teams are becoming really, really good, so the gap between tier 1 teams and tier 2 teams is slowly closing. It's pretty cool, its what we've always wanted, really. I like it."

Chinese team TyLoo gaming shocked everyone by sending Luminosity Gaming - who had won the MLG Columbus Major less than two weeks earlier - out of the tournament, an upset that nobody could have predicted, says Anders.

"Beating Liquid you think, 'okay, maybe that makes sense' even though it's still pretty impressive. But beating Luminosity, on the other hand, is completely outrageous. There's no way to predict that."

While China is mostly associated with MOBA games like League of Legends and Dota, they play plenty of shooter games and could rise to become a new factor in CS:GO, says Anders.

"They play a lot of FPS games, but they usually play stuff like Crossfire or Sudden Attack or Counter-Strike Online. So I think it's perfectly possible to convert a bunch of people into playing Counter-Strike, and if that happens that'll be fantastic. TyLoo paving the way and showing it's possible will make a big difference, I think."

We'll have many more interviews from DreamHack Masters Malmö going up this week.