NiP stun G2 despite Niko’s otherworldly performance

In the upper bracket final between Ninjas in Pyjamas and G2, it was the French/Balkan roster that took the initiative from the get-go. On NIP’s map pick, Ancient, G2 quickly established a huge lead; winning the first nine rounds of the map, during which the Swedish Ninjas constantly had to take fights with lesser firepower due to a bad economy. It was only towards the end of the half, that NIP managed to secure a couple of rounds to make the second half interesting.

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The Ninjas did not manage to make it much more interesting in the second half though, as they only picked up two rounds on the CT side of their map pick. The French/Balkan squad looked confident throughout the map, all sporting a rating of at least 1.0. Especially Niko stood out once again. He continued his hot streak, this time with a 1.77 rating, in what was a truly world-class performance.

The second map of Mirage started in the same fashion as G2 took a fast 7-2 lead, looking to blast NiP out of the server. Unexpectedly G2 slowed down, which allowed the Ninjas to catch fire. The Swedes took the rest of the half, showing some good CT aggression that would lead to great reads. 

Coming into the second half G2 managed to break the ninja's hot streak, with Niko coming up clutch with multiple quad-kills. NiP answered back fast, taking round after round off the back of great individual rounds, and a G2 economy that was always kept low. Both teams playing great CS took it the full 30 rounds, where the Ninjas ended up prevailing, and thus stealing G2’s map pick away from them, in spite of Niko once again showing excellent form with a 1.53 rating.

Picked as the third and final map was the classic decider Inferno. With only one loss on the map in the last three months, G2 were the favorites. This did not matter as NiP was brimming with confidence after a great Mirage. They started hot and heavy taking 11 rounds on their T-side.
G2 tried to bounce back in the second half, but their efforts were for naught, as the ninjas took the final map 16:9 with some stellar play.

With the victory, NIP are ready for the Group Final tomorrow, while G2 will have to beat either MIBR or BIG to qualify.

G2 - Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 | BLAST Premier Fall Group

Ancient (16-7) | NiKo - 1.77 rating / 27-13 / 127.8 ADR

Mirage (14-16) | NiKo - 1.53 rating / 33-19 / 105.6 ADR

Inferno (9-16) | device – 1.41 Rating / 20-11 / 84.8 ADR