Virtus.pro through to upper final over NIP

The last game of the day in the upper bracket featured Virtus.pro and NIP. They faced each other for a chance to play against Heroic in the Group A upper final on Sunday.

The first team to pick a map was NIP and they unsurprisingly went with Overpass, a map that they have favored recently.
The Swedes were the first out of the gate, taking a 2-0 lead on their T-side. That was the last time in the first half that things looked bright for the Ninjas, because Virtus.pro took back the lead almost immediately, and kept it until halftime at 10-5.
The second half was almost a mirror image of the first with NIP starting best, but ultimately failing to keep a winstreak going, and Virtus.pro steal away the map pick of the Swedes at 16-9.

The action continued on Vertigo where “YEKINDAR” and “FL1T” were responsible for a brilliant 6-1 start to the VP t-side. The Ninjas came roaring back into the game with a four-round streak and all of a sudden it was a very tight game again. At halftime, the race was dead even at 8-7 in favor of Virtus.pro.
The Swedes continued their momentum from the first half as they picked up five rounds in a row to start the half. VP clawed themselves halfway back, but it was never really convincing for the CIS-team, and NIP took the victory 16-12.

The map chosen to be the decider was Ancient and had Virtus.pro starting as the terrorists while the Ninjas had to defend.
The map started off very back and forth, with no team really being able to string more than two rounds together. At the score of 4-4 Virtus.pro finally managed to take over control of the game and put a good amount of space between the two teams as they were able to win the last seven rounds of the half as T-side on the most CT-sided map in the pool.
The Ninjas started the second half with a much-needed small winstreak, to reduce the round deficit from seven to four. But once again the Ninjas were not able to keep the rounds coming and VP were able to win the map at 16-8.

Virtus.pro are now set to take on Heroic in the Group A upper final, while NIP will take on MOUZ in the lower semis.

Highlight of the BO3-series

Virtus.pro - NIP 2-1 | IEM Katowice 2022

Overpass: 16-9 | Jame – 22/8 K-D | 81.9 ADR | 92.0% KAST | 1.59 Rating
Vertigo: 12-16 | REZ – 27/17 K-D | 97.5 ADR | 75.0% KAST | 1.40 Rating
Ancient: 16-8 | YEKINDAR – 22/13 K-D | 94.2 ADR | 83.3% KAST | 1.45 Rating

MVP:

Dzhami “Jame” Ali – 50/32 K-D | 66.1 ADR | 84.4% KAST | 1.29 Rating