NiP survive a scare versus Virtus.pro

NiP has survived an early scare versus TECHLABS finalist Virtus.pro, who have been sent to the consolidation final after a 0-2 loss (13-16 de_dust2_se, 11-16 de_nuke_se) in the upper bracket final.

NiP got off to a quick start on de_dust2_se in the upper bracket final, as they ran the score up to 6-1 largely uncontested by the sleepy Russians, who took a while to wake up after a lost pistol.

On the eighth round Richard "Xizt" Landström lost a critical one-on-one as he killed the defuser less than a second too late. That wound up rallying Virtus up, as they went on to win seven straight rounds to go up 8-6.

The Swedes fought back by winning the final round of the half, and then the pistol as counter-terrorists in the second half. Virtus.pro came back with a few rounds of their own though, right after one save.

After successfully gaining the lead back at 11-9, Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Landström won what turned out to be the most important round, a two-on-five, of the entire first map.

Virtus came close but no cigar 

Surrounded by Virtus players, they were stuck in the A bombsite but were able to quickly pick up kills and get the bomb down in a favorable spot, keeping NiP within an arm's reach as opposed to having to save.

Save is what NiP did after losing the next B retake though, but Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg's three M4A4 frags got him back within two at 11-13. That was all she sang for Virtus.

Lindberg whipped up an AWP and NiP seemingly switched to a higher gear, and with Virtus' carefully built house of cards finally falling apart, nothing could stop the Swedes from winning five straight and the map by 16-13.

On de_nuke_se NiP once again won the pistol round, going up 4-0 after stopping Virtus' third round buy. The Russians won the following two rounds, but the Ninjas replied with five in a row.

f0rest's NiP book another grand final spot in Copenhagen 

Down 2-9, Virtus had to settle for trading the final four rounds, two a piece one at a time, and changed sides at a 4-11 deficit with Adam "friberg" Friberg and Lindberg topping the scoreboard at 17, with no one from Virtus in double digits.

They went on to win the second half pistol and go up 2-0, but NiP quickly responded with two rounds of their own to make it 13-6. Next five rounds were traded, and all of a sudden NiP held game point.

Virtus could only told the world's number one team off so long, as they were able to take down Stolyarov in the final round of the match in the lower bomb site for a 16-11 win, 2-0 overall.

NiP will now await for the lower bracket to be played out. VeryGames will face the winner of fnatic against Western Wolves, and the winner will play Virtus.pro for a spot in the Copenhagen Games 2013 grand final.