NiP endure Epsilon challenge, to semis

The Group B decider match of the $100,000 DreamHack ZOWIE Open Summer tournament was one between old Swedish royalty in Ninjas in Pyjamas and Swedish upcomers Epsilon, with the two teams fighting over the final spot to the semifinals of the event.

The opening map was Epsilon's pick, Overpass, and Joakim "⁠disco doplan⁠" Gidetun showed that he was certainly comfortable on the map as the 20-year-old picked up four kills for his team to ensure that they won the pistolround on their CT-side.

A NiP buy on the third round (thanks to a first round plant) saw the Ninjas pick up a platter of entry kills to put a round on the board. However, Epsilon's economy was still stable enough to buy up on the following round and a double kill in the late round by Fredrik "⁠freddieb⁠" Buö and a defuse moved Epsilon forward to a 3-1 lead.

disco doplan was clearly in form as he pulled off another quad kill on the fifth round but it was Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund who began to warm up into dangerous form by the middle of the half, as the star player's lurks and positioning saw him began to net impact kills for his team and NiP climbed in rounds, ultimately finishing the half 8-7.

A strong retake from NiP on the second pistolround saw Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström & co. defuse the bomb and eventually rocket ahead to a 12-7 score, but Epsilon then began to claw their way back which included a quad kill from freddieb that also saw the player win a one-versus-two.

With the score at 13-12, solid defending from Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg moved NiP to a fourteenth round and Epsilon decided to call a timeout. Despite winning the next round, Epsilon were shut down shortly afterwards on the 28th round and the final round saw GeT_RiGhT win an almost predictable one-versus-two to give NiP the map 16-13.

NiP's map pick of Cache kicked off in a much less favourable manner for Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers's team with Epsilon winning the first pistolround and quickly pulling ahead in rounds, despite a tactical pause from NiP.

After the eighth round which saw a smoke defuse go the way of Epsilon, f0rest finally stepped up for his team and won two clutch rounds in a row (a one-versus-two and a one-versus-one) to move the score to 8-2 for Epsilon. Eventually, Epsilon managed to pick up three more rounds total to end the first half with an 11-4 lead.

A fast triple kill from GeT_RiGhT on the second pistolround gave NiP the impetus and momentum needed to mount a comeback and the Ninjas won five rounds in a row before a triple kill from Jerry "⁠xelos⁠" Råberg and clean-up from freddieb moved the score to 12-10.

After moving up to 13-10 however, Epsilon found that they could not deal with the experience and wherewithal of NiP as the Ninjas moved to match point (15-13); the next round did see freddieb get a fast boost over Mid however and quickly pick up three frags. A force buy from NiP the next round did the trick however and they won the second map 16-14 to close out the series.

DreamHack ZOWIE Open Summer 2016Best of 3

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Matchpage

2

0

19th June 2016

Epsilon

16

Overpass

13

16

Cache

14

Ninjas in Pyjamas	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundGeT_RiGhT	49 - 40	+9	94.0	78.0%	1.34
Patrik 'f0rest' Lindbergf0rest	50 - 39	+11	84.2	74.6%	1.24
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt	44 - 40	+4	83.3	69.5%	1.14
Adam 'friberg' Fribergfriberg	34 - 40	-6	68.7	69.5%	0.92
Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvipyth	35 - 40	-5	61.6	59.3%	0.88

Epsilon	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Fredrik 'freddieb' Buöfreddieb	51 - 41	+10	84.8	69.5%	1.22
William 'draken' Sundindraken	37 - 37	0	73.5	67.8%	1.00
Fredrik 'REZ' SternerREZ	37 - 41	-4	77.0	66.1%	0.97
Joakim 'disco doplan' Gidetundisco doplan	39 - 50	-11	71.3	62.7%	0.90
Jerry 'xelos' Råbergxelos	35 - 43	-8	68.5	66.1%	0.89

The final day of DreamHack ZOWIE Open Summer starts tomorrow at 11:00 as GODSENT will take on Immortals in the first semifinal.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter