EPICENTER: MoscowG2 & NiP split their series in Moscow
The group A matchup between G2 and NiP goes 1-1 at EPICENTER: Moscow (16-11 for NiP on Cobblestone, 16-9 for G2 on Cache).
The last match for the first day of Epicenter could be seen as a grudge match for G2 as they lost the final of StarSeries Season 2 to Ninjas in Pyjamas, the first map of that series being particularly embarassing for the French.
The first map was Cobblestone and even though it was the pick of the French, it was hard to see why they did so as the Swedes went on to a 9-0 lead on T-side before Richard "shox" Papillon's team managed to answer back, tragically getting reset straight away. The French-Belgian roster was barely in contention for the gunrounds, and only just scraped together two more rounds in the first half.
It looked all but over as G2 lost the pistol on their T-side and were behind 3-13, but an all-or-nothing force buy kept them in the game. As soon as it was a battle between rifles again though, Mikail "Maikelele" Bill and co. made it to match point.
Having the knife to the throat, the out-of-form samurais clawed it back to a more dignified result, but in the 27th round Adam "friberg" Friberg literally stood tall on the tree position on B, lining up a quad-kill for himself to close out the map 16-11.
 G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 - 18 | -1 | 76.1 | 63.0% | 0.98 | |
| 17 - 21 | -4 | 68.9 | 63.0% | 0.93 | |
| 17 - 21 | -4 | 69.0 | 63.0% | 0.90 | |
| 13 - 21 | -8 | 72.2 | 63.0% | 0.77 | |
| 15 - 23 | -8 | 65.0 | 63.0% | 0.75 |
 Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 - 14 | +10 | 95.6 | 96.3% | 1.66 | |
| 26 - 15 | +11 | 91.7 | 74.1% | 1.46 | |
| 19 - 16 | +3 | 79.0 | 70.4% | 1.10 | |
| 20 - 15 | +5 | 67.5 | 63.0% | 1.07 | |
| 15 - 19 | -4 | 72.7 | 81.5% | 1.02 |
Moving on to Cache G2 were first up on the T-side which after a win in the pistol resulted in the classic 3-0 lead, before the Swedish veterans got a round on the board. The following three rounds went back and forth between the two sides, but as Cédric "RpK" Guipouy and his squad kept their economy healthy they came out the best of that exchange and created some breathing room with a 7-3 score.
The god himself had awoken on Cache
Now the heavy hitters for G2 were hitting their headshots and such, shox and Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom in particular destroying the opposition in the gun rounds. It was very much the Cobblestone game again, just with the roles reversed.
The French only gave up a single round more before the halftime, and with a remarkable all-headshot CT-pistol followed by winning the first gun round in the second half, Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro and the boys were on their way to fully redeem themselves leading 15-4.
And again the team under pressure made a valiant attempt to make the scoreline more competitive, clawing back five rounds before G2 closed out the map 16-9 and tying this series 1-1.
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 - 18 | +2 | 93.8 | 60.0% | 1.15 | |
| 17 - 21 | -4 | 67.3 | 56.0% | 0.88 | |
| 10 - 17 | -7 | 59.9 | 64.0% | 0.76 | |
| 11 - 20 | -9 | 62.3 | 52.0% | 0.73 | |
| 8 - 22 | -14 | 44.5 | 36.0% | 0.38 |
| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 - 13 | +12 | 101.5 | 80.0% | 1.55 | |
| 19 - 13 | +6 | 91.7 | 80.0% | 1.43 | |
| 20 - 14 | +6 | 84.8 | 80.0% | 1.38 | |
| 21 - 13 | +8 | 73.8 | 76.0% | 1.21 | |
| 12 - 13 | -1 | 71.4 | 72.0% | 1.00 |
And that concludes the first day at EPICENTER: Moscow. The action will resume at 10:00 tomorrow with Virtus.pro taking on HellRaisers.
Kyrylo 'ANGE1' Karasiow
Martin 'STYKO' Styk
Bence 'DeadFox' Böröcz
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