NiP, Natus Vincere beat TyLoo, Virtus.pro 2-0

Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere were able to come out victorious of their bouts against TYLOO and Virtus.pro, respectively, with 2-0 wins, and now have a 2-1 record in the Swiss group stage.

Ninjas in Pyjamas and TYLOO, two teams with an even 1-1 record, kicked off their series on Overpass, with the Swedes taking the first pistol round on the CT side as Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg downed four attacking players. Having lost the two following rounds, TYLOO were able to get on the board in the first buy round having the weapon advantage. Once Ninjas in Pyjamas fully bought up, the narrative completely changed, as the Swedes were able to win every single remaining round in the half without skipping a beat.

After the 14-1 half, in which Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner had 20 frags and 140 ADR, Ninjas in Pyjamas finally gave up a round, losing the second pistol to an aggressive mid-play in which Kevin "⁠xccurate⁠" Susanto got a triple. Playing an aggressive no holds barred game, TYLOO won the first gun round on the CT side, and brought the score to 14-6, although Ninjas in Pyjamas were then able to bring it to match point on the following after a clean execute and plant on A. The Swedes then followed it up with another A execute to close the first map out in their favor, 16-6.

Inferno started the same way Overpass did, with Ninjas in Pyjamas taking the early lead, although this time on the attacking side. Once again, Ninjas in Pyjamas took an early lead, making it to 6-2 before f0rest won a 1vs2 clutch against Yue "⁠AE⁠" Yu and HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu. After going down 2-8, TYLOO were able to save the half by winning three of the last five rounds to leave it at 5-10.

The Chinese-Indonesian team then won the first round of the second half thanks to another great pistol round by xccurate, who was able to take down four with a P250. TYLOO were then able to get within one round of their Swedish rivals, 9-10, but started to get denied as Ninjas in Pyjamas tightened their defense with full buys. TYLOO then had a few good rounds and didn’t allow Ninjas in Pyjamas to fully take the reins of the half, but the Swedes were able to close the match out, 16-13, as TYLOO always trailed a couple rounds behind.

Natus Vincere took the reins of their best-of-three against Virtus.pro quickly on their rivals’ map pick taking the eight first rounds before the Poles snatched their first with a pistol buy to the lower bomb site on Nuke. Virtus.pro then almost broke the economy of Natus Vincere, winning two out of the following three rounds, but a crucial team effort by the CIS side on their last full buy kept the momentum of the half on their side, which ended up in an 11-4 lead.

Natus Vincere then took the second pistol round with Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev putting in work with a quad-kill, but were then ground down in the anti-eco as a scout, some CZs and a desert eagle ground them down giving Virtus.pro their fifth. Three rounds later Virtus.pro were making the comeback, just four behind Na`Vi, but a pistol buy win on the A site got them within two rounds of match point, which they were able to get to soon thereafter. A final push by Virtus.pro got them to 11 rounds, but it was finally Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov with a triple who pushed his team over the fence on the first map, 16-11.

Mirage started out once again going the way of Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev & co. with flamie and electroNic taking doubles in the pistol round. Virtus.pro didn’t allow Natus Vincere to run away with such a big lead this time around, however, as they took the first gun round and then a 3vs5 in the seventh round to stay at an arm’s length, 2-5. Eventually it was the Ukrainian-Russian side that took control of the half, dominating on the CT side and taking it 10-5 as Virtus.pro were able to take the last two of the half.

Virtus.pro won a very crucial second pistol round that allowed them to close the gap with Natus Vincere on the CT side, although s1mple opening on A in the first gun round while his team rushed B kept Virtus.pro in check, making the score 11-7. Na`Vi then brought it to 13-7, but a big round by Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński with four kills kept his team in it, but Virtus.pro were unable to follow it up and missed the opportunity to capitalize on a 2vs4 that s1mple and Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko were able to win.