NiP repeat Swedish derby win; to Minor playoffs

Ninjas in Pyjamas have booked a spot in the Europe Minor playoffs after defeating Red Reserve 2-0 in Group B's decider match.

The all-Swedish derby, a rematch of Group B's second encounter, started on Mirage with Ninjas in Pyjamas coming out on top of a scrappy pistol round. After planting the bomb in the following round, Red Reserve were able to respond in a full third-round buy, thanks to a triple kill from Simon "⁠twist⁠" Eliasson.

The ex-GODSENT team would be traded back immediately, however, after being caught off-guard by Ninjas in Pyjamas's force-buy, but twist came to his team's rescue once more and clutched a 1v3 on the B site. But Red Reserve's woes continued, and they were limited to just five rounds in the half after failing to string rounds together.

The second half began with a successful fast B execute from Ninjas in Pyjamas, who followed that up with three more rounds, bringing the scoreline to 14-5. It looked like the Ninjas had the game under control, but Red Reserve tightened things up in their defence in an attempt to push the game to overtime, only to collapse at the final hurdle as they could not hold off a fast A execute.

Train, the map that followed, quickly got out of hand for Red Reserve, who found themselves on the back foot early on after losing a pistol round to a quad-kill from Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner. Once again, Fredrik "⁠freddieb⁠" Buö's side simply could not build on the few round wins that were going their way, taking just two of the opening ten rounds of the map.

Much to everyone's surprise, Red Reserve then won a full eco round on the back of a triple kill from twist, halting Ninjas in Pyjamas's momentum. That round ended up turning the game on its head as the ex-GODSENT squad went on a fantastic run to bring the deficit to one round by the end of the half.

Now on the CT side, Ninjas in Pyjamas added to their lead after taking the pistol round with a solid inner site retake. Red Reserve responded in the third round with a full buy, but then they were stunned by a quad kill from Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson.

With the momentum now clearly in their favour once again, the Ninjas continued pressing on and eventually hit match point thanks to a 1v3 clutch by Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund. Red Reserve still found a lifeline after winning a round on a very weak buy, but their resistance would not last as Ninjas in Pyjamas wrapped things up in the 28th round.