NiP squeeze out win over Astralis; move on to New Legends stage

In a tense, quadruple-overtime marathon on Mirage, Ninjas in Pyjamas managed to narrowly beat the world's No. 1 team Astralis to go 3-0 in groups and advance to the next stage of the FACEIT Major.

Ninjas in Pyjamas came out on top in the beginning of the match, as they held a quick A hit from Astralis in the pistol round, and also converted the following anti eco in spite of Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen's close attempt to deny the defuse from Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg.

The Danes put themselves on the board in the third round and quickly started showing why they're the No.1-ranked team in the world, as they methodically won five in a row to reach a 5-2 lead. dupreeh nearly had the ace in the eighth round but was denied by Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner, who secured one more for Ninjas in Pyjamas.

The Swedes managed two additional rounds, but Astralis kept their grip on the half to lead 10-5 before switching to the CT side.

Now on the defensive, Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's men won the pistol round but couldn't convert the following as f0rest and co. won it with only pistols in their armoury. Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz then became the man behind the best highlight of the match by taking three quick kills with the SSG 08, but Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund won the round for the Swedes in spite of it (11-7).

This marked the beginning of Ninjas in Pyjamas's fight to get back in the match, as they won five more rounds to bring it back to 12-12, but a quad kill round from Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth denied them the lead, instead putting Astralis ahead by one. The Swedes weren't done yet, though, as they locked in on the attacking side and won three rounds to reach match point.

Ninjas in Pyjamas attempted two A hits to win it all, but device and the rest of Astralis' defences were too strong, as they eventually forced overtime. The bonus rounds went just as close as the rest of the match, as each team won two in a row to make it 17-17. The Swedes then put themselves at match point once again, but dupreeh and co. managed to hit B for even more rounds of overtime.

Seemingly tired of the closeness of the match, Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson and his men won three in a row to reach match point for the third time. Astralis weren't having it though, as they clawed their way back with three in a row, with Xyp9x laughing on stream as the two teams faced a third collection of overtime rounds.

dupreeh nearly managed an ace in the 43rd round but was denied by REZ in a post-plant situation. The Danes won the next, but it would be Ninjas in Pyjamas that reached match point for the fourth time. Astralis refused to give up the marathon game, as they came back once again to force even more overtime.

This time, gla1ve's men had the best start to the extra rounds as they won the first, but Ninjas in Pyjamas won two to once again take the lead 26-25. True to the nature of the match, the Swedes took one more to reach their 9th and 10th match points of the game. Astralis made it to 27-26, but Ninjas in Pyjamas finally, finally put the lid on the match to win it 28-26.

With two teams now through to the New Legends stage, the Swiss standings in the New Challenger stage look as follows: