MIBR hold NiP to draw in Istanbul

MIBR and Ninjas in Pyjamas have played out a 15-15 draw on Mirage in the second round of matches at BLAST Pro Series Istanbul.

After losing their opening match, against Space Soldiers, also on Mirage, Ninjas in Pyjamas entered the game looking a different side and took an early lead following a quad kill by Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman in the pistol round. The Ninjas went on to win both anti-ecos and the first gun round, only to get caught off-guard in a force buy from MIBR.

The Brazilian side rode that momentum and took the lead at 5-4, but they could not build on that as Ninjas in Pyjamas responded with a straight B push that tore the defence apart. It would not take long for MIBR to regain control of the game, but a wasted 3v2 situation in the final round of the half allowed the Swedes to keep the deficit to a minimum.

Now playing on the CT side, Ninjas in Pyjamas won the pistol round convincingly and followed that up with an anti-eco for a 9-8 lead. A triple kill by dennis as he pushed mid then gave the Ninjas a 5v2 advantage, one that they capitalised on even though they still ended up losing three men.

MIBR's economy was now in tatters, but they managed to get on the board on a shoddy buy with a full B execute. The Ninjas still had plenty of money in the bank, however, and rallied back immediately, setting themselves up for another small run of rounds.

Down 9-13, MIBR finally managed to win a couple of gun rounds, putting the pressure on the CTs, who responded with a triple kill by Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson on the A site. The Ninjas went on to hit match point, but they could not deal the finishing blow as MIBR got back in the game with a CZ force buy and put together a string of rounds to equalise the score.