NiP advance to New Legends Stage over ViCi

Ninjas in Pyjamas have defeated ViCi 2-1 to secure their place in the New Legends Stage at IEM Katowice (16-7 on Train, 13-16 on Inferno, and 16-10 on Mirage).

The first game of the 2-2 pool featured Ninjas in Pyjamas and ViCi who kicked off the best-of-three series on Train. ViCi started the map on the CT-side and won the pistol as WingHei "⁠Freeman⁠" Cheung and ZhiHong "⁠aumaN⁠" Liu got double kills. Ninjas in Pyjamas responded in the fourth round, with Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg and Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner opening up the B-site (3-1).

aumaN and WeiJie "⁠zhokiNg⁠" Zhong's double kills in the following round made it 4-1 in ViCi's favor. f0rest picked up a triple kill in the sixth round, initiating a four-round streak for Ninjas in Pyjamas which gave them the lead (5-4). aumaN got an AUG quad kill in the tenth round to tie things up at 5-5 and ViCi secured two more to lead 7-5. Ninjas in Pyjamas won the last three rounds of the half to finish it 8-7 ahead.

f0rest played a crucial role in the second pistol as he picked up three kills in a 2vs3 post-plant. The Swedish squad had an impeccable CT-side campaign and earned eight match points after Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson and Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund clutched a 2vs4 in the 22nd round. The Ninjas closed out the map swiftly as REZ secured the victory with a triple kill (16-7).

Inferno started with ViCi winning the first three rounds without much trouble on the T-side. The Chinese team made it four in a row after aumaN and Andrew "⁠kaze⁠" Khong clutched a 2vs4. Ninjas in Pyjamas got on the scoreboard in the sixth round and followed it up with four more to tie the game at 5-5. f0rest's incredible ace gave the lead to Ninjas in Pyjamas who went on to finish the first half 8-7 in front.

ViCi came out on top in the second pistol round and reclaimed the lead after aumaN won a 1vs2 in the following round (9-8). Ninjas in Pyjamas took their first round on the T-side during a force buy but ViCi extended their lead to 14-9 to respond. Lekr0 kept Ninjas in Pyjamas in the game with a 1vs3 clutch in the 24th round but ViCi managed to finish it off in the 29th round by winning a 3vs3 post-plant on the B-site (16-13).

GeT_RiGhT won a 1vs2 and got a quad kill to kick off Mirage as the T-sided Ninjas in Pyjamas took the pistol round victory. After losing the first weapon round, Ninjas in Pyjamas hit back swiftly with a force buy to make it 3-1. ViCi weren't able to string together more than two rounds and the Swedes won the half 11-4.

ViCi managed to get the bomb down on the B-site in the second pistol round but Ninjas in Pyjamas's successful retake extended their lead to 12-4 and the Swedish side won the map with a 16-10 final scoreline, taking the series 2-1 and punching their ticket to the New Legends Stage.