fnatic best NiP in Swedish derby, MIBR cruise past Panda

fnatic and MIBR have entered the 1-0 pool of teams at StarSeries i-League Season 7 after moving past Ninjas in Pyjamas and Panda, respectively.

The third round of matches in Shanghai was headlined by an exciting Swedish classic between Ninjas in Pyjamas and fnatic, the current No.6 and No.15 teams in the world. After frustrating campaigns at the Major and at the WESG Finals, fnatic were desperate for a strong start to this tournament, and they got what they were looking for as they came out on top of a scrappy affair in which all three maps went down to the wire.

The series began on Overpass, where Ninjas in Pyjamas drew first blood with a successful B execute in the pistol round. The pattern of the game changed immediately once fnatic had money to work with, though, as Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström's side kept the Ninja offense at bay for most of the half, securing an 11-4 lead.

Ninjas in Pyjamas came out of the break much livelier and won five rounds straight to bring the deficit to a solitary round. fnatic were not willing to let things get out of hand, however, and picked up the pace, bringing the scoreline to 14-10. It looked like the game was a foregone conclusion, but Ninjas in Pyjamas clawed their way back into the game and dominated proceedings in the dying stages to seal a hard-fought win on their map pick.

Next up was Cache, a map similar to Overpass in many ways. Ninjas in Pyjamas were put on the back foot for most of the first half but sprung up with a good fight after the break. After being constantly kept off economic development, fnatic finally managed to string a few rounds together, hitting map point.

With no margin for error, the Ninjas came fighting back and pushed the game to overtime, but they would not be able to complete the comeback as clutches from Simon "⁠twist⁠" Eliasson and Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin sealed the victory for Xizt's side.

It all came down to Mirage, which, just like its predecessors, was a tale of two halves. Ninjas in Pyjamas recovered from a 0-3 start and went on a fantastic run, closing down the curtain on the half with a 10-5 lead. The Ninjas carried that momentum into the second half as they claimed the pistol round and the subsequent anti-eco, but fnatic picked up the pace and restored parity at 13-13.

Ninjas in Pyjamas then found a lifeline as Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund pulled off a crucial 1v2 clutch for his team, but his effort was in vain as fnatic rallied back immediately and kept a very tight defence for the remainder of the game to take the game at 16-14.

Meanwhile on the secondary stream, MIBR played their first match against local side Panda. The Brazilian team got off to a strong start on Mirage and carved out a 4-0 lead following a 1v2 clutch by Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David in the first gun round.

Some uncharacteristic mistakes on MIBR's part, which included a massive blunder by coldzera on the B site in the tenth round, gave Panda a way back into the game, but Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's troops quickly regained their composure, closing out the half with an 11-4 lead.

After switching to the Terrorist side, Panda still attempted a response, but two rounds were all that they could muster as MIBR tightened up their defense and went on a five-round streak to lock down the map at 16-6.

Inferno followed the same pattern as the first map as MIBR took control of proceedings from the get-go and ran all over the Panda defence, taking 12 rounds in the first half after preventing the Chinese side from stringing rounds together.

Just like on the first map, Panda tried to recover from a huge first-half deficit and won the post-break pistol, but MIBR were unfazed and quickly wrapped things up to go 1-0 in Shanghai.