Na`Vi claim Malmö semi-final spot over NiP

Natus Vincere have defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in the DreamHack Masters Malmö Group B upper bracket final to advance directly to the stadium semi-finals.

A triple kill from Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács helped Natus Vincere get off to a strong start on the offensive end of Overpass, converting against Ninjas in Pyjamas's ensuing force-buy for an early three-round edge. A pair of kills from Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson and Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg gave the Swedes their first round of the map, but after surviving with only one player, Ninjas in Pyjamas found themselves swiftly reset as Natus Vincere claimed another three-round spree to extend their lead to 6-1.

Back on rifles, Ninjas in Pyjamas answered back with a trio of their own, but were unable to gain the edge in the half as multi-kill rounds from Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov kept Natus Vincere ahead 9-6 as the sides swapped over.

Ninjas in Pyjamas began to close the deficit as the second pistol round of the map went their way, also managing to survive the ensuing force-buy from the CIS side despite sustaining heavy losses. Up against a pistol buy from Natus Vincere, the Swedes were in position to even the score, but an early kill and a quick rotation from Natus Vincere allowed for GuardiaN and company to flip the script and put Ninjas in Pyjamas on an eco of their own. From there, Natus Vincere were in full control, completely locking the Swedish side out of the map to take the opener 16-8.

Natus Vincere continued in their winning ways as they took another early lead with a victory in the opening pistol round of Inferno, once again converting the following anti-eco for a 2-0 lead. Double kills from Lekr0 and Nicolas "⁠Plopski⁠" Gonzalez Zamora got Ninjas in Pyjamas their first round on the board and, despite an immediate reply from Natus Vincere, the Swedes were able to stabilize as they won three additional rounds to narrowly pull ahead 4-3.

Three kills by Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev allowed for Natus Vincere to swiftly tie things up, with the CIS squad winning three more rounds to regain control. Multi-kills from f0rest and Lekr0 gave Ninjas in Pyjamas the opportunity to claw their way back, fighting for four final rounds to take the lead by the narrowest of margins at halftime.

A pair of frags from s1mple and flamie gave Natus Vincere their third pistol round win of the series, with the CIS side springboarding off the victory to push up to a 14-10 scoreline. A handful of last-minute bombsite hits were halted by Ninjas in Pyjamas as they fought valiantly to keep s1mple and company from attaining match point, with Plopski finding three crucial frags to help allow his team up to 13 rounds. Natus Vincere refused to concede however, securing two final rounds to ensure their spot in the semi-finals with a 16-13 finish.