StarSeries i-League Season 8Evil Geniuses take down NiP to advance to playoff upper bracket
Evil Geniuses bested Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 (16-11 Inferno, 16-9 Dust2) to lock down a slot in the playoff upper bracket semi-final, with Ninjas in Pyjamas progressing to round 1 of the lower bracket.
The Group B consolidation final kicked off on Inferno, Ninjas in Pyjamas’s map pick, where the Swedes locked down the opening pistol on the defence and the subsequent round. Evil Geniuses snatched a round back with just upgraded pistols in hand to get the ball rolling on the T side, with the North Americans eventually claiming a one-round lead. Simon "twist" Eliasson came up huge with a quad kill to level the score, but Evil Geniuses hit straight back to ensure control stayed in their hands. Ninjas in Pyjamas struggled to string together rounds moving forward as Evil Geniuses picked up a 9-6 advantage at the halfway mark.
Ninjas in Pyjamas wasted no time tying the game up at 9-9 after a triple kill from Fredrik "REZ" Sterner in the pistol round, but EG stepped up their performance as they bolstered their economy. The Swedish squad could only find one additional round before Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and co. hit map point at 15-10, although a 1v2 clutch from Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg kept the Ninjas in the game momentarily. However, it was all for nothing as Evil Geniuses closed out the map immediately after with Deagle multi-kills from Ethan "Ethan" Arnold and Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte.
A double kill from Tarik "tarik" Celik kicked off proceedings for Evil Geniuses on the CT side of Dust2 as the North Americans cruised to a 4-0 start, but Ninjas in Pyjamas swiftly evened the score out after a successful B site hit. The two sides then lock horns in a back-and-forth before a 3v5 turnaround from Evil Geniuses gained the squad a 6-5 lead. Ninjas in Pyjamas was far from finished as Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora pulled off a 1v2 clutch to swing the half into the favour of the Swedes, who would go on to edge out a slight 8-7 advantage by halftime.
Similar to the first half, Evil Geniuses secured a four-round streak to set the pace on their T side, adding two additional rounds to reach a substantial 13-8 lead. A f0rest quad kill got Ninjas in Pyjamas’s first defensive round on the board but the Swedes were unable to capitalise on their recent success as Evil Geniuses dominantly took the following rounds to reach map point. Despite their best efforts, Ninjas in Pyjamas could not subdue the offensive prowess of Evil Geniuses as the North Americans claimed their 16th round to win the map and book the final place in the playoffs' upper bracket.
  Evil Geniuses |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45 - 29 | +16 | 101.4 | 84.6% | 1.57 | |
| 43 - 26 | +17 | 81.5 | 80.8% | 1.32 | |
| 37 - 31 | +6 | 68.4 | 78.8% | 1.19 | |
| 35 - 35 | 0 | 70.1 | 73.1% | 1.05 | |
| 31 - 29 | +2 | 72.2 | 65.4% | 1.04 |
 Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39 - 38 | +1 | 75.5 | 61.5% | 1.02 | |
| 31 - 36 | -5 | 71.3 | 63.5% | 0.97 | |
| 29 - 39 | -10 | 67.4 | 67.3% | 0.92 | |
| 22 - 39 | -17 | 55.4 | 59.6% | 0.72 | |
| 27 - 39 | -12 | 52.2 | 55.8% | 0.72 |
Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora
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