Vitality deny NiP comeback to move on to BLAST Premier Europe Finals

The Frenchmen came out on top of a tough series against the Swedes as they locked down the penultimate spot at BLAST Premier Europe Finals.

Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers's squad will have one more chance to qualify for the finals, as the last spot will go to the winner of the third-place decider between Ninjas in Pyjamas and MAD Lions, who were defeated by ENCE in the other semi-final affair earlier on Sunday.

Having faced the Swedes on 11 maps since March, Vitality have kept their favorable record against Ninjas in Pyjamas, but it came down to a hard-fought battle nonetheless as Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire & co. came back from a map deficit, denying their opponents two separate comeback attempts of their own on Overpass and Vertigo.

Ninjas in Pyjamas got off the line first on Nuke, starting on the CT side and winning the pistol round off doubles from Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson and Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner to gain a quick 4-0 lead, but Vitality didn't let the Swedes run away with the half as they picked up the first few gunrounds thanks to some key openings from Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy.

The two teams were on nearly equal footing after they went back and forth to end the first half 8-7, but that soon changed when Ninjas in Pyjamas seized control with a quick A hit in the second pistol round. Vitality couldn't stop the onslaught that ensued, with their opponents putting together a dominant Terrorist side to claim the first map 16-7.

The Swedes went on to retain their flawless pistol round streak at the beginning of Overpass, but this time they were quickly stopped by a strong French defense led by Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon and RpK, with a couple of multikills from the duo helping Vitality go on an eight-round streak and eventually switch over to Terrorists at 9-6.

Despite losing their fourth pistol of the series the French side kept the pressure up in the second half with shox leading the way once more. When they reached 14 rounds, they started running head-first into a wall on the B bombsite repeatedly, however, as Ninjas in Pyjamas climbed back to even ground at 14-14. That's when Vitality finally broke through with a quicker-pace strategy towards B and successfully ran a timely fake in the last round of regulation to force the deciding map at 16-14.

A chaotic commotion on A gave Vitality their first pistol round of the series on Vertigo and they took control of the first half early, with Ninjas in Pyjamas only managing three out of the first 11 rounds. Relatively quiet until then, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut found his usual level as he led his team to a 9-6 half and he continued the rampage once sides switched, with Vitality rallying to a 14-6 lead.

REZ's spectacular 1v4 clutch threw a wrench in the works as Vitality looked stunned, losing five rounds in a row on the back of the massive play, but they didn't let Ninjas in Pyjamas complete the comeback as they closed the series at 16-11, 2-0.