electronic leads the way as NAVI knock NiP down to BLAST Premier Spring Finals lower bracket

Natus Vincere swept Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 on Mirage and Nuke, sending the Swedish team down to the BLAST Premier Spring Europe Finals lower bracket.

Natus Vincere had a clean slate against Ninjas in Pyjamas heading into today’s match with a 7-0 record in head-to-head maps going back to last year's DreamHack Masters Malmö. Their latest match-up was a 2-0 in favor of NAVI during DreamHack Masters Spring, just two weeks ago, which the CIS side were able to replicate today to move along the BLAST Premier Spring Europe Finals upper bracket, where they will face the winner of Complexity vs. OG.

Natus Vincere kicked off Mirage with a 3-0 lead on the defense, but Ninjas in Pyjamas were quick to equalize by the sixth round. The Swedes then took the lead for the first time as NAVI were unable to read the A attack and didn’t rotate properly. It was finally on a forcebuy in the twelfth round that Natus Vincere were able to stop the Terrorists, recovering with a four-round run to end the half 7-8.

Ninjas in Pyjamas extended their lead to 11-7 after winning the CT-side pistol round, but with roles reversed, it was now Natus Vincere who took control as the attacking team. Nicolas "⁠Plopski⁠" Gonzalez Zamora smoke-defused in a disadvantageous situation to tie it up 13-13, but after a pause, Natus Vincere regained the lead with a successful B hit, eventually closing the first map out 16-13.

After winning Ninjas in Pyjamas’s map pick, Natus Vincere kicked off Nuke by taking the pistol round on the attacking side. After also taking the first gun round, the CIS side started to run away early on with a 6-0 lead in the second map. Ninjas in Pyjamas then put up three rounds of their own, but Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev swung it back with a 1vs1 clutch. Despite the slow start the Swedes were able to tally five more rounds, making it 6-9 at the half.

Three headshots by Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev in a B afterplant situation in the second pistol round shut Ninjas in Pyjamas down. As the Russian-Ukrainian side kept racking up the rounds, the series started to drift away from Ninjas in Pyjamas, who couldn’t find a way to break the CT side’s defenses. Down 6-14 the Swedes were finally able to tally a couple of rounds, but it was too little too late as Natus Vincere ended the map 16-9 to move on through the BLAST Premier Spring Europe Finals upper bracket.