fnatic squeeze past NiP in Swedish derby; advance to cs_summit 6 upper-bracket semi-final

A thriller upper-bracket quarter-final between the two Swedish team finished with a tight 2-0 victory for fnatic, who move on to the upper-bracket semi-final of cs_summit 6 over Ninjas in Pyjamas.

The 2-0 series result doesn't tell the full story of the Swedish derby, which was a back-and-forth affair throughout. Neither team tied more than five rounds together over the 65 rounds played, with big clutches and multikill rounds coming out from both sides. Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin ended up being the difference-maker for fnatic, as his three highlight-worthy plays swung Inferno into his team's favor.

fnatic move on to the upper-bracket semi-final of cs_summit 6, where they will face the winner of GODSENT - BIG, while Ninjas in Pyjamas is not out yet, as they will play against the loser of the same match in the lower-bracket.

fnatic came out swinging on Overpass, claiming a 3-0 lead on the CT side before Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser unlocked the defenses with a triple to start Ninjas in Pyjamas's run. The Ninjas were up 7-4 after Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner's clutch on A, but fnatic managed to recover at the end of the half, 8-7.

The second half was a full-on brawl, as for the majority of it, neither team managed to tie more than two rounds together, while force-buys and mix-buys reigned supreme. REZ used a saved AK to find a quad kill, Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist replied with a HE-CZ entry on B, Ninjas in Pyjamas then got an eco victory, before a mixed-buy opened up A for fnatic. That last round broke Ninjas in Pyjamas's economy, Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim's squad tied three together and reached map point, but were unable to close out in regulation. In overtime, however, they edged out the post plants and claimed their opponent's map pick, 19-17.

Inferno started similarly to Overpass, as fnatic got a 3-0 lead before Ninjas in Pyjamas stabilized with rifles, Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson leading the way with the AWP (5-3). After a dominant stretch for Ninjas in Pyjamas, fnatic added three in a row, but a couple of misplays cost them a dominant T-side, seeing the half concluded 8-7 in favor of Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers's squad.

Another 3-0 start for fnatic, now to the second half of Inferno, was followed by an impressive 3K B site hold from Brollan. At a crucial time in the map, Ninjas in Pyjamas recovered an unlikely 2v3 and 4v5 two rounds in a row to get rolling on the offense, tieing the score at 11-11, before Brollan managed another miraculous round, this time a quad kill on A. The youngster added a third big play to his name in round 27, pulling off the smoke defuse in a chaotic B retake, before fnatic closed out the map on an eco, 16-13.