NiP brush NAVI aside to secure ESL One Cologne playoff spot

The IEM Katowice champions are out of the online tournament in the group stage after cutting a frustrating figure against the red-hot Ninjas.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are through to the playoff stage of ESL One Cologne after easing past Natus Vincere in a one-sided series. The Swedish team showed that Thursday's victory over world No 1 BIG was no fluke as they demolished NAVI in just two maps, ending a losing a streak against the CIS giants that had stretched to five matches, four of them 0-2 series.

"This is a NiP they've never met before," Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner said after the match when asked about the team's record against NAVI. "They got pretty shocked. This is a new NiP, we're still developing our strats. I think we can be much better in the future."

The Swedish team were in control of the first half of Overpass from the get-go, racing to an 11-4 lead after running over a leaky NAVI defense. The CIS team picked up the pace after switching to the offensive side, winning five rounds without response to narrow the gap to just two rounds. But a remarkable comeback was not on the cards: the rest of the half was dominated by Ninjas in Pyjamas, who grabbed the game by the throat and never let go, with REZ putting up an impressive 113 ADR to end the game with a 1.36 rating despite struggling in the fragging department.

Coming off of five straight wins on Train, NAVI looked intent on adding to that record as they came out strongly with a clean pistol round. Their lead was short lived, however, as Ninjas in Pyjamas responded immediately following a quad-kill by REZ, and took the reins of the game. The CIS giants struggled for solutions in what turned out to be a one-sided first half (only four opening kills and two players with multi-kill rounds) as the Ninjas cruised to a 12-3 scoreline, led by Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser, who went into the break with a 1.92 rating and a 120 ADR.

More misery was to come for NAVI after switching to the CT side. They could not come out on top of a 5v5 post-plant retake and then collapsed in the first, and only, gun round as Ninjas in Pyjamas quickly wrapped things up.