NiP beat Anonymo in tense Mirage rematch

The close triumph sets the Swedish squad up for an upper bracket quarter-final clash with FunPlus Phoenix on Thursday.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have defeated Anonymo in the much-anticipated replay of the final map of the issue-filled series between the two teams in the Flashpoint 3 upper bracket. The Polish side have dropped to the tournament's lower bracket, where they will face HYENAS on Wednesday at 15:00 .

It will be a difficult loss to accept for Anonymo, who had won the original encounter between the two teams. The Friday series was filled with technical breaks as Ninjas in Pyjamas complained of connectivity issues, which allegedly persisted during the series, and the Swedish organization went on to request the match to be replayed following the Polish team's victory.

The tournament organizers accepted the request after it was found that it had been an issue on Flashpoint's servers that had caused Ninjas in Pyjamas's problems, and offered Anonymo to choose between replaying the entire series or the final map, Mirage, with the Poles eventually opting for the latter despite their apparent disapproval of the decision.

The rematch proved to be just as tense as the original decider, which went to overtime. Extra rounds were not necessary this time, but Ninjas in Pyjamas still had their work cut out for them, with Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski spearheading Anonymo's efforts as they took the map the full distance. In the end, heroics from Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner made the difference as the 23-year-old secured consecutive clutches in the opening rounds of the second half, before Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser and Nicolas "⁠Plopski⁠" Gonzalez Zamora helped close things out after combining for five kills in a 3v5 situation in the final round.