NIP defeat BIG 2-0 in BLAST Premier Fall Group B opening match

The Swedes didn’t break a sweat in their opening night of the BLAST group stage.

Ninjas in Pyjamas took BIG by storm and secured the second BLAST Premier Fall Groups Group B opening match with a 2-0 victory, setting up an upper-bracket final match against G2 on Tuesday for a spot in the Fall Finals. The outcome of this series was the preferred one for Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković, who says that G2 have Ninjas in Pyjamas’s number as they beat them several times before, including at the BLAST Premier Spring Final.

BIG, who are now under the orders of Nikola "⁠LEGIJA⁠" Ninić ever since Dustin "⁠DuDe⁠" Großmann put aside his coaching duties momentarily due to personal reasons, will have a chance at redemption in the lower bracket, where they will go up against the group’s underdogs, MIBR, to keep the hope of avoiding the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown alive.

The series started on BIG’s trusty map pick of Dust2 and it was the German squad that took a 3-0 lead, but Ninjas in Pyjamas stole the show after that as the Swedes took complete control on the CT side, allowing but a single round in the first half to take a considerable 11-4 lead at the half with Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser showing incredible individual form.

Ninjas in Pyjamas’s in-game leader downed three players in the second pistol round to keep his team rolling towards victory, and although BIG put up a modicum of resistance it was Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner and company who forced their way to an imposing 16-9 victory before moving to their home map.

BIG’s chances to proceed through the upper bracket rested on a victory on Inferno, Ninjas in Pyjamas’s map pick, but it was the Swedes who imposed their will early on, this time on the attack, going up 6-0 before Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz and his men were able to fight back. Slowly but surely BIG got back into the series and even put a dent in Ninjas in Pyjamas’s economy, but the CTs were able to strike back to command a 9-6 lead.

The Swedes came out with impetus on the attacking side, winning a play on the B site to bag the pistol round, after which they continued to increase their lead all the way to cleanly sweeping their German foes, taking Inferno with a convincing 16-6 scoreline.

"G2 have really good individuals, they have NiKo and huNter- that can just shoot everybody and sometimes even if you’re a very good team you can’t win against that," Nicolas "⁠Plopski⁠" Gonzalez Zamora answered on the broadcast when asked about their upcoming match, "I think it’ll be a close game but if we play the way we did today we’ll come out on top."