NIP qualify for BLAST Premier Fall Final with 2-1 win over G2

The result was in spite of Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's best efforts, whose 1.45 rating across the series was the highest on the server.

With a 2-1 victory over G2, Ninjas in Pyjamas secured their spot at the LAN finals in Copenhagen's Royal Arena, taking place November 24-28. G2 on the other hand continued their shaky form since the player break but will have another chance to qualify directly to the Fall Final when they play the winner of MIBR vs. BIG in the consolidation final on Tuesday.

The first map of the series was Ninjas in Pyjamas's standard pick of Ancient, and it did not go as planned for the Swedes. They started on the T side, and G2 immediately set about continuing their redemption after ESL Pro League, racking up nine rounds before Ninjas in Pyjamas could even get on the board.

The sheer variety of looks G2 had on their CT side meant Ninjas in Pyjamas struggled to make any reads, however some mistakes from G2 towards the end of the half let the Swedes back in and they went in at half time with five rounds to their name.

Ninjas in Pyjamas looked like they were about to make the perfect start to the second half, finding themselves in a 4v2 in the pistol round, but they found a way to lose it and with it any realistic chance of winning this map. There was a glimmer of hope when Ninjas in Pyjamas managed to grab a couple rounds and break the G2 economy, but they were immediately bested by a deagle eco from the European squad and lost out from there, the map ending 16-7.

NiKo's performance deserves highlighting, the Bosnian posting an impressive 128 ADR and 10 multi-kills on the way to a 1.77 rating.

Next up was G2's pick of Mirage, and we were treated to a tightly fought contest. G2 kicked off on the T side and threatened to turn this series into a quick 2-0, racing to a 7-2 lead largely off the back of repeatedly punishing a weak B site defence from the Ninjas. The Swedes rallied, in particular seeing more success holding B and mixing in some CT aggression, successfully pulling the score all the way back to 8-7 to win the half.

Once again G2 started the half strongly, Ninjas in Pyjamas only managing two rounds to G2's six as the European squad found success with a string of slick retakes. Ninjas in Pyjamas started to find more opening kills as Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz grew into the half, and put together their own run of rounds; the Swedes only conceded one more round as they ran the score all the way back to 16-14, taking us to the decider of Inferno.

Ninjas in Pyjamas started the decider as Terrorists and treated us to an excellent offensive half. After immediately pegging G2 back when they won the pistol, Ninjas in Pyjamas proceeded to dominate with a well-drilled T side displaying excellent trading and spacing, as well benefitting from some excellent mid round calls. G2 managed to piece together a few rounds, mostly due to NiKo taking the AWP off the hands of an underperforming François "⁠amanek⁠" Delaunay, but still went into the second half at a 4-11 deficit.

After losing the pistol and falling to a 13-4 deficit G2 simply had too much of a mountain to climb, and whilst Ninjas in Pyjamas made a few mistakes to give some rounds over to the European squad, they eventually closed out the map 16-9.