IEM Winter 2021NIP and Vitality pick up wins in issue-filled opening round at IEM Winter
The two victors are set to face later tonight for a spot in the playoffs, while one of Astralis and MOUZ will be sent packing by the end of the first day.
Vitality and Ninjas in Pyjamas can breathe a little easier after coming out on top of their opening best-of-one matches at IEM Winter, with the French side earning their spot in the Group A upper semis after a hard-fought victory on Overpass against MOUZ, while Ninjas in Pyjamas joined them on the back of a convincing affair against Astralis on Nuke.
17:40
Vitality vs.
Ninjas in Pyjamas (Upper semi-finals)
17:40MOUZ vs.
Astralis (Lower round 1)
The opening round of matches was plagued by server issues, but that didn't stop Ninjas in Pyjamas from maintaining momentum in the revenge match against the new Astralis squad, who had come out on top of the previous encounter between the two new rosters back at the BLAST Premier Fall Final.
Fredrik "REZ" Sterner played a key role in that as a massive performer for the Swedish-Danish combine from the start, first amassing 10 kills over the opening three rounds on the CT side, just before a long technical pause halted the action for over an hour.
He and Nicolai "device" Reedtz continued to shut down Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander's team once the issues were sorted, as Ninjas in Pyjamas rallied to a relatively comfortable 16-8 victory, with REZ topping the board and the AWPer stepping up with a couple of 1v2 clutches in pivotal moments.
Things got much more heated in the other match between Vitality and mousesports on Overpass. The two teams battled for control in a streaky affair that wasn't resolved until overtime, as Vitality dropped a 13-9 lead only to have to come back into contention, winning a 2v5 and a 3v5 situation in the final two rounds of regulation.
It wasn't Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut this time who ended up making the difference, as instead the two senior members of the team in Dan "apEX" Madesclaire and Richard "shox" Papillon found the most impact, the in-game leader putting together 11 multikills in the 19-16 victory and the lurker consistently finding openings across the map.
  Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 - 11 | +13 | 104.9 | 83.3% | 1.73 | |
| 26 - 9 | +17 | 92.3 | 79.2% | 1.71 | |
| 12 - 13 | -1 | 55.6 | 87.5% | 1.09 | |
| 14 - 14 | 0 | 66.8 | 75.0% | 1.07 | |
| 14 - 15 | -1 | 81.9 | 66.7% | 1.06 |
 Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 - 17 | -1 | 71.2 | 58.3% | 0.90 | |
| 10 - 17 | -7 | 78.1 | 62.5% | 0.85 | |
| 12 - 17 | -5 | 59.2 | 50.0% | 0.80 | |
| 12 - 20 | -8 | 56.2 | 50.0% | 0.72 | |
| 12 - 19 | -7 | 50.8 | 54.2% | 0.66 |
 MOUZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 - 27 | -1 | 87.6 | 65.7% | 1.08 | |
| 26 - 24 | +2 | 76.9 | 57.1% | 1.06 | |
| 24 - 24 | 0 | 79.3 | 65.7% | 1.04 | |
| 21 - 24 | -3 | 60.2 | 65.7% | 0.88 | |
| 20 - 26 | -6 | 60.5 | 57.1% | 0.77 |
 Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 - 23 | +12 | 113.4 | 71.4% | 1.51 | |
| 29 - 21 | +8 | 85.9 | 74.3% | 1.39 | |
| 24 - 26 | -2 | 70.7 | 65.7% | 0.97 | |
| 18 - 23 | -5 | 52.3 | 80.0% | 0.95 | |
| 19 - 24 | -5 | 57.6 | 62.9% | 0.81 |
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