G2 battle their way past NIP as NiKo puts in carry performance

It was a close-fought series, with Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač being the key difference between the two teams.

G2 laboured to a 2-1 series victory over Ninjas in Pyjamas, losing Nuke 11-16 before taking Dust2 and Inferno, 16-11 and 16-14 respectively. This result sends Ninjas in Pyjamas down to the lower bracket to face the loser of Vitality vs Astralis at 13:30 on Thursday, whilst G2 will take on the winner of that series at 19:30 on Thursday.

G2 came dangerously close to a collapse on the final map, winning the first half 10-5 and picking up the second half pistol, before losing eight of the next nine rounds, needing NiKo to dig them out of the hole.

The series kicked off with the Swedes' pick of Nuke, and they justified their pick.

Starting off on the T side, the Ninjas quickly ran out to an 8-1 lead, potent entry work combining with efficient trading to make for an effective offense. Eventually G2 came out of their shell and stopped playing quite such a passive defence, but it was only good enough to grab them a few rounds, and they went in at half-time 5-10 down.

Moving onto the CT side Ninjas in Pyjamas won the pistol and converted, making the rest of the half a mere formality. G2 mustered some resistance, mainly off the back of NiKo's insane rifle work, but it simply was too little, too late, and the game finished 16-11 in Ninjas in Pyjamas's favour. Love "⁠phzy⁠" Smidebrant and Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner lead the way for the Ninjas, posting a 1.19 and 1.20 rating respectively.

Dust2 was next up on the agenda, the pick of G2. The European squad started off on the T side and got off well, getting up to a 4-1 lead off the back of a pistol win. It was at this point that G2 started to falter, with several catwalk hits comfortably fended off by Ninjas in Pyjamas bringing the score back to 5-4 in their favour. The back end of the half was a trade of rounds to a 8-7 lead for NIP, with G2 once again relying on NiKo for entry frags to keep the game close.

Moving onto the offense Ninjas in Pyjamas had one of their infamous T side struggles, as they managed three rounds to G2's nine as the European squad closed the map 16-11. There wasn't much to report from Ninjas in Pyjamas in this half as they never really got going, the few rounds they did win coming more from G2 misplays than the Swedes' own brilliance.

The decider was Inferno, and it was Ninjas in Pyjamas who opened the map on the T side. Once again the Ninjas couldn't put together a solid offense, repeatedly falling to NiKo when they tried to take banana, or being put down by the other Kovač, Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač, when they tried to go A, the half ending 10-5 for G2.

Once they got onto the CT side however, Ninjas in Pyjamas came into their own and showed why they are the #5 team in the world. After losing the pistol it looked grim for the Swedes, but they won the second round force and went on to run the score all the way to 13-12 in their favour, rarely allowing G2 to even get onto a bombsite.

It was at this point that NiKo stepped up yet again for his team, picking up key doubles in rounds 26 and 27 to win them for G2, and despite losing to a poor buy in the following round, G2 managed to close the series with a 16-14 win.