NIP score convincing victory over Astralis in Copenhagen

Ninjas in Pyjamas will face off against Vitality in Group A's upper bracket final.

Ninjas in Pyjamas triumphed over Astralis, 16-10 on Overpass, in the second Group A match at the BLAST Fall Groups. The Swedes advance to the group's upper bracket final against Vitality in a match that will secure a top-two seed in the next stage for the winning team.

Astralis will battle the loser of the other opening series, OG, in the lower bracket final to determine which team will be seeded No. 4 in the group and which will move on to the consolidation final.

Astralis kicked things off on Overpass with a swift 3-1 lead. Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser's men scored seven out of the next eight rounds after their slow start and built up an 8-4 lead, shutting down the Danes' attempts to get onto site with Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner and Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin leading the way in terms of frags. Finally, Astralis managed to break the Swedes' momentum and scored two more rounds before halftime as the scoreline read 9-6 in favor of Ninjas in Pyjamas.

The second half opened with a sneaky play by Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth on B site, which the Clutch Minister converted into two kills and a successful pistol round for Astralis. The Danes took the next round for themselves, but after that Ninjas in Pyjamas's offense steamrolled their way to map point at 15-9. The Swedes dropped only one more round to Astralis before wrapping up the match 16-10, sending the Danes down to the lower bracket.