Liquid narrowly defeat NIP to move on at BLAST Premier Fall Groups

Ninjas in Pyjamas's T-side woes relegated them to the Last Chance stage.

Liquid have defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas in a close-fought series. The North American team first won Overpass after nearly dropping a 13-2 lead, before winning Mirage in a close-fought 19-17 win.

The duo of Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski and Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis were Liquid's star performers, as they both had over 30 kills on Mirage. They will hope to keep up their form in tomorrow's match against HEROIC at 16:30 , where the winner will book a spot for the BLAST Fall Final, while the losing team will go to the Last Chance stage.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are now relegated to the Last Chance stage, where they will hope to rectify their lackluster T-sides, with the team winning just eight offensive rounds in the series against Liquid. Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen also had a particularly rough match, being outplayed by enemy sniper Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm.

Ninjas in Pyjamas, who once again picked Overpass after losing it to Evil Geniuses yesterday, got off to
a slow start on the map. oSee started the North American CT side with a triple-kill in the pistol round and looked imperious throughout the half, consistently getting the better of enemy sniper es3tag. The only rounds Liquid dropped happened early on, otherwise displaying a near-perfect defensive half, which included a nine-round streak for the North Americans.

A 2-13 deficit looked impossible for Ninjas in Pyjamas to overcome, but a pistol round gave them a fighting chance. The Ninjas didn't let the big deficit deter them, as they started to claw back, with Nicolas "⁠Plopski⁠" Gonzalez Zamora and Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser finding several holes in the North American offense. They won eleven out of twelve rounds and got to 13-14, before Liquid won a long overdue round. They consequently converted one of their two map points on the back of Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic's triple-kill.

Ninjas in Pyjamas kept up their CT side success in the opening rounds of Mirage, as they negated Liquid's early round wins and took a 7-3 lead. After that, YEKINDAR helped wake up his team by finding several openings, meaning Liquid went on a short streak themselves, with the half-time score standing at 9-6 in favor of the Swedes.

Liquid's pistol round win quickly evened up the scores and provided them with a strong start, eventually taking the lead. It didn't last long, however, as Ninjas in Pyjamas quickly fought back, with es3tag winning a clutch round despite having an otherwise anonymous performance. The Swedes had problems closing out the game after a 14-12 lead, dropping a 5v3 situation on the B site as Mirage moved into overtime.

Once in overtime, Liquid took a lead at the beginning of overtime, with two match points enough for the Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella-lead team to close out a 19-17 win and move on to the next round of the gauntlet.