Ninjas in Pyjamas pass NAVI after thriller series in Copenhagen

After passing one former No. 1 team, Ninjas in Pyjamas are set on a collision course with another in the semi-finals.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have advanced to the semi-finals at the BLAST Premier Fall Final following a more than five hours long thriller series against Natus Vincere (Inferno 16-10, Mirage 19-22, Overpass 16-10).

Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's team's quest after the Fall Final trophy — and their fight for a spot at the end-of-year World Final that would come with it — continues. They will play against FaZe next in front of live audience inside the Royal Arena in Copenhagen in the semi-final match taking place on Saturday at 19:00 .

Ninjas in Pyjamas picked up the series advantage with a controlled and comfortable first map win on Inferno. A Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin ace in the pistol round set them up for a great start on the Terrorist side, and on the back of that they ended up clinching nine rounds in total as the defensive struggles that have haunted NAVI throughout the tournament continued.

Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's team couldn't make up for their CT side woes on the offense, only winning the first two rounds of the second half before Ninjas in Pyjamas took back control. A pistol buy victory propelled them to double digits, and from there they dominated the rest of the map, securing a 16-10 victory as Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov was left laughing off an embarrassing loss to the timer:

A superb comeback and a thrilling finish marked Mirage. Everything pointed to an equalizer when Natus Vincere got off to an 8-1 start on the T side, surviving a couple of scary forcebuys from their opponents to amass their momentum, but from there they hit a wall. Well-timed utility and key picks from Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner and Brollan got the Nordic team on the road to recovery, and a great team effort set the score at just a one-round difference by halftime.

Close situations kept going the way of Ninjas in Pyjamas at the beginning of the second half. Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser starred in two of the first three rounds with a crucial double in a 3v5 situation in the pistol round and a 1v1 clutch, and another 1v1 from REZ put their team in the lead. It wasn't until Ninjas in Pyjamas won 12 rounds in a row that NAVI finally found a response, spearheaded by electroNic's multikills in defense of the A site, and clawed back into the game.

Regulation wasn't enough and the map went to overtime once REZ saved Ninjas in Pyjamas in the 30th round, and the back-and-forth battle continued there. Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy's triple collateral kicked off extra time, where NAVI once again had an opportunity to close that they let go, this time to an Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen clutch. But the Ukrainian side finally equalized the series in the second overtime, exploiting NIP with early openings and finding the weak site successfully on the T side and closing it down two rounds later.

Undeterred from the heartbreaking loss, Ninjas in Pyjamas switched to Overpass and put together another solid T side thanks to a composed approach to map control, which consistently allowed them to find picks, exploit NAVI's rotations, and pick up nine rounds. Meanwhile, NAVI's six were hard-earned in large part thanks to great play from electroNic, who stood head and shoulders above his teammates with six multikills and a 1v2 clutch to his name.

The Russian in-game leader's double in the following pistol helped NAVI equalize the score at nine apiece, and the two teams remained level after trading the first two gunrounds. Ninjas in Pyjamas quickly tightened up the defence, however, retaking the A bombsite in the 21st round and never looking back, stringing the next five together to send Natus Vincere packing.