NIP, Spirit triumph in IEM Katowice Play-In opening round

The two squads will do battle later on Wednesday for qualification to the group stage.

The IEM Katowice Play-In stage continued in Poland with a second set of opening best-of-ones in which Ninjas in Pyjamas and Spirit triumphed to progress to the qualification match for the main event.

Things were always going to be challenging for Ninjas in Pyjamas in Katowice as they are attending with little practice time with their new man Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke. Whilst they did at times seem disjointed on CT side against MIBR, their offense was potent enough to earn victory. The Ninjas will be hoping k0nfig continues to grow into the tournament, as after a rough first half he improved for the remainder of their match. As for Spirit, it was much smoother sailing against Grayhound, they were in firm control of their game throughout.

The A stream hosted the battle between Ninjas in Pyjamas and MIBR, with the battleground of choice being Nuke. All eyes were on the Ninjas in this game as it was their debut with k0nfig and they got off to a bad start on their defensive half as they lost the pistol and went 0-3. The European mix did recover in the middle of the half to string some rounds together, with Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen and Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin getting the heavy lifting done. But MIBR had a new player of their own on the server, Felipe "⁠insani⁠" Yuji, and he started to find some real impact to help haul MIBR to an 8-7 half victory.

The Brazilians picked up the second pistol and converted to put themselves firmly in the driver's seat, but once the guns came up for Ninjas in Pyjamas it seemed like they could run away with things. insani nabbed some key deagle kills on a MIBR half-buy to help his team get to parity at 13-13, but a timeout from Ninjas in Pyjamas got their heads screwed back on and they duly closed the map out 16-13.

Spirit came up against Grayhound on the B stream, also on Nuke, and the Russian squad made quick work of their Australian counterparts. Grayhound picked themselves up their CT pistol and a follow up but that was virtually all they could manage in the first half. Spirit found success both with brute-force rushes and with more intricate mid-round approaches to garner an 11-4 half on their offense.

The sides switched and, once again, Grayhound secured a pistol round to start the half well. A slick Alistair "⁠aliStair⁠" Johnston 1v2 clutch earned them the following round, but much like first, half once Spirit got on the board they didn't look back. Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov's squad proceeded to put up a defensive wall and confidently closed the game out 16-6.

Ninjas in Pyjamas and Spirit will take to the server at 16:00 for a best-of-three to decide who heads to the Katowice group stage, whilst Grayhound and MIBR will do battle in the first round of the lower bracket on Thursday for the right to keep their qualification hopes alive.