9INE eliminated from IEM Rio

The Poles squandered series point seven times against Ninjas in Pyjamas, and eventually were made to pay.

Despite the shaky recent form of their opponents, the team of the moment 9INE fell to a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Ninjas in Pyjamas to be eliminated from IEM Rio. The Poles won convincingly 16-9 on Vertigo, only to be bested 15-19 on Mirage and 12-16 on Overpass.

9INE have been a team on the rise in recent months thanks to their superb performances in online competitions, which they followed up with a storming 3-0 run through the BLAST Paris Major Europe RMR. They couldn’t build upon their momentum here in Rio, and it was largely their own doing due to a capitulation in the second map of this series.

The journey began in Rio for 9INE with a best-of-one against HEROIC, which they lost 12-16. There is no shame in the result as HEROIC are famous for being near-impossible to upset, and the Poles might have been able to make the game even closer had they had a more effective Ancient T side.

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
17/04/2023	HEROIC Finished 16:12 9INE	Match

A seemingly tough lower bracket matchup against MOUZ followed, but 9INE continued to display the pedigree they first showed at the RMR by winning 2-1.

Vertigo was a solid 16-11 win for 9INE and they are slowly becoming one of the most dangerous sides in the world on that map, but they were comfortably beaten 9-16 on Ancient, which is by contrast the weakest map they play. Nuke was the decider and after a solid 10-round defense, 9INE won four in a row to start their T side off hot and give MOUZ too much of a deficit to recover. That map ended 16-10.

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
18/04/2023	MOUZ Finished 1:2 9INE	Match

Coming into their second elimination series 9INE may well have been the favorites considering their recent form when compared to Ninjas in Pyjamas, and they delivered on that thought with a 16-9 win on Vertigo. It should have been more convincing as they were in control for the majority of the map, regularly picking Ninjas in Pyjamas apart in the mid-round.

The same seemed to be occurring on Mirage as 9INE ran all the way to a 15-8 lead, but they utterly capitulated and lost 11 in a row to lose 15-19 in overtime. Ninjas in Pyjamas made some vital adjustments to their mid-round approach on CT side and it paid off in spades, allowing them to mount their comeback, but it would not have been completed without immense impact in the fragging department by Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner and Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke in the dying stages.

In the final map of Overpass 9INE looked short of the quality they had shown on Vertigo and for much of Mirage, as they were utterly routed by Ninjas in Pyjamas’s offense to the tune of 3-12. The Poles were improved in the second half but had given themselves simply too much to do, and they eventually fell to a 12-16 score to end their run here at IEM Rio.

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
18/04/2023	Ninjas in Pyjamas Finished 2:1 9INE	Match