Apeks head to Major playoffs over NIP after incredible comeback

Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson got his revenge and eliminated his former team from the Major after a comeback from 3-14 down on the second map.

Apeks are the final team to earn a place in the BLAST.tv Paris Major playoffs, set to run from May 18-21, after a labored 2-0 victory (Vertigo 19-17, Ancient 19-16) over Ninjas in Pyjamas in the Legends Stage's 2-2 pool.

With the win, Apeks have ensured the organization's first playoff appearance at a CS:GO Major, as well as a first for nawwk, Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius, and Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski on their Major debuts.

"It was crazy, we all believed in the comeback somehow. We understood we were the much better team," Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk explained in a post-match interview on stream. "You have to ride this high and have to absorb evertything but we will stick to our routines we made at the tournament so far."

Ninjas in Pyjamas drop out of the Major with the loss after throwing away a 14-3 advantage on Ancient, something that will haunt them for a long time. "It feels unreal, I'm just smiling as I can't believe it," said Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen in the post-match interview. "I felt like we were better, we had great starts in both games and threw them away."

The series started on Ninjas in Pyjamas's pick of Vertigo, where the Ninjas got off to a hot 8-2 start. Apeks then clawed back the advantage round by round and reduced the half-time deficit to 6-9 as they moved on to their offensive side. The second half started with the teams trading blows with force-buys, with Apeks eventually tying up the scores at 13-13. They weren't able to close out in regulation but did so 19-17 after the first overtime.

Ancient started off as a completely one-sided affair, with Ninjas in Pyjamas running away to a 14-3 after a dominant defense and a second-half pistol. But Apeks were far from done, as they put up a wall of their own on the defense and nullified Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov's impact with good utility usage and trading. Eight in a row meant they reduced the deficit to just three but headtr1ck woke up once again by winning a 1vs3 clutch, putting his kill count up to 31 and his team up to map point. Even that wasn't enough to avoid overtime, though, as Apeks brought it back to 15-15 after being 3-14 down.

With the game's momentum completely switched around, Apeks took the lead for the first time on the map, 17-16. An incredible triple by jL put them on match point before nawwk's 1vs2 clutch secured Apeks the victory and a playoff spot.