NIP overpower Astralis to secure first win in Malta

Ninjas in Pyjamas avenged an earlier defeat to Astralis at IEM Cologne to send the Danes down to the lower bracket at ESL Pro League.

Ninjas in Pyjamas moved past Astralis in a two-map series to earn their first win at ESL Pro League Season 18, defeating the Danish squad on Ancient (16-10) before closing things out on Inferno (16-11) to wrap up the match.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have had a rather disappointing fall season thus far, missing out on a spot at IEM Sydney and bowing out of IEM Cologne in 13-16th place after notably suffering an 0-2 loss to Astralis. The Nordic roster have evened the scoreline this time around, however, exacting revenge over the Danes to move forward in the upper bracket and take the first step in redeeming themselves after their slow start to the season.

"They slapped us in Cologne so winning now is very nice," Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser said in a post-match interview on stream. "I think we had a very good game plan. When we played them in Cologne, we had two hours to prepare for them in the morning, but now we had a lot of days [to prepare] since we knew we were going to play them for so long."

The team will now began preparing for their upper bracket semi-final matchup versus Vitality on Thursday, where a guaranteed spot in the playoffs is on the line.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
31/08/2023	Vitality 19:30 Ninjas in Pyjamas	Match

The brawl between the two Nordic sides began on Ancient, Astralis' go-to pick in recent times. Despite this, it was Ninjas in Pyjamas who enjoyed the better start, with Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke putting 14 kills and 107 ADR on the board versus his former organization to earn the Ninjas a 9-6 lead by the end of their CT-side.

hampus's men continued to have their foot firmly on the gas pedal once it was their turn to attack. The international cohort breezed past their foes en route to a 16-10 victory, with only token resistance in the form of a brief four-round spree coming out of the Danish side before they were handed a convincing defeat.

Inferno, Ninjas in Pyjamas' map choice, was a similar story and it didn't take long for the hampus-led lineup to race to another 9-6 showing by the turn of the half. Astralis kept things competitive at the outset of the second half to trail by just one round, 11-12, but Ninjas in Pyjamas' heavy-hitting duo of Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner and Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov stood tall with 43 kills between them to help send the Danes down to the lower bracket and set up a date with Vitality on Thursday.