NAVI knock NIP out of BLAST Fall Final

The Ninjas bow out of the Danish event without winning a single map.

Natus Vincere are through to the quarter-final stage of the BLAST Premier Fall Final following a 2-0 win over Ninjas in Pyjamas. Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet's troops were on the back foot for the majority of the series, but they should still be commended for their valiant efforts on Overpass, where they fought back from a 10-2 deficit and almost took the map to overtime.

"We need practice, it shows on the server," Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke said after the match. "We're not on the same page yet. That's what you get with four days of practice. Not a lot of good rounds, but at least we did some good things."

The series kicked off on Overpass, where Ninjas in Pyjamas overcame an early deficit to restore parity at 2-2. The rest of the half was a one-way street, however, as NAVI enjoyed a fantastic 10-0 run, with Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy and Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov combining for 25 frags before the teams switched sides.

Ninjas in Pyjamas found a lifeline on the CT side and began to mount a comeback with a string of rounds, bringing the scoreline to 10-6. b1t finally put NAVI on the board with a 1v2 clutch, with his team following that up with another round to reach map point. NIP didn’t back down, however, and went on a dominant run, only to collapse in the final round against a weak NAVI buy.

NIP looked reinvigorated on Mirage as they jumped out to a 5-2 lead, courtesy of some great rounds by Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner, but it all fell apart for them. Natus Vincere wreaked havoc in the NIP defense with a contact play with Tec-9s to get a foothold in the game, and Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen and w0nderful clutched a 2v5 situation a few rounds later, leaving their opponents shell-shocked for the remainder of the half.

Up 7-5, Natus Vincere carried that momentum into the second half, dropping only one round on the CT side en route to a comfortable victory.