NIP beat fnatic to secure semi-final spot at YaLLa Compass

r1nkle delivered a fantastic performance to secure a minimum top-four spot for his team.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have beaten fnatic in the YaLLa Compass quarter-finals in a two-map series (Anubis 13-6, Ancient 13-11). The win highlights the team's increasingly promising LAN debut as they have now also shown their strength in a best-of-three series.

Up next for the Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet-led team is FURIA, who they will face on Saturday at 18:00 .

Date	Matches
YaLLa Compass 2024
08/06/2024	FURIA 19:30 Ninjas in Pyjamas	Match

Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz had a fantastic series and averaged a 1.49 rating, with the icing on the cake being a 1vs4 clutch to close out Anubis. Despite this, the Ukrainian heaped praise on his teammates first in the post-match interview.

"I just have a very fucking good team that helps me," he said. "We didn't expect them to pick Anubis, so we just made a quick game plan and played, and that's it."

fnatic went for a curious map pick of Anubis in the series, where they had a 27% win rate coming into the game. Things started well for them, as they weathered a barrage of Ninjas in Pyjamas forcebuys to take a 5-1 lead early on.

Ninjas in Pyjamas then turned the tide and made the most out of a good performance by r1nkle, winning 12 out of the next 13 rounds to secure a dominant win on Anubis. r1nkle had impactful rounds throughout and single-handedly won the final round with an amazing 1vs4.

Ancient began with a fnatic pistol round, but Ninjas in Pyjamas quickly turned the game on its head and surged to a 6-2 lead, with the rest of their T-side looking very polished. fnatic, who needed a good start after going down 4-8, did their best but couldn't handle a confident Ninjas in Pyjamas, who eventually reached six map points.

They needed all six of them, however, as fnatic forced them into several saves with quick site takes. Ninjas in Pyjamas stabilized and did enough to win the final round, with r1nkle's crucial double-kill enough to get Ninjas in Pyjamas over the line and into the semi-finals.