Meta Monday: When interpreting information well creates a beautiful round

Take a closer look at an early round on Ancient during the YaLLa Compass grand final between NIP and The MongolZ.

Today, we're going to take a look at a round from the first map played in the YaLLa Compass grand final between Ninjas in Pyjamas and The MongolZ, Ancient. The Europeans went on to win their Ancient pick in overtime, but it wasn't enough to stop Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren and his men from claiming the title in Abu Dhabi after three maps.

We're going to focus on the fifth round on Ancient, from NIP's perspective on the Terrorist side. In that round, an interesting sequence of decisions was made based on information gathered by Ninjas in Pyjamas used to exploit gaps in different areas of the map thanks to great individual plays, particularly from Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz, and smart timing.

The round starts with r1nkle meticulously throwing a smoke grenade to extinguish the Counter-Terrorists' incendiary which allowed him to control Mid.

Meanwhile, from T Spawn, another smoke grenade is thrown on Banana to discourage the CTs from making any aggressive moves.

Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner takes advantage and promptly throws another smoke grenade halfway down Banana, which signals that they are spending utility to apply pressure on the Mid and Cheetah areas.

r1nkle, after seeing that no CT has crossed, prepares to gain full control of Mid with his AWP.

Let us also remember that Usukhbayar "⁠910⁠" Banzragch, The MongolZ's AWPer, died at the end of the last round, making it quite likely that they do not have an AWP this round due to their economic situation.

r1nkle advances and manages to kill bLitz, who had just taken out his smoke grenade to block the Ts from making any further progress.

At this point, theoretically, rotations should begin to happen from the Mongolian side. With that in mind, Ninjas in Pyjamas decide to undertake two actions: First, REZ decides to advance up the B Ramp to start exploiting the gaps left in the CTs' defense. However, he dies in that attempt.

Second, if we look back, when r1nkle started to control Mid at the beginning of the round, he saw two incendiary grenades detonating next to him. He has already killed one CT, but the other must be somewhere nearby. Considering that the player who was in Window, bLitz, just died, another CT player should be nearby checking Mid, and he is most likely in Donut.

The situation is as follows right now: Ninjas in Pyjamas have control of Banana and Mid. They know there is a player on B who just killed REZ, and a player somewhere covering the Mid area.

However, a few seconds later, something happens. In the blink of an eye, two smoke grenades thrown by the CTs fall near B. The first one blocks Cheetah.

And the second one blocks Banana.

Upon realizing the situation, Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet, who is alone on Banana next to the C4, decides to pick up the bomb and heads towards the A site. NIP now know that there are two CT players defending B.

Both r1nkle and Max "⁠maxster⁠" Jansson activate and start trying to control Donut — a rapid series of kills begins to unfold.

910 appears from the A Site to assist Ayush "⁠mzinho⁠" Batbold, who is trapped in Donut, and manages to kill maxster.

Seconds later, r1nkle takes down mzinho with his AWP. A crucial kill that allows him to potentially prevent rotations coming towards Donut while also keeping the pressure on 910 in A.

The round turns into a 3vs3, with 910 somewhere on A and his two teammates now rotating to assist him. On the attacking side, r1nkle has control of Donut and alex is rotating towards his teammates.

Meanwhile, we have one player who has not been mentioned throughout the round: Isak "⁠isak⁠" Fahlén.

He has been controlling A Main the whole time and, after observing what happened in Mid and Donut, he decides to take advantage of the situation and kills a worried 910, who is still focused on r1nkle in Donut.

Free from 910's pressure, r1nkle then looks behind and gets the triple by killing Azbayar "⁠Senzu⁠" Munkhbold as he rotates from Mid to Donut. Ninjas in Pyjamas are free to plant the bomb in a 3vs1 situation and go on to win the round.