IEM Cologne 2025XANTARES-less Aurora squeeze past NIP in Cologne
The Turkish giants are getting by without their star player.
Aurora have moved into Group B's upper bracket semi-finals at IEM Cologne following a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli's troops showed they can cope with the absence of Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş, who misses the event due to family reasons, with Ali "Wicadia" Haydar Yalçın and Özgür "woxic" Eker picking up the torch as they racked up a combined 105 frags.
Both games went down to the wire, with the victory on Train coming as a major boost for the Turkish team, who had lost every game on this map since the 13-5 win against Falcons at IEM Katowice, back when they still represented Eternal Fire.
Ninjas in Pyjamas came out strongly on Dust2 and secured an 8-4 lead after a messy first half that included a full eco win, with Michel "ewjerkz" Pinto topping the scoreboard with a 111 ADR after some stellar work on the A site.
The tenor of the game changed after the break as Aurora took control of proceedings on the CT side. woxic and Wicadia combined for 25 kills as the Turkish side kept NIP from stringing rounds together and locked down the map in the final round of regulation.
Aurora enjoyed such a dominant start on Train that they gave up just one kill during the first four rounds. Kacper "xKacpersky" Gabara led NIP's comeback efforts in the half, but the Turkish team kept a tight grip on the game and went into the break with a four-round cushion.
Ninjas in Pyjamas began to work away at the deficit after switching to the CT side, but they were unable to prevent Aurora from reaching match point at 12-10.
The Ninjas kept their composure and found an equalizer, only to squander two map points in overtime as Aurora put the series to bed in the second set of extra rounds with a flawless CT half.
 Aurora |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 53 - 30 | +4.78% | 92.4 | 77.6% | 1.46 | |
| 52 - 38 | +3.58% | 92.7 | 81.0% | 1.41 | |
| 33 - 36 | -0.42% | 70.4 | 81.0% | 1.05 | |
| 36 - 36 | +0.17% | 71.3 | 74.1% | 1.05 | |
| 26 - 38 | -3.21% | 49.2 | 69.0% | 0.77 |
  Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39 - 33 | -0.96% | 71.6 | 70.7% | 1.08 | |
| 43 - 44 | -1.37% | 82.6 | 70.7% | 1.03 | |
| 32 - 41 | -0.70% | 67.6 | 63.8% | 0.90 | |
| 35 - 40 | +1.71% | 63.9 | 62.1% | 0.90 | |
| 29 - 43 | -3.78% | 61.5 | 67.2% | 0.75 |
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Richard 'Xizt' Landström
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Abdul 'degster' Gasanov
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