NIP top ESL Pro League Group A with victory over LFO

The Australians are out of playoff contention after suffering their fourth defeat.

NIP have secured their fourth victory in ESL Pro League, taking out Looking For Org in two maps and thus securing first place in Group A as they would win any potential tiebreakers with fnatic or Entropiq, the two teams that could reach four wins in the final match day on Sunday.

The Swedes securing the top spot comes at the perfect time, as the maimed G2 who played the first three ESL Pro League group matches with François "⁠AMANEK⁠" Delaunay as a substitute will be back in full force with in-game leader Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen as the Finn returns from the sidelines.

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This last loss for Looking For Org has now put the Australians out of playoff contention, although even before going into the fourth match day against NIP, Mike "⁠ap0c⁠" Aliferis and company were already facing slim odds as even with a victory against Daniel "⁠djL⁠" Narancic’s men they would have needed another victory just to wish for a miraculous three-way tie with MOUZ and fnatic.

NIP kicked the series off by defusing the bomb in a 2vs2 retake in the first pistol round, after which the Swedes went on a 10-0 tear before Looking For Org managed to successfully take, plant and defend the A site on a pistol buy. The momentum didn’t shift, however, and Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser and company took a 13-2 lead at the half with the Swedish in-game leader ending the half with 19 frags and 129.3 ADR.

Looking For Org put up a bit of a fight on the CT side to cover up the one-sided half, but with only a couple of rounds needed to seal the deal NIP went on to take the series lead 16-7, setting up the possibility of a quick victory on their map pick.

The Australian squad once again showed more proficiency on the defense, however, and made the first half of Overpass a competitive affair despite losing the pistol round, winning 7 rounds in a row to take a 9-6 lead at the half.

After the switch things went back the way of NIP, however, as they won the seven first rounds to retake the lead before a Euan "⁠sterling⁠" Moore 1vs2 put LFO on the board. That crucial clutch put the Aussies right back in the game as they went on a seven round streak to hit match point, closing the map out two rounds later in the thirtieth round with overtime looming.

Momentum didn’t transfer to Ancient, however, one of the more CT-sided maps in the pool, as NIP won a second round forcebuy on the attack to put the early pressure on. The round streaks continued to come and this time the Swedes put in 11 in a row before LFO could close out the half winning the last three before the switch. Too little too late, as two crucial kills by hampus in the second pistol round put the Ninjas en route to victory, going on to close the map out 16-5.

Nicolas "⁠Plopski⁠" Gonzalez Zamora put up the best numbers for NIP by the end of it all as he continues to show a renewed good form, ending the series with a 1.26 rating despite a quiet showing on Ancient, where Love "⁠phzy⁠" Smidebrant and hampus took over with ratings in the 1.60s.