NIP pick up landslide victory over Vitality, Cloud9 secure debut win vs. Outsiders

A surprising Overpass pick did not pay off for Vitality.

The second pair of matches in the PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage is done and dusted, as Ninjas in Pyjamas and Cloud9 have kicked off their Major campaigns with victories over Vitality and Outsiders, respectively.

The team around Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire opted to take their match against the Swedes to Overpass when offered the choice between that and Inferno, a decision that was criticized on the pre-match analyst desk and during the match and one that ended up backfiring on the French-Danish squad.

Vitality had only played Overpass twice before and lost it both times, one of those times being against SKADE, and they looked out of their depth from start to finish as they had a hard time breaking through a stalwart Ninjas in Pyjamas defense led by Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen and Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner.

The duo combined for 40 kills across an 11-4 CT half that saw Vitality struggle to find the openings and space to even get the bomb down, and Ninjas in Pyjamas rallied to a quick closing shortly after that.

The all-CIS battle between Cloud9 and Outsiders was much more closely-contested, with the two sides battling it out on Mirage.

Debuting under their new banner, Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov's squad kept themselves within touching distance in the first half, playing on the T side of what has been the most even map of the Major so far, with a key quad-kill from Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov with just a P250 keeping them within just one round from Outsiders at halftime.

Once on the defense Cloud9 had a much easier time keeping their regional rivals at bay thanks to a landslide of a start, with another important sh1ro 4K in a low buy denying Outsiders a late comeback in the second half and helping the Russian side pick up a 16-12 win.