NIP best Spirit to advance to IEM Katowice group stage

Ninjas in Pyjamas are through to the main stage of the $1,000,000 tournament after a convincing 2-0 win over Spirit.

Ninjas in Pyjamas became the first team to qualify for the IEM Katowice group stage with a 2-0 victory over Spirit, sending their foes down to the lower bracket after punishing the Russians' Nuke pick (16-7), before wrapping up the series with a clinical showing on Mirage (16-8).

Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke looked far more improved this time around, sporting a 1.04 rating over the two maps compared to a more disappointing 0.88 showing in his debut against MIBR earlier on Wednesday. The Dane attributed his less-than-impressive performance on the first day of competition to the team's lack of practice time, saying in a post-match interview after the game that the squad has only had half a day's worth of training ahead of the $1,000,000 tournament.

Spirit, on the other hand, looked like a fish out of water all series long. Every player on the roster averaged below a 1.00 rating by the end of the two-map series, with the usually dependable Igor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov in particular struggling to get much going (0.66). Spirit now have just one chance to make it through to the top-16 stage of IEM Katowice, with the Russians facing off against the winner of the best-of-three between Evil Geniuses and Sprout on Friday at 16:00 .

The two teams duked it out on Nuke, Spirit's pick, to kick things off. Ninjas in Pyjamas managed to nab the first two rounds of the series thanks to back-to-back multi-kills from Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner, but the Russians quickly responded in kind with four rounds on the trot to build an early T-side lead. A double-kill hold of the A site from Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen got the Nordic ensemble back on the board in the eighth round, a boon that carried the squad upwards for the remainder of the half, with Ninjas in Pyjamas ending their defensive effort sporting a three-round buffer.

A successful fast hit of the A bombsite from Ninjas in Pyjamas opened up the second half, and the multinational lineup soon pounced on their new-found economic superiority. Aleksib and company conceded just one more round en route to a 16-7 victory, clever use of the map coupled with a stellar individual performance by the in-game leader himself (21-13 K-D) powering the squad to an overwhelming win on their opponents' map choice.

The brawl made its way to Mirage for the second map, and Ninjas in Pyjamas continued their pistol-round dominance by taking their third in the series. The European combine further justified their pick as the map played out, accruing a whopping 6-0 lead on the T-side with consistent round-on-round impact from REZ being the leading factor in the team's early success. It took two fumbles from Aleksib for Spirit to finally post some round wins, the Russians jumping at the chance to get back in the game. Site-heavy gamble stacks characterised the rest of the half, and this change in gameplan immediately paid dividends as Spirit clawed things back all the way to within one at the interval, 7-8.

A sublime quad-kill defense of the A bombsite from REZ made sure Ninjas in Pyjamas were able to convert their pistol round victory and reach double digits, 10-7. Aleksib's troops maintained their position in the driver's seat from this point on, brushing their foes aside with their advantage in firepower to again allow Spirit just one additional round by the series' end, 16-8. Everyone was firing on all cylinders for Ninjas in Pyjamas throughout Mirage, with every player ending the map above a 1.00+ rating.