Esportal Ninjas in Pyjamas claimed a place in the Esportal Grand Finals after defeating rivals Power Rangers on Thursday evening.

And now Elias ”Sealkid” Merta and his teammates aim to win the whole tournament – with a bigger goal in mind.

– It would be huge for us to win Esportal and it would help us in the lead-up to The International 5, he tells Aftonbladet Esport.

In the second Esportal Dota 2 invitational qualifier, Elias ”Sealkid” Merta and his Ninjas in Pyjamas were eliminated in the semifinals against Power Rangers. But when they once again faced their CIS adversaries it was a more prepared NiP that entered the battle.

– What we knew is that they’re really aggressive and that they can be random and do things you don’t think about. That’s why we lost against them earlier. They’re really tough opponents and the games against them are great, Sealkid says.

After the team had won one game each in the start of the BO5 qualifier finals, NiP seemed to take a firm grip when they destroyed Power Rangers in game three. The opponents surrendered after the ninjas secured 14 kills without response.

– We had better heroes and outplayed them early, they didn’t stand a chance, Sealkid says about the beating.

”We wanted to snowball and overrun them”

But the Belarus team showed no signs of being demoralized when they bounced right back and won the fourth game with their backs against the wall. Ninjas in Pyjamas pushed hard to secure the win, but the siege failed and instead PR could turn the game around and take it to a decider.

– It might have been a hasty decision from our side, we were tired and had played for a long time. We believed in that solution but couldn’t see it through.

Instead, it all came down to game five. But Sealkid and his teammates felt like they gained an advantage early in that match.

– We felt we had a good draft and got better heroes than them. From there on out it felt like we had the win. We wanted to farm up Blinks on our core heroes and snowball from there to overrun them and we succeeded.

”We just have to profit from their mistakes”

Now they’re looking forward to the Grand Finals of Esportal, where they’ll be facing a slew of already qualified CIS teams. Sealkid says they’ve had some trouble with those opponents in the past.

– We usually have the hardest time against them. They’re really aggressive and hard to keep track of. In the beginning it was difficult for us to find a solution but now we’ve learned from our mistakes and learned what works against those teams. They’ll always be more aggressive than we are because they like that style of play, so we just have to profit from their mistakes.

How is it working with new midlaner Linus ”Limmp” Blomdin in the squad?

– He’s a really good midplaner so it feels excellent and he’s performed well.

And what are your thoughts on the Esportal finals. How do you measure up against the other teams?

– I feel we can beat most teams, even top tier teams like Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses. I think we have a good shot against them. But I still feel we need to learn some stuff and I think we learn a lot from our losses.

What would it mean for you to win the whole Esportal tournament?

– It would be huge for us and would help us in the lead-up to The International 5.

Watch games 2-5 below: