NiP overcome their Swedish brothers GODSENT at DreamHack Masters: Malmö 2016

Ninjas in Pyjamas start as terrorists.

GODSENT started off really strong with a crushing pistol round and the following eco rounds. Great mid round reads helped them to keep their sites on complete lockdown. A 4k by Mathias "pauf" Köhler crushed the Ninjas in the fifth round. The only way NiP could enter was a fast rush onto B that caught pauf off-guard, making it 6-1 finally. Of course Cobblestone offers these opportunities to the terrorists, but overall this one strat working out would simply not be enough and as Markus "pronax" Wallsten answered straight back, NiP were put down and forced to eco again. Essentially pronax was reading them perfectly, but that did not help when Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund went crazy and got a 3k on B. In the follow-up, pauf failed to hold drop-zone and made it possible for the Ninjas to enter again. But once again, Lekr0 has shown how much he deserves to be in this team, as he kept B on lockdown against a storm of enemies in the 12th round. As GeT_RiGhT and Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi stepped up however, GODSENT have to give up that huge lead for an 8-7 half, but if it had not been for such crazy individual plays GODSENT would have had a much higher score.

After pauf had dropped the bomb in a considerably bad place, they had to give away the second pistol round and the subsequent ones as well. But crawling back, they managed to tie the game again at 10-10, forcing NiP down to an eco as well, which the underdogs of this matchup were able to capitalize on. In a close 1v2, Andreas "znajder" Schneider was unable to follow up to their string of rounds, which let the Ninjas tie up the game once more. But bouncing back again there was little to no chance for NiP to withstand the oncoming storm, giving the underdogs of GODSENT the edge yet again. In the following, NiP were unable to get these back-and-forth rounds going, which meant for GODSENT to crawl onto 14-11 already. With the Ninjas as we know them it was still not over yet, and slowly but surely they brought it to a 14-14 tie. Was it a choke? Were NiP just waking up at that point? Whatever it was, it secured them the 16-14 win over GODSENT on a really close scale.

Ninjas in Pyjamas start as terrorists.

With the confidence of such a hurtful victory, the Ninjas were ready to kick asses and started off with a 5 round lead, something you really don't want to give to the terrorists on Train. Finally pronax was able to get an entry at Ivy to start off the 6th round, and his teammates followed up to crush the terrorists without losing a single man. And just as NiP has steamrolled them earlier, GODSENT were now in the controlling position and kept the rounds rolling in their favour. And even when the Ninjas intercepted in the second last round of the first half, the gods came right back to make it an 8-7 half.

The second half of Train saw a strong performance from GODSENT. It all kicked off with NiP gaining a lead on their countrymen. All seemed lost for pronax and co. as they were at a significant round deficit with a fairly weak economy. Round after round was salvaged by the Swedes, allowing GODSENT back into the game at 14:14. An aggressive round, where Lekr0 saved the life of fellow teammate sznajder by dispatching a pushing pyth allowed the team to secure at the very least an overtime, if not take the match away. At the 15:14 mark NiP went for a very weak buy, seeing two UMPs, a Famas, a MAG-7 and a CZ-75, that eventually worked out allowing them to stay around for the overtime of the map.

Overtime saw a stellar performance from GODSENT , where the team managed to gain an early lead on NiP, which gave them a cushion in the event they needed it. Strangely, we saw another quasi-buy coming out from NiP that yet again proved effective against their opponents. In conclusion, however, GODSENT were able to secure a double map point over NiP and capitalised on the opportunity, closing the match with a 19:16 score.

Ninjas in Pyjamas start as terrorists.

With the win on Train in their heads, GODSENT went crazy and after a failed pistol round, Lekr0 brought it right back with his Deagle once again. Getting onto a 6-2 lead, they pressured NiP to go for crazy plays. The Ninjas had to issue a timeout at some point as the half was pretty much slipping away from them, but the pressure actually fuelled the Ninjas, who brought it back to a 9-6 half, still in favour of the gods but not in any way as decisive as the score has been before.

As the match progressed, the Ninjas showed how much they wanted to get into the finals, as they did not let go of a single round as CTs up until 15-9. For once, GODSENT was able to get through, but it was just not meant to be, as pauf fell short against NiP in a 1v2 clutch to lose out the map and eventually the match. The Ninjas are hoping to keep this tournament win in Sweden, as they progress to the Grand Finals!