NiP are one of the legendary teams in the CS:GO mythos. They created the first dynasty in CS:GO and fans to this day still crow about the 87-0 streak and their dominance in the early days of CS:GO. But like an aging beast, they were eventually outclassed as the world moved past their time. As NiP faltered more and more, they had to rely on NiP magic. A term that was coined to explain the exhilarating magical moments that NiP could pull out in some critical moments that allowed them to win or play amazing games or series. The last time we saw this was at IEM Oakland 2016 as they pulled out an amazing victory against SK. By the time IEM Oakland 2017 happened, the NiP roster had changed. But the NiP magic still lived on as we got an encore performance at IEM Oakland 2017 as they took the trophy over FaZe in a close finals.

It is the finals of IEM Oakland 2016 in the deciding map between NiP and SK. The atmosphere is heavy with tension. The large contingent of the audience is filled up on totino pizza rolls and NiP hope. NiP haven’t won a large international event since DreamHack Malmo nearly seven months prior. Both the team and fans are desperate for a win, but SK stand in their way. SK are running a huge lead on the T-side and look to close it out. A desperation buy of an auto-sniper on Richard “Xizt” Landstrom and an AWP on Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg win them the 25th round. SK quickly go back to work and NiP are left in a desperate situation in the 27th round. It is 14-12 in SK’s favor. NiP go all-in with the remnants of their economy which amounts to 2 rifles, an ump, a m7 and a pistol. They have bet it all on this round and f0rest and Adam “friberg” Friberg save the team with a hold of long. NiP then go on to complete the comeback in a miraculous fashion that made fans around the world remember a time when NiP magic ruled the world.

It was an amazing moment, but it was also looked to be the last stand of magic. Soon after NiP died out to Vega at the Major qualifiers and continued to sink down into a slump that lasted seven months. Nothing they did worked the following seven months after their IEM Oakland victory and they finally changed the lineup. The first to go as usual was the fifth man. This time it was Jacob “pyth” Mourukarvi and in his place NiP got AWPer William “draken” Sundin. It wasn’t enough and a month later NiP finally bit the bullet and cut friberg so they could recruit rising talent Fredrik “REZ’ Sterner. While the core of NiP remained, a new era of NiP had arrived.

It met with mixed results. They had a good performance at their first LAN debut at DreamHack Malmo, but the young talents were still too raw and they lost in the playoffs to G2. Following that event, they lost out in the Minor EU online qualifier. It was a tough situation and it had been nearly an year since we had seen NiP magic. It felt like the fires of NiP had finally blown out. Though NiP were still a good team, it was hard to imagine them doing another miraculous run.

But at IEM Oakland 2017, we had an encore of magic. They got out of their group in first and landed in the semifinals. There they faced off in a rematch against SK. SK themselves had undergone changes as Lincoln “fnx” Lau was no longer in the roster. Instead they had Ricardo “boltz” Prass. The relative difference in strength between the teams was even wider this time around as SK had just won EPICENTER and were one of the best teams in the world. NiP on the other hand had just fallen out of the online portion of the EU Minor. But some things worked out in their favor as the individual performances of SK were off barring Marcelo “coldzera” David. On top of that, NiP performed well as a team and in particular REZ continued his amazing performance from the group stages into this match. But the big clincher was the change in methodology for the team.

In the past, NiP had mystifying pick-ban vetoes (a.k.a. The Xizt). The maps made no logical sense in that they often gave the opponent whatever they wanted. In this tournament, NiP tailored their pick-bans specifically against their opponent. Throughout the series, the team used every timeout efficiently as the NiP coach Bjorn “THREAT” Pers gave critical input to the team and in the following round NiP made an adjustment to their play to deal with SK.

NiP were able to grind down and solve SK with strategy and tactics. In the pick-ban they got the final map to inferno, a map where SK had a hole in their defence when it came to the banana hold. NiP abused that to setup full on executes onto the B site and take the third map from SK. It was an incredible victory, but one of science rather than magic.

The real magic happened in the finals against FaZe. It was a bo5 finals that went all five maps against the best team in the world. FaZe had won 2 of their last 3 tournaments in dominating flash. It took everything In the finals, THREAT’s impact was felt throughout the series as the team continually called timeouts whenever FaZe looked to be getting out of hand. From there the team adjusted and tried to find a counter to what FaZe was throwing at them. But the teamplay wasn’t enough, it came down to individual performances from all players involved. Each player contributed a great game or critical heroic moments in the three critical map wins on Cobblestone, Train and Cache. REZ was once again the star of the show, but each player had a shining moment that tilted those three contested maps into NiP’s favor.

The addition of draken and REZ has invigorated NiP with new aggressive life and in conjunction with THREAT’s impact as a coach has given new life to the old NiP squad. These new elements united with the old core as seen an all-new NiP rise from the ashes of the old. They are no longer a nostalgia carnival that played their best hits over and over again in hopes that would be enough to compete in the new era. IEM Oakland 2016 looked to be the last hurrah of NiP magic, a final farewell to a time long gone. At IEM Oakland 2017, NiP Magic was resurrected as and though the methods and players have changed, the excitement, the thrill, the majesty has remained.