6. Third time's the charm

Tears would fall by the end of the tournament.

friberg was a great reason behind NiP's success in Cologne.

There's an old saying that goes "after rain comes sunshine", and in the three months following the devastating blow in Katowice, NiP Gaming got to taste gold twice as they placed on top at both Copenhagen Games and DreamHack Summer. Definitely good news considering the summer major was just weeks away. Two wins in three months was no where near enough to make them favorites for the tournament though, but luckily, a little map called Cobblestone was introduced.The third major in CS:GO history was named ESL One Cologne, and was held at Gamescom 2014. Some of the most highlighted teams on site were the reigning major champions in Virtus.pro as well as Fnatic, who had recruited olofmeister and krimz from LGB eSports to replace Jonatan "Devilwalk" Lundberg and Andreas "znajder" Lindberg. Experts didn't even bother naming NiP Gaming as potential champions, other than with phrases like "You never know with NiP", even though they recently recruited Faruk "pita" Pita as coach. And the group stage didn't help the ninjas at all.Even though the Swedes had the easiest group on paper, they faced a real struggle. After dancing through the Indian mega-underdog Wolf, NiP were in for a big surprise called Epsilon, starring Richard "shox" Papillon and Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey. On Cobblestone, one of the two new and relatively untested maps in the pool, the French side crushed the ninjas with 16-6, forcing the Swedes to place second in the group after beating HellRaisers in the consolidation match.We've all heard of the expression "NiP magic", meaning NiP Gaming is a team that can — and has — come out on top in some of the most struggling scenarios. Now, ESL One Cologne doesn't necessarily qualify to be a typical NiP magic moment, but it's sure close to it.In the opening match of the playoffs, the Swedes were faced against the former compLexity team in Cloud9. Things started off shaky, as C9 won the opening Nuke with comfortable numbers. However, NiP came back with a 16-14 win on Dust2, and the series' third and final map, which was randomized, was Cobblestone. Even though NiP lost to Epsilon on said map in the group stage, Cloud9 had never really played it, which was (obviously) good for the Swedish team. You could say that NiP dodged a bullet, but the map was still extremely even. In the end, massive efforts from friberg gave the Swedes a 16-14 win and a spot in the semis.Waiting for them in the semi final were LDLC, with Vincent "Happy" Cervoni and Dan "apEX" Madesclaire in their lineup, who had surprised Virtus.pro in the previous round. Once again, NiP started off by losing the first map, but evened it out by winning the second one. Now, could you guess what map the randomizer picked for the final game? That's right; Cobblestone. Once again the Swedes won with a narrow 16-14 result, and the team's third straight major grand final was waiting.The opponents would be Fnatic, who had defeated Na`Vi and Team Dignitas in the playoffs, as well as Virtus.pro and iBUYPOWER in the group stage. This time, the randomizer didn't pick Cobblestone, because Fnatic did. Markus "pronax" Wallsten & Co were confident on the map, and were rumored to be the best team in the world on the "new" maps, and you could see why.The first map of the grand final saw Fnatic in an 11-4 lead in half time, with a solid defense on Cobblestone they looked to grab the 1-0 lead in no time. However, a dose of NiP magic flew in, and the ninjas turned the map around to win with yet another 16-14 result. As they just won Fnatic's pick, were NiP Gaming finally going to win a major, and in a 2-0 fashion at that?NiP's Cache pick followed, but things didn't seem right. NiP Gaming had a hard time penetrating Fnatic's defense, and once again, they trailed 4-11 in half time. This time Fnatic wouldn't mess up, as they won the map with comfortable numbers, dragging the grand final to a third and final map — Inferno.In the present year, 2016 for those wondering, Inferno goes hand in hand with the NiP-Fnatic rivalry. There have been some great matches between the two on this map throughout history, and this one was no exception. Fnatic started off as the defending team, barely winning the half with 9-6 after a lot of close calls. Trailing by three rounds in half time is rarely something teams worry about, but when Fnatic won the pistol round as well as the following anti-eco rounds, things looked bleak.The nervousness of the audience member Emil "HeatoN" Christensen, who seemed to be on the verge of having a heart attack, was contagious. However, a lot of individual performances scattered across the NiP Gaming lineup let them turn yet another deficit around, and in the end — and to Christensens great relief and insane jubilation — NiP Gaming won the grand final.They say that third time's the charm, and that was really the case for this legendary lineup. They went from having a legendary streak to the low-point of barely reaching playoffs. Once they actually picked themselves up, it was only to lose two major grand finals in a row. Then, against the odds and mentally beaten to bits, they finally go and win their hard earned major title. This story is what makes Ninjas In Pyjamas' victory at ESL One Cologne one of the most memorable in CS:GO.