NIP is Cloud9's next opponent at IEM Katowice. Over the last 3 months, NIP has perma banned Dust2. They played Mirage 5 times (1-4), Train 4 times (2-2), Vertigo 4 times (2-2), Nuke 3 times (0-3), Overpass 3 times(1-2), and Inferno twice (1-1).

Obviously this is a small sample size right now, and Forest was on the team for more than half the maps, so keep that all in mind.

Mirage is Cloud9's perma ban, but, I'm going to start with it anyway.

Mirage

Train

Vertigo

Nuke

Overpass

Inferno

Mirage

T Side

On pistol rounds, 3 out of the 5 times, they played towards A with sending people Underpass. The other 2 they went to B:

The lost the pistol 4 of the 5 times. 3 of these 4 times they spread out, and 1 time they rushed B:

The one time they won, they sent heavy presence towards A, faked the exec, then ended up executing on A later on in the round:

On Ecos, they like to send 2-3 top mid and 2-3 into B Apps:

The awper does a good job of changing up where they go:

They do seem to have a lot of rounds where there is just one player towards A, and a lot of times its a 1-3-1 setup:

CT Side

NIP seems to take chances on their CT pistols. In the 5 examples, they pushed Top Mid once, Pushed 2 Cat twice, and stacked B once:

They lost 4 of the 5 pistol rounds. 2 of the 4 times they stacked 4 on A:

The one time they won, they just played a standard default:

Here is 9 of their Ecos. They definitely like to stack a site with 4 players, or make a play like pushing 2 Cat or Palace:

The awper moves around to the regular spots like Connector, Van, etc, but typically is playing Window or Ticket:

They play up close A ramp decently often:

And play 2 in Connecter:

Train

T Side

All 4 T Side pistol rounds NIP went B. 3 times they went slowly with 1-2 other players watching a flank, and one time they rushed straight out. But, all 4 times they ended up B:

If they lost the pistol round, they would split between A Main, Ivy, and B Halls. Twice sending 2 to Ivy and playing fairly passive:

The only time they won a pistol round, they instantly dropped 2 smokes on A, then sent 3 Ivy, and then double'd back and met up with 2 players towards B once they met resistance Ivy. Heres the first 45 seconds of that round:

Their typical default start to a round seems to be always having at least 1 Ivy, 1 A Main, and then the rest in B Upper.

When they have an awp, they like to play the awp inside A Main, or, bring it Ivy with 1-2 other people:

5 times they did bring the awp Upper B. 4 of the 5 times, they had at least 1 player lurking Ivy, the other time they rushed B:

They do decently often actually send 3 players towards Ivy. 7 of the 9 times they had 3 Ivy, they had 1 other in A Main, and 1 in B Upper. The other 2 times they had 2 A Main:

On an eco round, they typically play it slowly, typically sending 1-2 players to each of A Main (One behind the boxes in the corner typically), Ivy, and Halls:

This was the only round where they pushed fast, and it was basically just Rez on his own in a fairly desperate match point play:

CT Side

On pistol rounds, NIP seems to like to play 2 on B, 1 Ivy, 1 Camera, and 1 Popdog with some slight variation:

If they lost the pistol round, they played 4 A, 1 B, only rotation one over when they heard a T drop down in Halls:

The one time they won the pistol round, they still played 4 A 1 B:

On regular rounds, NIP loves to have someone pushed right up to Lower Ramp on B. Especially when they are solo'ing the site. Would say 90% of the rounds in the 4 maps they had a player right in this exact spot:

They had someone Upper B in 8 total rounds. Every round but 1 they had another player at Lower Ramp. The other time the player was back Sidewalk. When they do have someone upper, they like to push up on A a little. Either out Ivy, or into Popdog:

Here is every other round that hasn't been shown they had 2 B just to look at:

So 18 of 54 (33%) of rounds they had 2 B.

Vertigo

T Side

For the pistol rounds, NIP had one round where they spread out watching to see what the CT's would do, two rounds heavy A Ramp, and one round heavy Mid:

When they lost the pistol round, they played both rounds fairly slowly and spread out:

When they won the pistol round, both rounds they went A. Both rounds they had players up A ramp by the 35 second mark:

Verses Vitality today, NIP had a player lower A ramp every singe round within 15 seconds, and most of the time they had 2-3:

NIP only have done one full on B rush, but, they do play one player by B stairs a decent amount:

A few times they played 2 towards B ramp, and each time the other 3 players were in the exact same spots of Ladder Room, Lower A ramp, and T Spawn:

CT Side

All 4 pistol rounds they started 3 on A. On the other side, 2 of the rounds they had 1 B 1 Mid, and the other 2 they had 2 on B:

The only pistol round they lost, they full saved and pushed 4 all the way down B Stairs:

If they won, they kinda spread out the coverages on the 3 examples. Here are the 3 rounds:

About half the time they solo someone on B:

When they would push Mid, it was always with 2 players and one on B:

Nuke

T Side

On pistol rounds, NIP seems to work pretty fast. 2 of the 3 rounds they blitzed A, and the other round they blitzed Outside/Secret:

After both pistol losses, they worked outside with a lurker outside A:

When they won the one pistol, they did basically the same play:

There was only 3 rounds in which they double smoked Outside and weren't headed towards Secret. All 3 times they were just outside A ready to burst in. Every other time they double smoked at least 3 members were headed down:

They only full rushed Ramp once:

For the most part, I didn't see many fakes. It seems like where their utility goes they go also:

CT Side

NIP played 2 Ramp, 2 A (one behind Silos, one Mini), 1 Heaven all 3 pistol rounds:

The one time they lost pistol, they played 2 Outside, 2 A, 1 Ramp:

Both times they won the pistol, they played 1 Ramp, 2 on A, 1 Garage or behind CT Red, and the last player once played Mini, once Heaven:

If there were smokes outside, they did like to have a player push up into them:

On Ecos and Force Buys, I couldn't find a good pattern, but here are 9 of the 10 from their 3 maps that aren't shown above:

In their latest match vs Vitality, their Awper for the most part hovered around the Heaven/Hell/Admin/Locker area. Here is every awp round:

Overpass

T Side

Two of the 3 pistol rounds they had on the T side were a heavy push towards Playground with one Connector. The other was more spread out with 2 towards B, 2 Connector, and one Party/Fountain:

The two times they pushed heavy towards Party they went straight out to long. Here is the first minute of those rounds:

The other round they hit B:

The 2 pistol rounds they lost, both times they pushed towards Playground/Fountain:

The one time they won the pistol, they spread out more, sending 2 towards Playground, 2 Connector, 1 towards B:

In general, I would say 90% of the time, NIP would send 1-2 into Connector. Eco, full buy, heavy stack B or Playground, didn't seem to matter. Majority of the time someone was there:

In their most recent match vs Faze, at the 1 minute mark, they were towards A 11 of the 15 rounds:

CT Side

On pistol CT rounds, NIP stacked 4 on B once, 4 Connector once, and 2 Connector 2 B once:

The one time they lost the pistol round, they played fairly default:

For the 2 times they won, both times they had 2 Front Bathrooms/Party, and then one time they had 3 in standard B spots, and another they had 2 B one Connector:

Twice in regular rounds they pushed up fast long:

When they would post someone up at the Long Boost area, that typically meant they were going for a more passive setup:

Only 3 rounds total did they start with less than 3 B:

They never started 2 Connector on a full buy round.

Inferno

T Side

Now, they only played 2 Inferno matches, but I will try to find some patterns. Here are their 2 pistol rounds. Both they kinda spread out, taking some Alt Mid control:

After both their loss and their win in the pistol round, they played kinda slow, taking Alt Mid control, and then setting up to go B. Here is the first minute of both rounds:

Every time they had an awp on T side, it was always watching Mid. Never was watching down Banana or Alt Mid in the first 30 seconds of the round:

They seem to send 2 Alt Mid a high percentage of the time. When they do, there is typically 2 at the Bottom or Mid of Banana and one Bottom Mid. Seems to be their default:

CT Side

Both of their pistol rounds they had a similar setup of 2 B, 1 Arch, 2 Short or Pit:

They won both of their pistols. Both times they started 3 B to drop utility and then 1 Arch:

They had a few rounds where they got pretty aggressive pushing down Banana right away. When doing so, they had 3 B:

The awp only started Boiler 3 times in the 2 maps:

For the most part the awp was arch or on B. When they would double awp, every time but one, the awp was on B and then Arch side:

Conclusion

Like I said in the beginning, this wasn't a ton of maps, so, everything should just be taken for what it is and not as a truth. But, information is always good to have no matter what.

Thank you for reading. Follow me on Twitter @Cloud9_Win for more breakdowns and C9 content.