MLG Columbus 2016 kicked off as Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated FlipSid3 19-17 on de_cache.

The first ever $1,000,000 CS:GO Major began with a best-of-one game between the 9th team on our rankings, NiP and the 16th one, FlipSid3. Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers, who is NiP's coach, replaced Jacob "⁠pyth⁠" Mourujärvi in the lineup as the latter had visa issues and could not enter USA.

The CT-sided FlipSid3 defused the bomb on the A-site as Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk got the first knife-kill of the tournament in the first round to kick off the first major in North America. NiP had an early weapon buy on the third round but FlipSid3 stopped the ninjas and went on to win the subsequent round to extend the lead (4-0).

NiP answered with a force-buy round win and Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg's 1v2 ensured the Swedes' second round (4-2). f0rest continued with triple opening kills as NiP's B-site heavy play paid off (4-4). FlipSid3 chose to go for a double-AWP setup after struggling but that didn't help as THREAT & co. took their sixth consecutive round.

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg & f0rest almost managed to pull off a 2v5 but bondik survived with 8 HP to get his team their fifth round (8-5). At halftime, the score was 9-6 in favor of NiP.



f0rest with a throwback performance

friberg showed up once again, this time on the CT-side pistol round as he got two kills on a 2v2 retake situation (10-6). The CIS-team's third round weapon buy paid off, bringing it to 11-7 and giving themselves a chance to come back.

The stand-in THREAT showed up in the 22nd round in a 2v3, grabbing up three kills and making it 12-9 but FlipSid3 answered right back and tied it at 12-12. It came down to the wire on the 25th round as f0rest prevailed over Yegor "⁠markeloff⁠" Markelov and NiP took the lead once again (13-12).

NiP were able to hold off FlipSid3 two more times and attained three match points (15-12). The force buy worked for Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy & company and forced NiP to eco, leading to a 15-14 score as FlipSid3 pulled it back to take it to overtime (15-15).

Despite losing the first round of the MR3 overtime, first f0rest's quad-kill and then Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund's triple meant NiP finished the CT-side 17-16 ahead. GeT_RiGhT stepped up again, this time on a 1v2 to get two match points for his team (18-16). The Swedes closed it out 19-17.

NiP K - D +/- ADR Rating 1.0

FlipSid3 K - D +/- ADR Rating 1.0

NiP will go onto face the winner of Luminosity vs. mousesports, while FlipSid3 will fight for their tournament life against the loser of the same match. Be sure to follow our twitter @HLTVorg to get live updates during the event and tune into the site for photos, interviews, match reports and more from Columbus.

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