Ninjas in Pyjamas win Dreamhack Malmö in Double Nailbiter Versus Na’Vi
By: Andre Dale Gueco
They say, “For every setback, there is a comeback.” For the Ninjas in Pyjamas, they just found their comeback after defeating Natus Vincere 2-0 in two nail-biter matches in the grand finals of Dreamhack Masters: Malmö 2016 in front of their home crowd in Sweden.
Dust 2
The first map of the grand finals was Dust 2. Na’Vi managed to secure themselves the pistol after a quad kill by Ioann ‘Edward’ Sukhariev on his USP. After the first gun round, NiP managed to get some scores on the board with 4 straight round wins giving them a lead of 4-3.
Na’Vi managed to answer back to the Ninjas in Pyjamas by winning 4 succeeding rounds. Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács showed no signs of injury after getting a quad kill on the 12th round securing the CIS squad with an 8-4 advantage.
After the 12th round, NiP went for a mix-buy of Tec9s and Desert Eagles which went well for them after Adam “friberg” Friberg secured the winning kill. The first half ended with a score of 9-6 favoring Na’Vi.
On the second round, Na’Vi again won the pistol round but NiP retaliated on the next round with just a bunch of P250s. That round didn’t just surprised Na’Vi but also dictated the succeeding rounds in favor of NiP.
With a score of 15-12 in favor of NiP, Na’Vi managed bring the game to a score of 15-14. The hopes of Na’Vi going overtime was stopped after a solid hold by NiP giving the Swedes the win on Dust 2 with a score of 16-14.
Cobblestone
The win on Dust 2 gave NiP the confidence boost that they need going into Cobblestone as they won the pistol round followed by two anti-eco rounds. Na’vi managed to win the first gun round but NiP drove them back on the 5th round with a score of 4-1.
The Ninjas continued to show their dominance on the first round with a score of 7-3 on T-side. Na’Vi however plowed over the Swedes in the five remaining rounds ending the 1st half with a score of 8-7.
The start of the second round was a dream start for Na’Vi as they steamrolled over the NiP leading the game 13-7. NiP, however didn’t let themselves get tilted as they won five succeeding rounds against Na’Vi changing the score to 13-12.
Na’Vi was still in the commanding lead with 14-12, but NiP managed to reset Na’Vi’s economy on the 27th round after a successful hold on A-site, followed by an anti-eco which tied both teams 14-14.
On the 29th round, a hold on B-site gave NiP the tournament point. Just like in the first map, Na’Vi went for a force buy looking to take the game to overtime but Nip stopped Na’Vi on their tracks winning Cobblestone, and winning the tournament with a score of 16-14.
As a result, NiP took home $100,000 at 1st place while Na’Vi took home $50,000 at 2nd place. This is NiP’s first LAN win since ESL One: Cologne in 2014 after that the team had been on slump with poor performances and roster changes. After all the setbacks that this team had been through, they finally had their comeback in front of their home country of Sweden.
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