DreamHack Open Summer 2015: Fnatic Beats Ninjas in Pyjamas to Advance to Grand Final
After two days of matches between many of the best teams in the world, the first semi-final of this year’s Dreamhack Open Summer 2015 kicks off with one of the most recognizable matchups in Counter-Strike history between two Swedish giants Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) and Fnatic.
During the picking phase, NiP grabbed Dust 2, while Fnatic got Train for themselves and Mirage was left as the deciding map for the Swedish El Clasico.
Dust 2: A House Of Cards Falling
The first match of the playoffs begin with NiP’s map pick, with the Ninjas beginning on the Terrorist (T) side and Fnatic starting on the Counter-Terrorist (CT) side of the map. NiP gets to a good start as they got the first three rounds. However, a very good retake on the A site by Fnatic enabled them to take the 1st gun round and from there on, Robin “flusha” Rönnquist and co. just connected three more rounds in order to make it 4-3 in their favor. On the eighth round, the Ninjas just went all out on A long and then got that round for themselves.
On the ninth round, NiP tried to play again on A long but they could not get through the Fnatic defensive setup and thus, they are forced to have another eco round. At this point, Fnatic makes it 6-4. It all seemed to be a back-and-forth affair as Richard “Xizt” Landström gets a triple kill in the 11th round of the map, getting another round for NiP and setting it at 6-5.
However, Fnatic just showed everyone why they are the best team in the world by locking down both sides efficiently, not giving room for the Ninjas to sneak around and take a breather. The first half of Dust 2 ends up at 10-5 in favor of Fnatic and NiP have their backs to the wall as they begin the second half on the slightly less favored CT side.
Despite all of NiP’s best efforts, they could only get one round on the CT side as it ends up in a 16-6 scoreline for Fnatic.
With this, Fnatic are in the lead with a 1-0 scoreline.
Train: The Magic Is Not Enough
Once again, the Ninjas start on the T side on Train while Fnatic goes with the CT side for this map. The Counter-Terrorists start off strong by winning the pistol round and the subsequent anti-eco rounds. Fnatic get six rounds in a row until some very good executes by the Ninjas under Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund’s command get them the seventh and eighth rounds.
On the ninth round, a successful hold by flusha on the B site resulted in NiP being shut down; the Swedish captain gets four kills in the process and Fnatic gets a seventh round into the scoreboard. This time around, it has become a give-and-take affair as both teams took rounds off each other.
Yet, at the end of the first half, Fnatic goes off with a 11-4 scoreline and the Ninjas were thought to be out as they did not get the required number of rounds in order for them to be able to work their way to a comeback.
NiP decided to step up their game on their CT side by getting the first three rounds of the second half, making it 11-7.
Then, in the 19th round, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer annoyed the Ninjas long enough to allow the rest of his teammates to rip NiP on the A site. Afterwards, in the 20th round, olofmeister takes it a step further by killing three NiP players on the A site once again and win another round for Fnatic. At this point, Fnatic are up 13-7, with only three rounds away from taking the first spot in the grand finals of Dreamhack Open Summer 2015.
Once again, the Ninjas worked their way back as they get two rounds. Still, olofmeister once again struck NiP on the A site, doing most of the work and getting his team on match point!
With nothing to lose, NiP gave it all and brought everything back to 15-14, thus creating a very viable chance for them to take it to overtime.
At the end of the day, Fnatic just picked NiP apart in the 30th round, taking the map, match and the Grand Finals slot with them, 16-14!
With this, Fnatic gets to the Grand Final of Dreamhack Open Summer 2015 with a 2-0 clean sweep, where they await the winner of Titan and Natus Vincere in the other semi-final.
Screengrab taken from the Dreamhack official CS stream.
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