Ninjas in Pyjamas prevail over SK; to IEM Oakland Grand Finals
The first round on Overpass kicked off with NiP trading frags to claim A site, but a back and forth brawl resulted in SK claiming the CT side pistol. Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and co. ran up to a quick 5-0 lead as Fernando "fer" Alvarenga went repeatedly unchecked in bathrooms. A one-on-two from Richard "Xizt" Landstrom finally broke the streak, giving his team their first round of the match. It seemed like SK would be able to run away with the half as they reset the Swedes in the next round, but NiP forced back after saving and took two in a row to force SK onto a save of their own. The Ninjas finally began utilizing proper map control, forcing SK to fall back and taking advantage of fer's continued aggression to open up rounds for themselves. After initially being 7-1 down NiP were able to come back, taking six straight rounds to win the half 8-7.
SK secured their T pistol by executing into A, much like NiP; however, an opening deagle pick from Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg sent SK scattering. With their positions compromised, f0rest continued to capitalize with his deagle, taking down Ricardo "boltz" Prass and granting the Swedes the win in their force-buy round. A trio of rounds followed for NiP, and when a round finally went SK's way, they were only able to survive with one player. This allowed NiP to immediately reset the Brazilians, giving them easy passage for the remainder of the map as they closed it out 16-9.
SK took their third pistol of the series to kick off Cache, conceding a bomb plant to the Swedes to allow for a third round buy. Although NiP saved in the second, an A push from SK gave up the site to allow William "draken" Sundin to sneak out through squeaky and grant NiP another bomb plant. Even with a bolstered economy the Ninjas couldn't capitalize in the first gun round, unable to find a single frag for themselves. Two deagle kills from Fredrik "REZ" Sterner opened up the A site while NiP were saving, and the rest of the Ninjas picked apart the Brazilians one by one to take their first round. A reset followed as Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund was unable to clutch out a one-on-two, but a blunder from SK in the subsequent round saw Xizt and co. take the round despite all players dropping on the NiP side.
Three more rounds went SK's way, but in a similar fashion to Overpass their 7-2 lead would diminish quickly as NiP began moving their way back into the half. Stellar entries from REZ kept opening up sites for his team, and SK were only able to take one more round to being the half to an 8-7 close in favor of the Ninjas.
REZ continued to find impact for NiP in the second half, beginning with the pistol round. The 19-year-old took down SK in a one-on-three retake on A, sticking the defuse after picking off two players on site to tie up the match. Marcelo "coldzera" David wasn't to be denied a competitive series however, as he fought back with three kills of his own to take the force-buy for SK. FalleN and coldzera combined to demolish the Swedes for the remainder of the half, locking Xizt and co. out of the match to bring it to a 16-8 finish. coldzera ended the map with 120 ADR and 100% KAST (rounds where he found kills, assists, survived, or had his deaths traded).
A quick A-site execute on Inferno from SK gave NiP no chance as two perfect pop flashes broke the Swedish hold, granting SK yet another pistol round. The standard 3-0 lead followed for the Brazilians, but a strong B hold from GeT_RiGhT and REZ ensured the first gun round for NiP. A kill apiece from the same duo forced SK to head towards A in the ensuing round, and f0rest locked it down to push SK to use the last vestiges of their bank. Hitting B again proved successful for FalleN and co., but an attempt to take banana in the following round was their downfall as REZ found two opening kills, helping NiP to secure a force-buy round. One more round went to the Ninjas as SK saved, but coldzera continued his good form from Cache and clutched out a one-on-two to take the next two rounds for SK.
The new blood in the Ninjas began showing their prowess towards the latter stages of the half, helping NiP lock SK out of both sites. Four rounds were taken by Xizt and co. as they shut SK out, giving up only one frag over the course of their spree. A final B site hit from the Brazilians gave them one last round in the half, bringing us to yet another 8-7 scoreline in favor of the Ninjas.
A fast rush up mid and inside apartments let the Ninjas run all over SK, catching the CTs off-guard with their pace. Once again the 3-0 lead followed, putting NiP up to 11 rounds as the first gun round commenced. Though the two initial kills went SK's way, the three-on-five from the Ninjas came through as GeT_RiGhT found three kills for himself. The next rifle round saw SK switch into a double-AWP setup with coldzera and FalleN — a change that proved fruitful as they converted two rounds. A tactical pause from the Ninjas resulted in FalleN trying to push banana early into the next round, but Xizt shut both him and fer down to immediately force the remaining CTs to save. SK made one last ditch effort to remain in the series as they secured two rounds for themselves, but the Swedes continued to abuse the Brazilian's B hold as they executed into the bombsite for the remaining rounds to close out the map 16-11.
SKNinjas in Pyjamas| SK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
74 - 47 | +27 | 92.7 | 77.6% | 1.41 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
52 - 54 | -2 | 80.2 | 71.1% | 1.09 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
50 - 49 | +1 | 75.4 | 67.1% | 1.00 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
44 - 60 | -16 | 72.4 | 61.8% | 0.87 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
28 - 49 | -21 | 41.9 | 63.2% | 0.67 |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner |
60 - 54 | +6 | 91.3 | 73.7% | 1.22 |
| Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund |
54 - 47 | +7 | 81.1 | 73.7% | 1.12 |
| William 'draken' Sundin |
51 - 45 | +6 | 67.0 | 72.4% | 1.08 |
| Richard 'Xizt' Landström |
44 - 52 | -8 | 72.1 | 68.4% | 1.02 |
| Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg |
49 - 51 | -2 | 71.5 | 63.2% | 0.94 |
NiP will face either Cloud9 or FaZe in the Grand Finals of IEM Oakland tomorrow, where they'll look to defend their IEM Oakland title for the first time.
