FURIA dismantled by the Swedes in Antwerp
The match went underway on Nuke which was picked by FURIA, on which they have a 50% win-rate in the last 3 months — the same as NIP's, although the Brazilian side has played it four more times. Unfortunately, it being Nuke — a very CT-sided map — and NIP being able to choose which they side they start on, the map did not go how FURIA envisioned it.
The Swedish side's CT-side was close to perfect, with them winning the pistol and converting another eleven rounds after it. Only then on the 13th round were FURIA able to finally break though the Ninja's defences and claim a Terrorist round. Trading the rest of the rounds to the half, it ended with a 13-2 lead for NIP with every Swede placing a 1.20 rating on higher — Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora being on top with 1.72.
After the half, FURIA were not able to even claim the pistol round on their CT-side, dropping down to a 2-14 scoreline. Things continued for the worse, with NIP not allowing the Brazilians to claim a single round at all in the second half. Had the tables been switched with FURIA starting on the CT-side, we may have seen a much closer scoreline or even a different result, but it wasn't and NIP claimed the first map 16-2.
After a short break, it was time for NIP's map pick of Inferno, a different story in terms of win rates. NIP boast a 71.4% win-rate over FURIA's 42.9%, both teams having played it 7 times in the last 3 months. This time FURIA were the ones choosing their starting side, picking the CT-side in hopes of a favourable start.
Despite losing the pistol and allowing NIP to convert another three rounds off it, FURIA did win the first half, just barely posting a 8-7 scoreline. Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato was the standout player on the CT-side of FURIA with a 1.50 rating versus the the sole-Danish Patrick "es3tag" Hansen's 1.34 T-side rating.
Switching sides, NIP kicked it into 6th gear and stomped on any chances of a third map for FURIA. Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin decided his CT-side performance wasn't enough and dropped a massive 2.26 rating on his T-side alongside a continued good performance from es3tag. Winning the pistol, and only allowing FURIA to claim 2 T-side rounds, the primarily-Swedish team closed out the map 16-10 — qualifying to the Champions Stage in the process.
Ninjas in PyjamasFURIA| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin |
36 - 27 | +9 | 100.2 | 84.1% | 1.46 |
| Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora |
36 - 19 | +17 | 81.4 | 88.6% | 1.36 |
 Patrick 'es3tag' Hansen |
30 - 18 | +12 | 73.2 | 79.5% | 1.32 |
| Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner |
35 - 26 | +9 | 80.2 | 77.3% | 1.20 |
| Hampus 'hampus' Poser |
31 - 26 | +5 | 68.0 | 72.7% | 1.11 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
31 - 33 | -2 | 74.6 | 65.9% | 0.95 |
| André 'drop' Abreu |
27 - 33 | -6 | 60.8 | 63.6% | 0.88 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
22 - 32 | -10 | 52.9 | 65.9% | 0.76 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
20 - 32 | -12 | 53.1 | 56.8% | 0.69 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
16 - 38 | -22 | 53.3 | 56.8% | 0.59 |
The Champions Stage, a.k.a. the playoffs, is set to kick-off on Thursday in the Antwerps Sportpaleis with the top 8 teams of this Major playing in a single-elimination BO3 bracket.
