by Kia KahaNiP and G2 on to the SL i-League StarSeries Season 2’s grand final
Ninjas in Pyjamas cruise past Cloud9 with a 2-0 score (16-9 Dust2, 16-7 Cobblestone) to secure a spot in the StarSeries Season 2 grand final.
The match started off on Dust2, NiP’s pick, with Cloud9 winning the pistol round as CT’s, but the Swedes responded the following round with a pistol-armor force buy.
Coming into the first few buy rounds, it was Mike “shroud” Grzesiek and Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham picking up key frags to give their team the early lead before NiP got back in the lead with their slow and methodical Terrorist side.
Timothy “autimatic” Ta made a good play on round 14 by pushing the B tunnels while NiP was executing a B-split, caught the bomb carrier off-guard, but Cloud9 was unable to clutch out the round in the end.
NiP finished the first half with a 9-6 lead and took the momentum into their CT side, with Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg and the stand-in Mikail “Maikelele” Bill combining for clean pistol round win.
GeT_RiGhT showed up massively on Dust2
When the full buys came in, Cloud9 were able to consistently get plants, but were unable to hold off the retakes by NiP – with a Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund M4A4 double kill on A site allowing a crucial one in round 21.
The Ninjas closed out the map with a comfortable 16-7 score before moving on the Cloud9’s pick – Cobblestone.
The first two rounds were a carbon copy of what we saw on Dust2, with Cloud9 winning the pistol but not being able to hold against the force buy push from NiP – even though they had four players stacked on the correct site.
Richard “Xizt” Landström’s team took that opening to build a strong lead, abusing the weak economy of the CT’s and switching between fast and slow rounds to catch Cloud9 off guard.
The North American team managed only four rounds on their CT side, and once again couldn’t get the Terrorist pistol round to kick-start a comeback on the second map of the series.
Grzesiek showed up in round 19 with a couple of key kills, Latham clutched out a 1v1 against Bill in round 21, but the efforts were ultimately futile as NiP closed the match 16-7.
At the other semi-final defeat dignitas and joined NiP in SL i-League StarSeries Season 2’s grand final following a narrow series with dignitas (2-0; Cobblestone 16-13, Dust2 16-12).
To start off the second semi-final, G2 swept dignitas in the first three rounds of Cobblestone as Terrorists. The Danish side took two to their name, forcing their opponents on an eco, but Richard “shox” Papillon’s team came out on top anyway.
Once again forced on an eco after losing the next round, Papillon picked up a fantastic ace with a 1v3 clutch, helping his squad get up to 8-3. There was still life left in the Danes, as at that point dignitas won a partial eco of their own on the back of doubles from René “cajunb” Borg and Ruben “RUBINO” Villarroel.
G2 still went over with a considerable 10-5 lead, but it was shortly lowered to only three rounds as Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke grabbed four kills in the second pistol round. Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro was the hero then, providing three deagle one-shots in the second eco, while Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom rubbed salt in the wound by winning a 1v2 in the following round for 13-7.
dignitas changed up the pace and pulled themselves back in the game with a few fast executes, making it 13-12. With great individual play from Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux and Benrlitom, who each got three kills in two of the next three gunrounds, G2 closed out map one at 16-13.
dignitas were on the receiving end of shox’s wrath on Cobblestone
On Dust2 the sides swapped, as G2 took the pistol as CT after a retake scenario on A, but dignitas were the ones to win the first several gunrounds. The Danes abused rotations over and over and went with a fast-paced approach, taking eight rounds in a row for 8-2.
G2 took a timeout and managed to get their first gunround on the board, but dignitas replied with two in a row, enforcing an anti-eco situation. Dubourdeaux closed out the half at 4-11 with a quick quad-kill with an AWP in a hard situation.
The French-Belgian roster began closing the gap with the second pistol as well as the following gunround in the bag, and exchanged the next two for 11-12. The score was even once Borg had to save the AWP for the third round in a row, and G2 soon took their second lead in the map as dignitas took a timeout.
It didn’t come to any fruition however, G2 retook the lead for the first time since the fourth round and completed the comeback at 16-12, only dropping a single round in the second half.
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