NiP advance to New Legends Stage over ViCi
Ninjas in Pyjamas have defeated ViCi 2-1 to secure their place in the New Legends Stage at IEM Katowice (16-7 on Train, 13-16 on Inferno, and 16-10 on Mirage).
The first game of the 2-2 pool featured Ninjas in Pyjamas and ViCi who kicked off the best-of-three series on Train. ViCi started the map on the CT-side and won the pistol as WingHei "Freeman" Cheung and ZhiHong "aumaN" Liu got double kills. Ninjas in Pyjamas responded in the fourth round, with Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg and Fredrik "REZ" Sterner opening up the B-site (3-1).
aumaN and WeiJie "zhokiNg" Zhong's double kills in the following round made it 4-1 in ViCi's favor. f0rest picked up a triple kill in the sixth round, initiating a four-round streak for Ninjas in Pyjamas which gave them the lead (5-4). aumaN got an AUG quad kill in the tenth round to tie things up at 5-5 and ViCi secured two more to lead 7-5. Ninjas in Pyjamas won the last three rounds of the half to finish it 8-7 ahead.

f0rest played a crucial role in the second pistol as he picked up three kills in a 2vs3 post-plant. The Swedish squad had an impeccable CT-side campaign and earned eight match points after Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson and Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund clutched a 2vs4 in the 22nd round. The Ninjas closed out the map swiftly as REZ secured the victory with a triple kill (16-7).
Inferno started with ViCi winning the first three rounds without much trouble on the T-side. The Chinese team made it four in a row after aumaN and Andrew "kaze" Khong clutched a 2vs4. Ninjas in Pyjamas got on the scoreboard in the sixth round and followed it up with four more to tie the game at 5-5. f0rest's incredible ace gave the lead to Ninjas in Pyjamas who went on to finish the first half 8-7 in front.

ViCi came out on top in the second pistol round and reclaimed the lead after aumaN won a 1vs2 in the following round (9-8). Ninjas in Pyjamas took their first round on the T-side during a force buy but ViCi extended their lead to 14-9 to respond. Lekr0 kept Ninjas in Pyjamas in the game with a 1vs3 clutch in the 24th round but ViCi managed to finish it off in the 29th round by winning a 3vs3 post-plant on the B-site (16-13).
GeT_RiGhT won a 1vs2 and got a quad kill to kick off Mirage as the T-sided Ninjas in Pyjamas took the pistol round victory. After losing the first weapon round, Ninjas in Pyjamas hit back swiftly with a force buy to make it 3-1. ViCi weren't able to string together more than two rounds and the Swedes won the half 11-4.
ViCi managed to get the bomb down on the B-site in the second pistol round but Ninjas in Pyjamas's successful retake extended their lead to 12-4 and the Swedish side won the map with a 16-10 final scoreline, taking the series 2-1 and punching their ticket to the New Legends Stage.
IEM Katowice 2019 Challengers StageBest of 3

K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 63 - 49 | +14 | 85.6 | 1.27 |
![]() | 55 - 48 | +7 | 76.7 | 1.18 |
![]() | 58 - 52 | +6 | 78.1 | 1.15 |
![]() | 54 - 53 | +1 | 78.2 | 1.13 |
![]() | 51 - 51 | 0 | 65.1 | 0.96 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 65 - 54 | +11 | 86.3 | 1.12 |
![]() | 56 - 55 | +1 | 82.8 | 1.10 |
![]() | 60 - 60 | 0 | 81.5 | 1.09 |
![]() | 43 - 57 | -14 | 68.1 | 0.83 |
![]() | 28 - 56 | -28 | 46.3 | 0.65 |








































