Natus Vincere took out Ninjas in Pyjamas on Inferno (16-12) and Train (16-13) in their BLAST Premier Fall Series opening match to secure a spot in the Group 1 upper bracket. Natus Vincere start their BLAST Premier Fall Series run with a win against Ninjas in Pyjamas, and will now make their way through the Group 1 upper bracket, where they will face the winner of Evil Geniuses vs. OG, while the loser will fight Björn "THREAT" Pers’s men to keep the hope of qualifying straight through to the Fall Finals without having to go through the Showdown. Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev was key to Natus Vincere's success against Ninjas in Pyjamas with a 1.49 rating, bouncing back from an uncharacteristic dip in form in the last two IEM New York CIS matches, which he ended with a below-average rating. "I wanted to be ready individually to see that I can play my best game," the Ukrainian star said in the post-match interview when asked about his performance. Before their opening BLAST Premier Fall Series bout, Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas finished their respective Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournaments in fourth place. The CIS side lost to IEM New York CIS champions Virtus.pro in the semi-final before forfeiting the third-place decider to Spirit, while the Swedes fell to the two DreamHack Open Fall finalists, Vitality and HEROIC, in the upper bracket quarter-finals and lower bracket final, respectively. Tim "nawwk" Jonasson downed three CTs in the opening pistol round on Inferno to get his team on the board, but the Swedes were stopped the following round as NAVI took the forcebuy with doubles by Denis "electroNic" Sharipov and Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov. Ninjas in Pyjamas won their first gun round with a play on A, but quickly found themselves down 2-7 in subsequent rounds, and although they were able to get within one point of tying it up, they eventually finished the half down by three, 6-9. Simon "twist" Eliasson downed three with the USP to make it 7-9, and two rounds later nawwk single-handedly won a 2vs2 afterplant situation to get the tie. Down 10-11 Natus Vincere won map control and played a late A execute, which they won with two clean entries on the site to bring things back to even. The CIS team then entered the B site equally as clean the following round to retake the lead, imposing their will late in the map to take it 16-12. Ninjas in Pyjamas took the lead on NAVI’s pick, Train, on the favored CT side, but s1mple and company tied it right back up after four rounds before taking the lead against a hard eco in the fifth. Doubles by Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora and Hampus "hampus" Poser in a forcebuy made it 3-4. The two teams struggled to gain control, going back-and-forth, but Ninjas in Pyjamas broke the attacking team’s economy to go up 6-4 before closing the half out 9-6. The Swedes flooded the A site with glocks to hit double digits in the first round of the second half, going on to win three rounds before back-and-forth rounds ensued with the Swedes trying to switch up the pace, but NAVI gained control on the defense, not wanting to let go of the map. After tying it up 13-13 the CIS squad kept their momentum going on to close the series out 16-13 and secure a spot in the Group 1 upper bracket.Natus Vincere
Matchpage 2 0 26th October 2020
Ninjas in Pyjamas 16Inferno 12 16Train 13
Natus Vincere
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple
61 - 32 +29 92.3 1.50 Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie
37 - 29 +8 69.4 1.13 Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4
38 - 38 0 83.8 1.07 Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto
34 - 37 -3 64.6 1.03 Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic
30 - 37 -7 73.0 0.96 Ninjas in Pyjamas
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Simon 'twist' Eliassontwist
38 - 42 -4 79.2 1.00 Tim 'nawwk' Jonassonnawwk
36 - 36 0 59.6 0.96 Hampus 'hampus' Poserhampus
41 - 44 -3 72.3 0.95 Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez ZamoraPlopski
28 - 41 -13 65.3 0.85 Fredrik 'REZ' SternerREZ
30 - 38 -8 64.2 0.83 Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Age: 21 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 790 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.69
Evil Geniuses #6
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz
Tarik 'tarik' Celik
Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte
Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov
Björn 'THREAT' Pers
Age: 32 Team: Ninjas in PyjamasC
Ninjas in Pyjamas #15
Simon 'twist' Eliasson
Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner
Hampus 'hampus' Poser
Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson
Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora
Hampus 'hampus' Poser
Age: 21 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1078 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.69
Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson
Age: 22 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 685 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.63
HEROIC #2
Casper 'cadiaN' Møller
Johannes 'b0RUP' Borup
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen
Martin 'stavn' Lund
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora
Age: 18 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 727 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.66
Virtus.pro #28
Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliev
Timur 'buster' Tulepov
Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Spirit #17
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov
Nikolay 'mir' Bityukov
Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev
Artem 'iDISBALANCE' Egorov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Natus Vincere #5
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov
Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy
Simon 'twist' Eliasson
Age: 25 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1405 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67
Vitality #4
Richard 'shox' Papillon
Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov
Age: 22 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 990 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.66
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Age: 23 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.24 Maps played: 1243 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.65
OG #8
Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt
Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangså
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Issa 'ISSAA' Murad
Mateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski