NiP secure their place in the Group B upper bracket final ahead of Evil Geniuses following a 2-1 victory.
The semi-final kicked off on EG’s map pick Dust2, where the North American side picked up the pistol on the T-side off the back of a triple kill from Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov. NiP came back in the following round securing a full eco victory to bring back the momentum in their favour and were quick on a 3-1 lead.
A mobile CT side gave the swedes and edge over Evil Geniuses clinical T side, with the NIP looking miles ahead of them and went on to extend their advantage to a commanding 11-4 score line before the switch, with Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg top fragging with 23 kills.EG had no way back into the game as the Swedes were quick to closed out the map to pick up a huge 16-4 victory.
Going into Nuke, Evil Geniuses looked sharper as they breezed to a 5-0 advantage on the defence, with Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte taking the lead after a poor first map. A quad kill from Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora got the Swedes on the board and a subsequent two rounds followed in their favour. NiP were hot on Evil Geniuses’ heels moving forward, but a CeRq 1v1 clutch enabled the North Americans to stay ahead by edge to head into the halfway mark with an 8-7 lead as momentum swayed both ways. The second half saw both sides pick up a three-round streak each the North Americans held their nerve to take the map 16-14 to force a third map.
In the third map inferno, the Swedes failed the pistol but immediately answered with a force buy victory taking the economy on their side as they managed a 6-1 lead on the T side. Evil Geniuses managed to secure some round with forced weaponry, but NiP were in control all the way. Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson delivered by his high standards for the remaining of the half, with the Swedish side cruising to a 12-3 lead. A triple kill from Fredrik “REZ” Sterner in the second half pistol ended the story for EG as NiP looked closer to victory as they were quick to hit 14 rounds. Evil Geniuses managed one round from a 1v2 clutch by Tarik “tarik” Celik, but the score showed how far behind were the North Americas as NiP closed out the map dominantly 16-4, and the series 2-1.
