NIP, playing with academy in-game leader Erik “ztr” Gustafsson calling in the absence of Hampus “hampus” Poser, have booked their ticket to the GET Dubai grand final after defeating OG 2-0 on Overpass and Mirage. The Swedes, now used to playing with a dynamic squad that has seen many changes, continue to show great potential with Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin finding his place in the lineup.
NIP and MOUZ, who beat Movistar Riders in their semi-final bout, will face off on Saturday at 18:30 in the single-elimination bracket’s best-of-three final for the lion’s share of the prize pool, $100,000.
OG, who were working with their brand new players Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar and Maciej “F1KU” Miklas, and who were in the absence of coach Casper “ruggah” Due, will not have much time to tune their play ahead of their next tournament, BLAST Premier Spring Final, which they will compete at in Lisbon, Portugal, starting June 15.
Brollan was a force to be reckoned with on Overpass
The semi-final series kicked off on Overpass, where NIP got off to a flying start after winning the pistol round on the defense. A 1v3 by Brollan in the fifth round pushed his team up to a 5-0 start, but NEOFRAG then briefly popped off with several multi-kill rounds to get his team back in the half as OG went on to turn it around, 8-7.
The Swedes tied things up after the second pistol round, but gave up the forcebuy and lost three in a row. It was finally with guns in play that NIP regained their stride as an imposing Brollan lead the charge to lock the map down with 34 kills in the 16-11 victory.
It was in NIP’s hand to close the series out on Mirage, where a start on the CT side bore fruit despite a close 6-4 early on, as Fredrik “REZ” Sterner and company went on a tear late in the half stringing five consecutive rounds together to hit double digits by the switch.
Another pistol round going the way of Daniel “djL” Narancic’s men just about sealed the deal for NIP, who crept to match point with ztr even taking out his knife to slice Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski in the only round the Ninjas lost on the attack. From there, the Swedes closed things out comfortably, 16-5, to advance to the grand final.
