NiP have won the ELEAGUE Group B final 2-0 over G2 (16-9 on Cache and 16-3 on Train) and advance to the playoffs of the $1.4 million tournament.
The second televised final of ELEAGUE pitted Group B's first seed G2 against the second seed Ninjas in Pyjamas, with the French-Belgian team having convincingly defeated the Swedes during the group stage matches a few days before.
With Cache being NiP's map pick, it was Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro of G2 who got the ball rolling on the first pistolround with a triple kill. Off of this round, G2 kicked off a superb defense at first, shutting down NiP's attempts to gain mid control and the French-Belgian team went up 5-0 on the half after also winning the first gunround and the following round.
f0rest has been experiencing a return to form at ELEAGUE, including the final
NiP managed to execute onto the B site on the sixth round and successfully defend against a G2 retake to give themselves a round on the board. From here on out, the Swedes seemed to somehow gain a mental and strategic advantage over G2, which was exacerbated by Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg and Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund winning a two-versus-five on the eighth round.
With no defensive answer to NiP's newfound aggression, G2 were unable to pick up anymore rounds and the Ninjas finished the half up 10-5. The second half saw a sloppy A take by G2 fall apart and NiP thus went up 12-5 before a G2 forcebuy put another round on the board for Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux & co.
bodyy did his best for G2 on Cache but the team overall seemed dispirted
Although G2 had a late game renaissance and manged to string together a few more rounds where Richard "shox" Papillon finally seemed lively, the map ultimately went into NiP's hands, 16-9.
The second map got rolling on Train and NiP's Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi picked up a triple kill for his team on their T-side to give NiP the first pistolround. Although G2 managed to win the first gunround afterwards, the Swedes suddenly turned on "Snus-mode" and pulled ahead to 10-1 on T-side before G2 answered back with a round that saw shox get three kills including with a grenade.
NiP's control of the first half economy near immaculate but the team finally took a slip on the fourteenth round where, despite a methodical entry, shox and Cédric "RpK" Guipouy scored three Five Seven kills to give G2 a third round in the half. NiP grabbed the final round of the half and ended up leading 12-3.
NiP then claimed the second pistolround of G2's map pick and things started to truly fall out of control for the latter team, including a team kill on the seventeenth round, and NiP cleanly walked away with a 16-3 win to close out the series.
ELEAGUE Season 1Best of 3 G2Matchpage 0 2 4th June 2016 Ninjas in Pyjamas 9Cache 16 3Train 16
Ninjas in Pyjamas
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
Patrik 'f0rest' Lindbergf0rest
43 - 27
+16
94.7
1.53
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt
33 - 28
+5
93.9
1.46
Adam 'friberg' Fribergfriberg
32 - 24
+8
87.8
1.39
Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvipyth
35 - 22
+13
80.4
1.39
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundGeT_RiGhT
35 - 28
+7
76.8
1.18
G2
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox
31 - 36
-5
71.3
0.91
Adil 'ScreaM' BenrlitomScreaM
28 - 36
-8
83.4
0.89
Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianarobodyy
33 - 37
-4
72.0
0.87
Edouard 'SmithZz' DubourdeauxSmithZz
18 - 36
-18
59.1
0.61
Cédric 'RpK' GuipouyRpK
19 - 34
-15
51.0
0.58
Group C action of ELEAGUE will commence next week and we will see SK, NRG, CLG, and Astralis all fly into Atlanta, Georgia in order to compete for a stake in the playoffs of the $1.4 million tournament.
stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter