Ninjas in Pyjamas has successfully battled it out through the IEM Road to Rio 2022 Europe RMR A, beating the likes of Astralis (16-12), Bad News Eagles (16-7), and Cloud 9 (2-1) in their current Counter-Strike campaign.
The international CS:GO roster has cemented its spot in the IEM Rio Major 2022, starting Nov. 5, alongside heavyweights FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere.
NiP remained untested throughout the RMR. Astralis has been shaky at best, BnE is severely inexperienced, and Cloud9 is generally a team that’s going occasionally beat the top tier, but be upset themselves.
These wins, however, have clearly boosted morale on the NiP side, with Hampus “hampus” Poser expressing only appreciation for his new IGL, Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen.
Aleksib was brought into the Swedish org earlier in September and has clearly made improvements to the team’s structure, also allowing hampus to focus on his own game, instead of IGLing.
The Swedish player said in an HLTV interview: “It’s been nice. I didn’t know him from before, I’ve only said hello to him at events and not really even had conversations, but I’ve always played against him.”
“Even in tier two before, when he was in HAVU, I was in Passions, Red Reserve, all this stuff, so I’ve known him for a super long time as a player and I know he’s super good when I’ve played against him.”
Hampus took a few subtle potshots at AleksiB’s previous org too, admitting he was confused as to why he was removed from the G2 roster in the first place, saying, “He’s just a great IGL. I don’t know why G2 didn’t want him.”
G2 is currently on the verge of losing it all. The international squad was recently upset by 1WIN and is now in the 1-2 pool of the RMR. Their upcoming match against GamerLegion is going to decide their major fate.
Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand has been carrying the GamerLegion side, if he manages to hit all the right shots, G2 could easily be out of this major. This would be a massive reputational blow for G2, alongside the fact that stickers from the Challengers and the Legends stage bring in a large source of income for the organizations and the players.
With the volatility of the Counter-Strike community at the heels of G2, there is a chance they could choke this opportunity.
And one team’s loss is another team’s gain: NiP’s Swedish squad member expressed admiration for the ex-G2 commander’s calling style in their roster, telling HLTV “he’s just so smart, he brings structure which I think we need.”
All RMRs are still underway, with big names like G2 and Astralis suffering Major-threatening blows, potentially being some of the last nails in their coffins.
Published: Oct 6, 2022 07:33 pm