The finals of the X Games Invitational will feature a very familiar match-up to Counter-Strike fans.
French team LDLC will do battle with Sweden’s Ninjas in Pyjamas on Sunday afternoon, a rematch of the grand final at the last major of 2014, DreamHack Winter.
If this series is anything like that one, fans are in for a treat. LDLC prevailed at DreamHack to capture their first major title by defeating Ninjas in Pyjamas two games to one in a best-of-three series. The third and final game went to overtime before LDLC prevailed in the series that solidified Vincent “Happy” Cervoni as a star player for his team.
Setting up the rematch wasn’t easy for either team.
Ninjas in Pyjamas had to overcome fellow Swedish team Fnatic in the semifinals. Each of the first two games in that series came down to the last round of regulation, with the third game ending only slightly earlier in favor of Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Christopher “Get Right” Alesund topped the charts for Ninjas in Pyjamas as he is often expected to do, while sniper Mikail “Maikelele” Bill struggled. Bill’s impressive debut for the team at DreamHack Winter set a high bar for this play, and he has yet to match that in Aspen. His team will need a better contribution from him to assure victory Sunday.
LDLC were forced to go through Dignitas, and their series also went to a decisive third game after Dignitas refused to be put away on Inferno, the second map of the series and arguably LDLC’s strongest. But a big first half from LDLC on the terrorist side of Cache gave the team an advantage Dignitas couldn’t overcome, resulting in yet another tournament exit for Dignitas just shy of the grand finals stage.
While both LDLC and Ninjas in Pyjamas are unquestionably among the world’s top teams, they’ll be playing under different narratives when the X Games gold medals are on the line.
LDLC are looking to solidify their position as the world’s undisputed top team following their DreamHack Winter championship. Meanwhile, Ninjas in Pyjamas will be looking to make a return to the top of the podium and reenter the discussion of who the best team in the world is today after a slump in mid-late 2014 took them out of it.
The action is scheduled to get underway at 12:30 PM mountain time, and can be found on Major League Gaming’s streaming platform.
Screengrab via MLG.tv
