Team Envy dominate Ninjas in Pyjamas, win second consecutive event

Team Envy added another notch to their belt, and once again it came at the expense of Ninjas in Pyjamas.

At the 12h Star Ladder Star Series final today, Envy swept Ninjas in Pyjamas in the final to take home their second consecutive title. It was a repeat of last week’s Gfinity Masters final, where Envy beat Ninjas in Pyjamas three maps to one. The only difference was that Envy’s performance today in Kiev was all the more dominant.

Between the upper bracket final and grand final, Envy defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas in four consecutive games with Ninjas never reaching a double digit round total on any of the maps played. Envy were especially dominant when closing out each series, as their final wins in the two matches came by margins of 16-1 and 16-2, respectively.

Envy were keyed against their Swedish rivals by the efforts of Vincent “Happy” Cervoni. Ninjas in Pyjamas veteran player Patrik “Forest” Lindberg played terrific Counter-Strike throughout much of the tournament, but when the time came to square off with Envy, he came up short.

The event further solidifies Envy’s claim of being arguably the world’s best in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, though it remains hard to argue against reigning ESL Katowice champions Fnatic, even as they were absent from a second consecutive tournament of note.

For Ninjas in Pyjamas, the team’s inability to deal with Envy is cause for frustration. The Swedes played quite well otherwise, sweeping Team SoloMid, Titan, and Virtus Pro en route to the final. But in spite of managing to defeat Envy in Katowice earlier this month, Ninjas in Pyjamas seem to have run out of answers for the top French side. And that couldn’t have been any more clear this weekend.

For Virtus Pro, the event was a brutal disappointment. The Polish side finished last in spite of received a first round bye. Their loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas was one-sided, and while they put up a better fight against Team SoloMid in the lower bracket, failing to win a match simply isn’t a result up to the standard the team has set.

Tied for last with Virtus Pro were Natus Vincere, who in spite of their opening round victory over Team SoloMid are certain to leave Kiev wanting more. The domestic squad was the only team able to take a game off of Envy, but four consecutive games lost following that victory left the fans in attendance with much less to cheer about.