Ninjas in Pyjamas pulled off a big 2-0 victory against Fnatic in the EU LCS to boost the team’s confidence heading into the promotion tournament.
Going into the game, Fnatic and NiP had nothing to lose. Roccat had beaten G2 Esports in the previous game, securing Fnatic first place in the group.
NiP, on the other hand, were guaranteed to finish last in Group A, and knew they would have to fight through the Promotion Tournament for a chance at regaining their EU LCS slot for the 2018 Spring Split.
In the first game, NiP took a surprising early lead over Fnatic by perfectly executing ganks to score early kills and objectives over their opponent. NiP, however, could not transition this early lead into something concrete, as Fnatic stole a Baron from them on the 20-minute mark to deny them a real chance of winning the game.
It would still end in a Fnatic defeat, however, as NiP caught out the unsuspecting members of Fnatic by near-perfect vision control and team synergy to take the first game of the series.
The second game was by far the most hectic, crazy, and longest game that both teams had played throughout the entire season.
The match lasted 57 minutes with both teams earning over 100,000 gold each. Five Barons were taken over the course of the game, as well as two Elder Dragons, and four normal dragons.
It was chaos.
Fnatic took complete control of the game from the beginning, and it looked like the team would tie the series in dominant fashion. Then, everything changed when NiP started to find successful team fights against the aggressive Fnatic side.
In the end, NiP outplayed Fnatic in every aspect. It looked like Fnatic didn’t have the drive to continue, and no matter how much the team pushed, NiP were one step ahead of them. It wasn’t long until NiP found the final Baron of the game to walk into Fnatic’s base, getting a successful teamfight and completing the turnaround to win the game—and the series.
NiP will be hoping to use this surprise victory to turn their season around when they head into the Promotion Tournament, and hopefully make a swift return to the EU LCS.
