Na`Vi against EnVyUs. Ninjas in Pyjamas vs GODSENT. Two of these teams would battle in the finals to take home $100,000 by winning DreamHack Masters Malmö. Here's how the final day went down.
Sunday began with Natus Vincere taking on EnVyUs in the first semifinal tournament. The French EnVyUs had been struggling for months leading up to this event, and its recent player change has yet to pay dividends. Na`Vi came into the match as clear favorites, having won five previous head-to-head matches, with its previous loss being the grand final of DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca from November of last year.
Na`Vi's deep map pool gave the squad Dust2 first, and stellar defensive play from Denis "seized" Kostin helped the ex-CIS juggernaut put together an 11-4 opening half, on the harder side of the map. Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer's team had no answer to the play of their opponent's Russian duo, who combined for 50 kills on the map in just 23 rounds, with triple digit average damage stats per round, and a combined kill-death difference of +26. EnVyUs stood no chance on the opener.
Up next was Inferno, pick of the Frenchmen and the only map I had favoured them on going into the game. Nathan "NBK" Schmitt's side started on the harder side of the map, and it quickly became apparent they were not going to be able to pierce Na`Vi's defense. None of its star players showed up to lead the way, and the team overall looked like a glorified pick-up-game team; just a group of good players playing by themselves. Na`Vi steamrolled them 16-2 on the map, leaving no doubt as to who the better team was amongst them.
The all-Swedish brawl was much more eventful. A rough veto made the first map Cobblestone, where Markus "pronax" Wallsten's GODSENT started up 7-1 on defense. But NiP would not go away, despite surrendering a half-time loss on the easier side, and got to 7-8 by the end of it. After throwing away a five-on-two pistol round, GODSENT won six of seven, putting it again in the driver's seat at 14-11. Yet once again, NiP somehow clawed itself back into the game, winning five straight rounds, including a one-on-two clutch by Richard "Xizt" Landstrom to close the map 16-14.
On Train it was NiP who started off hot, gaining a 6-0 lead as Terrorists before GODSENT replied. Simon "twist" Eliasson led their effort, and they managed to go on 8-1 run to close the half, once again up 8-7 when switching sides. However, this time around it was NiP that got off to a great start, gaining a commanding 13-8 lead. Andreas "znajder" Lindberg's team would not go down without a fight though, and they came within inches of winning in regulation, prior to NiP tieing the game to send it to overtime... only to lose quickly with a 4-1 score line in GODSENT's favor.
NiP won the pistol round as Terrorists on Mirage, but then disaster struck. Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson won a memorable one-on-three with his Desert Eagle, and GODSENT shut down the Ninjas across the map, running up a comfortable 9-2 lead, putting them seven rounds away from the grand final. In big games the mental aspect matters, and it seemed as if GODSENT crumbled once favored. NiP won four straight as terrorists, including Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg's one-on-two and Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund's final one-on-one, and then completely shut down their opponents on defense. NiP quickly won, advancing to the grand final.
Danilo "Zeus" Teslenko's team were clearly favored to win it all. They have been a better team for nearly a year now, and in the past six months been a legitimate top three team in the world - a place NiP used to be a lock in, but had not even thought of in a long time. To make matters worse for NiP, as the on-air analyst Duncan "Thorin" Shields commented they had no good map against Na`Vi, who never play NiP's favorite, Cache - they effectively had to pick their poison. There was no way NiP were going to get a good map draw in the grand final.
First seven rounds on Dust2 were traded, but a string of five round wins allowed Na`Vi to lead 9-6 at half, despite starting on the clearly harder side of the map. Na'Vi then won the pistol round of the second half, gaining money control and a 10-6 lead, signaling to fans the map should soon be over - especially given NiP's lack of history on it since Jacob "pyth" Mourujarvi joined. But the Ninjas summoned a new level of play from within, going on a 9-2 run on the harder defensive side, with Na`Vi suddenly having no answers. The Swedes took map one, 16-14, in front of an ecstatic home crowd cheering the letters NiP in Malmo.
Stellar Terrorist play gave NiP an early 7-3 lead on Cobblestone, with Na`Vi having no answers early on. Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs could not dominate, as he usually does, but his team refused to give up; somehow Na'Viwon the next five rounds to close the half. It also started the second half on a 5-0 run, all of a sudden putting the team up 13-7 moments after having seemingly been on the backfoot. But in fitting fashion, given NiP's earlier matches at this tournament, it mounted a comeback. In a team effort that culminated in all five members between 21 and 23 kills on the scoreboard, NiP won nine of the next ten to win the grand final 2-0 and be crowned as the champions.
By winning DreamHack Masters Malmo, NiP win its first large international tournament since ESL One Cologne 2014, more than 18 months ago when it had a similar grinding performance of multiple comebacks to win it all. No longer the frontrunners who dominate their opposition, it seems that Bjorn "threat" Pers's addition as the coach and in-game leader of the team has helped them completely changed their playing style, for the better. Welcome back to the small group of contenders, Ninjas in Pyjamas.