Anonymo Ruin Device's NIP Debut In Flashpoint 3

Anonymo bounced back from a thrashing on Overpass (16-3 NIP) and clawed their way to a series upset on Nuke (16-13) and Mirage (19-17), kicking off their Flashpoint 3 campaign on the right foot.

A loss in their first match with Nicolai “⁠device⁠” Reedtz wasn’t what NIP were hoping for going into the match against the team ranked No. 44 in the world. It wasn’t only the debut of the Dane that was spoiled, though, but also the spectacle of the match as it was plagued by technical issues and pauses.

NIP CEO Hicham Chahine claims that significant packet loss for the members of the Swedish organization led to “unplayable” conditions for his team. Early into the match, after an hour-long delay on the first map, device took to Twitter to share that his team will have to “play on 30-40% [packet] loss”, expanding following the defeat that the loss spikes didn’t improve throughout the series. The AWPer, who still posted a server-high 1.32 rating, explained “he couldn’t move” in a clutch situation against Janusz “⁠Snax⁠” Pogorzelski, while Fredrik “⁠REZ⁠” Sterner added that he was unable use utility due to the poor connection.

Regardless of the issues NIP claimed to have, the result of the match sees NIP drop to the lower bracket, where they will have to beat the loser of FunPlus Phoenix – HYENAS to stay alive in the all-important Major-qualifying tournament.

mynio was the star in Anonymo’s upset

Paweł “⁠innocent⁠” Mocek‘s quad kill opened up the series on Overpass with a pistol win for Anonymo, which NIP instantly replied to with a force-buy victory. An extended tech pause followed, from which the Swedish side returned inspired. Mid-round situations kept going the way of NIP with youngster Erik “⁠ztr⁠” Gustafsson leading the fragging as they reached a 12-3 lead. device matched innocent‘s CT pistol performance with a 4K of his own after the switch, bringing the map to a swift conclusion, 16-3.

The Poles offered more resistance on Nuke, sprinting to a 4-2 lead as they started things off on the offense. device came online soon, inspiring NIP to seize control of the map (9-5) with opening frags and multikills. Anonymo got back into it with the last round of the half and second pistol going their way, equalizing things at 9-9. The squads were neck-and-neck for the rest of the map, but Wiktor “⁠mynio⁠” Kruk‘s team managed to pull it across the line on the defense for a 16-13 win.

In what was device‘s first Mirage official since 2019, NIP started off well (5-1), but Snax and co. gained steam as the half progressed, finishing it just one round behind after mynio‘s 1v4 clutch. The two teams were inseparable in the second half, pushing the decider to overtime where the Poles stole away the series 19-17.