NIP Outlive Fnatic, Spirit Demolish Imperial In Lower Bracket Contests At IEM Summer

NIP have defeated fnatic to move on in Group B’s lower bracket following a 2-1 victory over their Swedish rivals, which demonstrated the Flashpoint 3 runners-up’s resilience as they turned around an unlikely position on the decider map thanks to a monstrous 2.28-rated T side performance from Fredrik “⁠REZ⁠” Sterner. Meanwhile, Spirit were unstoppable against Imperial, crushing the Brazilians on Mirage (16-4) and Dust2 (16-3).

With their respective wins, NIP will move on in Group B’s lower bracket to face off against the loser of Heroic and Evil Geniuses on Saturday at 13:30 , while Spirit await the loser of OG and Virtus.pro in the next round on the same day at 16:45 .

REZ was the difference-maker in the series with a 1.45 impact rating

Two players were primarily responsible for their team’s wins on the first two maps. REZ put up a strong performance on Ancient, the first time either side had played the new map in an official, to help the Ninjas strike first blood in the series, while Ludvig “⁠Brollan⁠” Brolin was the driving force for fnatic on Overpass with 10 multi-kill rounds (30-12 KD-D, 132.7 ADR).

It was the Freddy “⁠KRIMZ⁠” Johansson show at the start of Inferno. The veteran rifler was unstoppable on the Terrorist side, leading his team to a 9-0 start on the offence with 17 kills, but NIP eventually got on the board in the 10th to kick-start an outstanding comeback. After finding themselves down 6-12, REZ and Nicolas “⁠Plopski⁠” Gonzalez Zamora awoke to outshine their opponent’s T half to win 10 out of the subsequent 11 rounds and lock down the map 16-13.

Spirit put on an imperious display against Imperial with no weak links in sight. The Brazilians, who looked less than inspired, won a total of seven rounds over both maps as the CIS side wreaked havoc. An Abdul “⁠degster⁠” Gasanov and Viktor “⁠sdy⁠” Orudzhev masterclass on Mirage was followed up with a superb showing from Nikolay “⁠mir⁠” Bityukov on Dust2, who posted a 2.03 rating and 142.6 ADR to wrap up the series with a 16-3 scoreline.