Defending champions carry on as Virtus.pro lose to NiP

In the third round of the SL i-League StarSeries S3 Finals group stage, Virtus.pro faced off against Ninjas in Pyjamas. The match was played on Nuke: Virtus.pro had vetoed Cache, Overpass, and Cobblestone, while the Swedish team had declined Mirage, Train, and Inferno.

Match stats (Nuke)

NiP won the knife round and chose the defense side. In the pistol round, Virtus.pro entered the lower bomb site and planted the bomb, but NiP used smokes and defused it. The Poles went for a force buy and attacked the A site, but Xizt made four kills.

VP.G2A won an eco with deft plays outside (1-2). The Swedes went for a force buy and stood their ground. Virtus.pro entered the upper bomb site via B and took the round, with NEO winning a 1v3 clutch (2-3).

The Polish team went down the outside areas using a “smoke wall”, but the Swedes were prepared for that (2-4). After five unsuccessful attempts to come back in the game, VP sent a player to the lower bomb site under a smoke cover and entered the A site after a pause (3-8).

Slowing down the tempo, Virtus.pro entered the lower bomb site, where they were unable to develop the situation while outnumbered. The Poles entered B via the upper site and protected the bomb (4-9). Ninjas in Pyjamas had the upper hand in their force buy, and went on to finish the first half with a score of 4-11.

The Swedes won the second pistol round and made no mistakes in the two rounds that followed (4-14). NEO saved his team from defeat in a 1v3 situation. NiP made the best of their awareness of VP’s economy, and ended the game in two rounds: 5-16.

Virtus.pro G2A’s next opponent will be known after the match between Astralis and fnatic, which starts at 20:30 CET.