Liquid smash NIP again as Krimbo shines in stand-in debut
In a rematch of their recent Blast Bounty duel, Liquid and NIP faced off again on the opening day of IEM Kraków. All eyes were on Karim "Krimbo" Moussa as he made his stand-in debut in place of Keith "NAF" Markovic, who was unable to attend the event.
On their map pick of Nuke, NIP took the opening pistol and initial momentum, but this did not dissuade Liquid from playing boldly. Krimbo even attempted a ninja defuse, though it was a 1v2 from Guy "NertZ" Iluz that eventually tied the game 5-5 and led to a 2-round lead at the half.
After winning the subsequent pistol round, it was smooth sailing for Liquid’s T side. They would take NIP’s map pick just as they did in BLAST Bounty, this time winning 13-6 with the aid of a 19-7 performance from Krimbo.
On Liquid’s pick of Mirage, NIP again won the opening pistol pretty decisively. The teams traded rounds until NIP were finally able to string together three straight. However, Liquid answered back with two consecutive wins of their own, now trailing only 5-7 at the half.
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski secured the second pistol with a dualies 4K and proceeded to capitalize on some chaotic encounters in the next couple rounds, prompting NIP to call a timeout. However, this tactical pause came too late to cool down the red-hot EliGE, who would finish the map with 22 kills and a 1.75 rating.
LiquidNinjas in Pyjamas| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
32 - 24 | +8 | 85.9 | 77.5% | 1.31 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
32 - 21 | +11 | 77.7 | 82.5% | 1.28 |
 Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa |
27 - 13 | +14 | 78.8 | 85.0% | 1.25 |
 Guy 'NertZ' Iluz |
29 - 20 | +9 | 71.7 | 77.5% | 1.25 |
| Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek |
22 - 20 | +2 | 73.6 | 85.0% | 1.17 |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck |
28 - 26 | +2 | 80.2 | 70.0% | 1.24 |
| Kacper 'xKacpersky' Gabara |
22 - 29 | -7 | 61.5 | 60.0% | 0.75 |
 Artem 'cairne' Mushynskyi |
19 - 30 | -11 | 49.3 | 55.0% | 0.68 |
| Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer |
11 - 29 | -18 | 49.4 | 50.0% | 0.60 |
| Artem 'r1nkle' Moroz |
14 - 31 | -17 | 50.5 | 57.5% | 0.56 |
Liquid will face the winner of Passion UA vs G2 tomorrow.
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