NIP with huge upset win to become first team to qualify for Fall Final

When BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023 began one week ago, everyone would have looked towards Heroic and Vitality as the two nailed on favourites to qualify to the Fall Final straight from the group stage.

However, as the Group Final of Group A has now been played, Vitality will instead have to run the gauntlet of the Knockout Stage thanks to a shock defeat at the hands of Swedish squadron NIP.

A team bolstered by the return of their in-game leader hampus, who started their tournament off with a loss against Complexity, no one would have expected them to become the first team to qualify, so how did they get to this point?

The road to the Winners Match

As previously mentioned, NIP kicked off their time in Copenhagen with a 2-1 loss versus Complexity. A team also featuring a new player in the shape of EliGE, at the time, the result seemed to indicate positive signs for Complexity, and that this NIP team would need time to get back up to speed with hampus.

NIP followed up their opening game by playing in a Lower Bracket Final against an Evil Geniuses team that they were expected to dominate. As it happened, it didn't pan out that way, and again, people were wondering how long it would take for this NIP line-up to get on their feet. Despite winning, it was anything but comfortable, and requiring two overtimes said a lot more about NIP than it did EG.

Still, a win is a win, and it meant they would live to fight another day. A rematch against Complexity in Group A's Consolidation Final, this time, they would triumph. Incredibly close once again, it would take all three maps and a great comeback from NIP at 15-11 down on Nuke to win the series, but that was enough to see them through to face Vitality in the Group Final.

Photo: Michal Konkol

Facing the Major Champions

Although Vitality may have also made a change coming into the event, with flameZ replacing dupreeh, they seemed unaffected by it as they demolished both Evil Geniuses and Complexity in their earlier games.

With flameZ shining, and NIP so far looking shaky at best, another dominant performance was expected, but what we got was anything but.

Instead, it would take NIP only two maps to secure their place at Fall Final, and even though both of those maps were close, it didn't feel like Vitality would ever close either map out over their opponents.

It's a rarity to see ZywOo drop 30 and still lose on a map, but that was the exact story on Mirage. A 16-13 scoreline, the trio of Brollan, k0nfig, and headtr1ck proved to be too much for the rest of the time to handle as NIP secured their map pick.

Brollan continued his fine form into map two, Overpass. This time top fragging the whole server with 27 kills, that was one kill higher than Spinx could manage on the side of Vitality. 16-14 when all was said and done, Vitality will of course be disappointed not to win, but NIP will be happy with the fact they qualified for Fall Final and took great strides as a team in doing so.

Photo: Michal Konkol