After the thriller Ninjas in Pyjamas had against TSM earlier today, this match put the ESL One Cologne winners on trial once more. EnVyUs, winners of DreamHack Winter, were on their way to continue their streak of being involved in every CS:GO major final. The French, meanwhile, looked strong during the days before, but were they able to take down NiP and thus break a very impressive series?

MAP ONE: Cache
Starting as T, Ninjas in Pyjamas scored the pistol round and took down EnVyUs the following rounds as well. Four rounds in total went to the Swedes before Happy and his team could stop them for the first time. However, Xzit and his mates didn’t let their control on the match slip, continuing their streak as if this one round never happened. After extending their lead to ten rounds, EnVyUs struck back, bringing the scoreline to 10-2 in favor of the Swedes. The remaining rounds were shared between the two teams with NiP going into the second half by 11-4.

EnVyUs took the swing from the last two CT rounds over to their T half, winning the pistol round as well as the two following round with NiP saving up for the 19th round to come. But even the full equipped Ninjas couldn’t stop the French from bringing the score to 11-8. One more round went to the French before Ninjas in Pyjamas came back starting another streak on their own, and extending their lead to 14-9. The game was taken to mappoint right after and Ninjas in Pyjamas ended it early on winning Cache by 16-9.

MAP TWO: Dust2
Ninjas in Pyjamas were able to keep the spirit up from Cache, winning the pistol round and taking the following two rounds as well, before EnVyUs scored their first round. From this 3-1 for NiP, the French took the game to an all even three each, getting more comfortable with the CT role against strong Ninjas. The following rounds saw EnVyUs continuing their streak, only stopped one time, taking the score to 7-4 in their favor. However, Ninjas in Pyjamas didn’t leave them scoring four consecutive rounds and bringing the score to a very close 8-7 in their favor.

With the pistol round going to the French, the game was back all even, only to see Friberg and his mates stepping it up once again to take the following two before EnVyUs get the bomb down and kept Xzit, scoring an ace in the process, busy until he got no time to defuse. NiP was leading 10-9 and extending their lead onwards to 14-9, even though this needed Friberg and his mates clutching rounds again and again. EnVyUs were able to bite back one more time, before NiP took the game to match and game point. It was only one more round before Ninjas in Pyjamas booked their ticket to the fifth out of five CS:GO major grand finals. EnVyUs struggled to find a way gain the upper hand in the game and saw the Swedes dominate like back in the early days of competitive CS:GO. Tomorrow we will see the rematch for the ESL One Cologne 2014 final with Ninjas in Pyjamas playing the all Swedish Grand Final against Fnatic.

Check the ESL One website and our Twitch.tv hub for results, streams and more. Find the VODs so far on our YouTube account and get regular updates on the tournament on Twitter and Facebook from ESL Counter-Strike!