NiP avoids scare to secure semifinals spot with Fnatic at DreamHack Winter

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

After losing their first map of the $250,000 DreamHack Winter CS:GO Finals to LGB eSports, NiP stormed back with two wins in a row to cement themselves a spot in the semifinals. Game 1 went the limit as LGB won 16-14 in a nailbiter, prompting NiP to talk it over before continuing the series. NiP's team discussion and vast tournament experience on both train and inferno was all they needed to come back, winning both maps led by top fraggers Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg and Adam 'friberg' Friberg.

"We kind of felt the Dust 2 game we threw it away I think, we had a good T side and could have pushed a lead even further", Friberg said the team's mentality after losing on Dust 2. "They won every important round and we didn't manage to close out the game. Afterwards we talked about communication. The more we talk, the calmer we are on the calls and the better we play. We were very confident coming into train, and it was great to start as T as our teamplay was pretty good there. We just shut it down on CT."

"On the last map we won the pistol round and the first weapon round and had a 5-0 lead that was huge going in as T. We just kept on playing slowly, playing together as a team, getting map control, and finishing on the site. Our play on inferno and train was awesome today."

Fellow Swedes Fnatic will join NiP in the semifinals after a close three-game set of their own against France's Recursive. Jesper 'jw' Wecksell continued his strong play from the group stages to the quarterfinals, leading the team with a 22 k/d ratio. Both NiP and Fnatic await the results from Group C and Group D for their Semifinals pairings.

Poland's Universal Soliders and iBuyPower from the United States were both eliminated in the group stages. US, the former Counter-Strike 1.6 powerhouse under names Pentagram and ESC Gaming, has found disappointing CS:GO results similar to Ukraine's Na'Vi.

Group C with VeryGames, Complexity, n!faculty, Xapso and Group D with Astana Dragons, SK Gaming, Reason and CPH Wolves begins on day 2.

Image Credit: Helena-Kristiansson - DreamHack Flickr