Ninjas in pajamas

Strategy is a big part of video games at the professional level.One team that display alot of strategy  is the ninjas in pajamas.The ninjas in pajamas are a legendary team, coming second almost at every single major event making them one of the best teams in all of counter strike global offensive. Their most notable events are EMS One Katowice 2014 and ESL One Cologne 2014 although the ninjas had come second at almost every single event they stayed determined to win.

At EMS Katowice 2014, the ninjas in pajamas were one of the favored teams to win the event along side the Polish home team Virtus Pro.After an amazing show throughout the brackets of the tournement the ninjas in pajamas made it to the finals against the home team Virtus Pro.In the first map of a best of three, the Polish team dominated the ninjas having a half time score of 5-10. An awful scoreline for a team on the more favored side of the map, making them the under dogs to win the fist match of the final. But in a stroke of lucky the ninjas magically managed to grab 4 rounds making the score nail bitingly close, But Virtus Pro kicked in to action decimating the ninjas making the scoreline of the first match match 16-9. The ninjas were battered but not broken. After the break ,they came back with a revengance. But Virtus Pro were not fazed everything that ninjas in pajamas threw at Virtus Pro didnt work, the ninjas had a repeat of the first map and lost the tournement 10-16.In a 2-0 loss to Virtus Pro this is the first time in counter strike that the ninjas lost 2-0 in a final.

Fast forward a couple of months to ESL One Cologne at this time the ninjas were in the worst form of their careers, they were the running joke at the tournement. But even tho they were out of form the worn out ninjas in pajamas still managed to make it to the finals after a long road to the finals.In the finals they met their fivals team Fnatic.The ninjas were looking to take this final in the first map Fnatic ran a clinic on ninjas in pajamas but after a clutch round from friberg a memeber of the ninjas ninjas in pajamas ran it back to take the first map with a scoreline of 16-11.

friberg's clutch round

After the ninjas won the first map they were fired up and looked like they were in complete form and ready to win, in a 2-0 fashion.But they were not the only legendary team there, Fnatic took the ninjas on the map they choose decimating  them with a scoreline of  16-8 making the ninjas look weak against the swedish super team.

But on the last map the ninjas fought with everything they had making the round and won of their least expected players,Fiflaren made a play lifting the back and forth battle from the ashes and catapulting the ninjas Ahead causing them to win the game.

The ending scoreline was 16-13 making this the first major title that the ninjas had ever won in their careers. here is a video of the reactions of the player on the ninjas in pajamas

Also if you want to see what happend throughout the major here is a video.
work cited:
 lurppis.(2014)NiP win ESL One Cologne 2014 retrieved fromhttp://www.hltv.org/news/13070-nip-win-esl-one-cologne-2014
lurppis.(2014)Virtus.Pro Win EMS One Katowice 2014 retrieved from http://www.hltv.org/news/12212-virtuspro-win-ems-one-katowice

Fnatic

video games have a very high skill gap at the competitive level.One team that displays this amount of skill is Fnatic. They are a Swedish star team, that was created in late 2013 after the dream hack event. They have since began to dominate the professional level, making it to the finals of three major events such as: Dreamhack Winter 2013, ESL One Cologne 2014 and ESL One Katowice 2015 placing first at both Dreamhack Winter 2013 and ESL One Katowice 2015.

          http://www.csgoseries.com/assets/uploads/2015/04/Fnatic-wins.png

It all began in early 2013 when the team won their first major title Dreamhack Winter 2013, over the favored team ninjas in pajamas. In an almost lack luster final, the ninjas in pajamas ran a clinic on Fnatic in the first half of the match. However, Fnatic found their footing later in the second half, running the match back just barley edging out the first match, making the final score of the first match 16-14.The second match however, gave everyone a shock the team ninjas in pajamas made Fnatic look like a complete joke, completely annihilating Fnatic making the second match second match score line 16-6. Although Fnatic were battered and bruised they came with a game plan on their last match of the final. Fnatic brought the same intensity that ninjas in pajamas had brought and crushed them in a way no one expected, the score for the last match of tournement was 16-2. After many months of hard work and training Fnatic had finally taken down the legendary team that was ninjas in pajamas. Here is a video of the team celebrating after the event win. :


Skip forward two more years to 2015 were Fnatic find themselves against their swedish rivals, ninjas in pajamas who also took last years title ESL One Cologne in a crushing victory over Fnatic. This time around Fnatic came back with a better game plan, this time they came with a strategy.

        http://8frag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/esl-one-katowice-2015-fnatic-win.jpg
The finals of ESL One katowice greatly favored Fnatic because they were playing the best counter strike of their short yet fruitful careers, no team could stop them. But in the finals of this event their skill was greatly tested by ninjas in pajamas. The ninjas were not going to go down without a fight however the first map was almost a complete repeat of Dreamhack 2013 were Fnatic had an uphill battle beating all the odds with some amazing clutch rounds coming out of all their players, making the first match scoreline 16-14. The second match however, showed a tremendous amount of skill and strategy coming out of the swedish legends.Taking the second match off the red hot Fnatic squad after the crushing scoreline of 10-16.The third match was the most nail biting match of the whole entire event througout the last match there were many individual plays coming out of both sides.But in the end Fnatic prevailed, with a scoreline of 16-13 going on to obtain their second major title making them the first team in counter strike global offensive history to win two majors. here is a clip of the final round and the celebration of the swedish super star lineup. 
The team Fnatic displays the high skill gap at the competitive level by being consistently able to dominate teams at the highest level of play.

cited sources
Anakiatan.(2013) fnatic win DreamhackWinter 2013. Retrieved from http://www.hltv.org/news/14496-fnatic-beat-nip-to-win-katowice-major

Miraa.(2015) fnatic beat Nip to win Katowice major. Retrived from http://www.hltv.org/news/14496-fnatic-beat-nip-to-win-katowice-major