Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Fnatic 2-0 in their first group stage game of the 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour Masters 1 on Monday. While forced to rely on substitutes, Fnatic couldn’t manage to overcome the coordination from NiP.
By winning, NiP will face off against DRX on Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET to see which team will qualify for the playoff stage of Masters 1: Reykjavík.
We take down @FNATIC in our opening match in #VALORANTMasters pic.twitter.com/cYnQ9wjKYj
— Ninjas In Pyjamas (@NIP) April 11, 2022
Map 1: Ascent
With Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev’s unavailability due to COVID-19 and Andrey “BraveAF” Gorchakov’s suspension creating roster issues for Fnatic, the team started slow just as NiP started strong by going up 6-0. But with an ace from Joona “H1ber” Parviainen, Fnatic finally took their first round of Masters 1. They managed to win a couple more, hitting halftime down 3-9. But losing three rounds meant little with NiP’s Walney “Jonn” Reis posting a lobby-leading half on defense.
While Fnatic tried to claw their way back into the map, a clutch 1v3 from Benjamin “bnj” Rabinovich put NiP up 11-7. That momentum led NiP to win the map 13-7, a solid first map for the Brazilian team considering Fnatic picked Ascent.
Map 2: Split
Split started a bit closer than Ascent, with both Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic trading rounds. But, as halftime approached, NiP continued their strong form, bringing the score to 8-4. Alexandre “xand” Zizi on Raze led the lobby for the map, keeping pinned Fnatic down. Notably, when the score was 11-8 for NiP, they won a very crucial thrifty round with only pistols and a shorty. With more great play from Jonn, NiP won the map 13-8 and the series 2-0.
This puts Fnatic down 0-1 heading into the rest of the group stage, just like OpTic Gaming, KRÜ Esports and ZETA DIVISION. Speaking of ZETA, Fnatic will face them next in the group stage, one of the teams guaranteed to claim their first win of the tournament.
