IEM Summer 2021’s long group stage is nearly over as one final knockout spot remains.
With the upper brackets decided in IEM Summer 2021, the lower bracket contenders continued to sort themselves out in day 3. The day started with Ninjas in Pyjamas facing off against Heroic, winning out 2-0. On map one, Mirage, NIP fell behind early and left T-side at a 4-11 deficit. Through Linus “LNZ” Holtang and Nicolas “Plopski” Zamora, NIP did the impossible.
An impressive defender side pushed the game into OT, where NIP eventually won 19-17. Heroic were unable to keep the second map, Nuke, as competitive as Mirage. Clearly holding the momentum, NIP ran away with the map in the second half (16-7). NIP’s most recent acquisition, Nicolai “device” Reedtz had one of his strongest showings since joining the roster.
Virtus.pro win the CIS rumble
In yet another CIS matchup internationally, Virtus.pro came out on top to compete for the final knockout stage spot. Spirit started off the series strong by taking a contentious map, Dust2 (16-11). Ancient featured the final map between the two, where VP pulled out a tight OT win (17-19).
One of Virtus.pro’s typically quieter members, Alexey “Qikert” Gloubev, had an incredible series. Alongside an incredible final map on Ancient, Qikert found 73 total frags and 88 ADR across the long series. Having a hot start to the year, Virtus.pro has largely fallen behind Gambit as the best performing CIS team. Now with a shot against NIP, VP can change that narrative.
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