Ninjas in Pyjamas have booked a place in the TECHLABS Upper Bracket final following a comfortable 16-5 victory against Natus Vincere.

NiP got off to start on the Terrorist side, but that did not keep them from winning the pistol rounds. While four of NiP's players waited to rush the outer bombsite, Adam "friberg" Friberg went to the B site all by himself, forcing Na´Vi's players to rotate. As soon as his tem-mates started to push, Friberg made his move, taking two players to make things much easier for his side.

Na´Vi knew they had to turn things around quickly after losing the opening three rounds, but NiP continued setting the tone in the game, with Friberg doing all the work for his side as he picked up four frags.

In a desperate move, Na´Vi's players bought Famas in the fifth round, but that did little in the way of stopping NiP, who would also add the following round to make it 6-0 in their favour.

The Ukrainian team then finally managed to make their mark in the game, winning the seventh round thanks to some accurate AWP work by Yegor "markeloff" Markelov and a sheer demonstration of rifle control from Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev.

It was expected that winning their first round would boost Na´Vi's confidence and put them back in the game, but NiP regained control of proceedings and took the score to 10-1 as the Ukrainian team were simply powerless against their early rushes.

Markelov then showed again the level of form which had made him one of 1.6's best AWPers and helped Na´Vi to get their second round of the half with two great frags, but NiP looked far more determined and won the remaining three rounds, with Richard "Xizt" Landström getting the ace right before the teams switched sides.

f0rest again topping the scoreboard

Na´Vi knew they had to win the pistol round in the second half to have a chance to win the match, but things went from bad to worse for them. It looked like the Ukrainian team had this round under control after planting the bomb on the B site, but then Friberg covered himself with a smoke grenade and managed to get the defuse, leaving two Na´Vi players wondering what went wrong.

But then against all odds Na´Vi managed to get the second round after a partial buy, with Sergey "starix" Ischuk winning a 1-on-2 situation at the end with two great P250 headshots. The following two rounds also went Na´Vi's way, but it was too little, too late, as NiP walked out 16-5 winners to secure a place in the Upper Bracket final, in which they will meet the winner of the semi-final contest between ESC Gaming and Virtus.pro.

TECHLABS Cup 2013Best of 1 Ninjas in PyjamasMatchpage 16 5 23rd March 2013 Natus Vincere 16Train_se 5

Ninjas in Pyjamas	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Patrik 'f0rest' Lindbergf0rest	23 - 8	+15	-	1.82
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt	18 - 12	+6	-	1.45
Adam 'friberg' Fribergfriberg	18 - 14	+4	-	1.24
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundGeT_RiGhT	12 - 11	+1	-	0.95
Robin 'Fifflaren' JohanssonFifflaren	8 - 9	-1	-	0.78

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	15 - 14	+1	-	1.10
Yegor 'markeloff' Markelovmarkeloff	15 - 14	+1	-	0.97
Sergey 'starix' Ischukstarix	9 - 15	-6	-	0.62
Arseny 'ceh9' Trynozhenkoceh9	9 - 17	-8	-	0.53
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	6 - 19	-13	-	0.34