Ninjas in Pyjamas claim Global Esports Tour Dubai 2022

Global Esports Tour Dubai 2022 is finally over with Ninjas in Pyjamas claiming the Champions title. Following wins against NASR Esports and OG, NiP defeated MOUZ 2-1 in the Grand Final and took home $100,000 in prize money. 

This was no surprise considering the list of participants, but it was still a much-needed victory for the Swedish organization, which had to reach its ambitious goals without its superstar player, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz. He has been inactive for 7 months and at this point, nobody knows when he’ll be back.

NiP’s Road to victory at Global Esports Tour Dubai

The tournament had 8 participants, 3 of which entered the competition with realistic chances of winning, namely NiP, OG, and MOUZ. The full list of participants was as follows:

• NiP
• OG
• MOUZ
• Complexity Gaming
• Falcons Esports
• Movistar Riders
• TYLOO
• NASR Esports

Because of the small number of competitors, the organizers decided to host a short event, similar to the ones that BLAST experimented with back in 2018 and 2019. Global Esports Tour Dubai lasted just 3 days and in this regard was the equivalent of a Major’s New Champions Stage (or Playoffs). The competitive format was standard — Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and a Grand Final. Every match was best-of-three.

NiP’s matches

NiP’s path to victory was not easy. The team’s first match was supposed to be a formality, but NASR fought hard and won map one (14:16), despite a favourable first half for the Swedes (10:5). Patrick “es3tag” Hansen’s crew was much more focused on maps two and three, which they won with ease.

NiP were expected to struggle a bit in the Semifinals against OG. After all, OG used to be a top 10 team just three months ago. Even though that was with a slightly different roster, OG’s potential was still quite high. However, the Swedish side proved to be in great shape this time and ended the confrontation quickly — 16:11 on Overpass and 16:5 on Mirage.

In the Grand Final, NiP started again with a defeat on Nuke (11:16) but then came back with victories on Inferno (16:11) and Mirage (16:8). MOUZ was not an easy opponent and fought hard on map three despite the disastrous first half (3:12). It was clear to everyone that unless NiP make a lot of errors, MOUZ, ranked 16th, had little to no chance against the 7th best team in the world.

The MVP of the Grand Final was Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, whose numbers speak for themselves — rating 2.0 of 1.29 and a KD score of +15.

Header: Global Esports Tour Dubai 2022