First Half

Defense: NiP
Offense: Astralis

The first thing I noticed about NiP's play was their extreme change from the last series of matches I spectated. I mention in SpawN section of my SK team breakdown that it really seemed like the NiP tactics were holding SpawN and other players on the team back from their actual natural play style. NiP was very passive and had a lot of flashbang bait setups that didn't give the players a chance to do what they all do best, frag. Now when I watch them play NiP has a lot of different setups so the offense can't really predict them, and they are also switching it up a little more from aggressive and passive. NiP was also extremely good starting off the half with their counter flashbangs.



The only bad thing I saw happen with NiP's defense was that they were very susceptible to fakes. The way that they played in bombsite A most of the time, was with three players all focusing on the middle and window room. Myself and cBz debated on this once before. The pro to not having halls covered is that any good team is going to flash or smoke from the halls as soon as they are ready to take it. The con is that they are going to be able to fake an A tactic very easily if you are not watching the halls at all. This is exactly what Astralis did. While Nip was not watching the halls at all, they would flash and smoke it, causing a little rotation and making the left middle player start falling back with one of the B players shifting over and then Astralis would take B in a four on one and usually win the round.

I'm going to give away the ending right now, Astralis lost this first half 9-6. I'm not going to get into the good things they did too much, because it was mostly based off of NiP's mistakes. Although Astralis took advantage of these situations, when you have a team with experienced players like Potti and Heaton, they shouldn't have made those mistakes in the first place.



Astralis, like I said, is working with a fairly new lineup that hasn't really been to any major international tournaments yet. The offensive side of the map is much more about teamwork and timing rather than setups and communication. The biggest problem I saw was the lack of teamwork. The major way you can tell a team is new and lacking proper practice, is that it looks like a bait fest. Although Astralis has very experienced players, if you don't have the experience of knowing how your team plays (i.e. if they like to push a lot, peek, or play very passive), you’re going to lose.