13. NiP over RDW – (13-10) – CPL Summer 2001 – December 4th – 9th, 2001

"Before X3 vs NiP we had NiP vs RDW"

HLTV Demo (de_dust2)

NiP Roster

HeatoN
Potti
ahl
hyb
Medion
Vesslan

RDW Roster

vanin
kaspiris
dkt
wombat
revenant

Jumping bomb plants, out loud radio commands, obviously this was a long time ago in Counter-Strike. To be exact, it was CPL World Championships 2001 on CS 1.3. Even the oldest CS players remember NiP against X3, the Grand Finals of that event, but few remember RDW facing NiP. This is one of those classic matches that was overshadowed by a later match in the tournament.

RDW simply outplayed NiP in the early pistol rounds showing a dominance that was actually quite surprising against a European team that was given so much hype heading into the tournament. RDW was 2-0 on pistol rounds during the one map on Dust2 and converted all the following two save rounds in both situations for a total of 6-0 score. With only a max rounds of 12 per side, it seemed obvious that reaching 13 rounds to secure a victory would be a much easier task for the American RDW team.

An expected but phenomenal comeback was made in both halves by the Swedish powerhouse NiP. The first half started with RDW on the defensive side of the very offensive favored Dust2. A score of four or five rounds would have been enough to mount a comeback when they switched sides but the Americans blew past that mark putting up six rounds. On the back of strong play from George Kaspiris, former RDW member and current CPL Press Communications Director, who posted above a 1.000 FPR for the half, RDW pushed to an early lead gaining four rounds before NiP rallied.

Able to take advantage of solid offensive strategies, NiP traded two rounds for one, picking up enough to secure a tie going into the second half. It didn't look like enough for the Swedes when RDW came out and won the second half pistol and two save rounds. Then an unexpectedly strong bomb site A defense was developed by NiP. Johan “Vesslan” Ryman's AWP locked down long A choke point while Emil “Heaton" Christensen dominated the catwalk.

This impressively strong play forced RDW to concentrate its offensive strategies at bombsite B. Being allowed to play more aggressively because bomb site A was on lock down, double door/middle position player Tommy "Potti" Ingemarsson flanked and took out RDW's attacks to bomb site B. This combined with the ability of the entire NiP defense to collapse on that bomb site led to RDW losing 13-10.

The importance of the match was two fold. It was the first true test on American soil against an American team for NiP. On top of that, it set the table for and built the hype around theX3 against NiP match that was to come later. Another important factor was also the two pistol round wins as the Europeans were rightfully attacked on their pistol round abilities. Playing a different style of game, Chargers Only, the importance of the pistol round had so many European teams including NiP lacking the refined pistol round strategies. This match in particular awakened them to their need to develop them in order to avoid upsets against well schooled and disciplined American teams.