1. NiP over X3 – (12-16 in OT) (13-11) - CPL World Championships Winter 2001 – December 4th-9th, 2001

“Beginning of Professional CS”

NiP Roster

Heaton
Potti
Ahl
Medion
Carlund

X3 Roster

Rambo
Ksharp
Bigdog
Bullseye
Chameleon

Does this match really need any build up? I mean it was obvious when the list was first announced. Anyone who questions it only need talk to any CS player who was around back when the matched happened. One player who didn’t play but should of all players have a bias against that match was XeqtR. He played on the team that finished third, mTw.GoL. When I asked him what was the best match, instantly he responded with X3 versus NiP.

Everyone who was there understood that CS had changed forever after the match took place. No longer was CS second game behind Quake. No longer was CS a slow game that no one could understand or follow. CS had arrived.

The fans and the concentration of everyone were insane. People hung on every shot and cheered when one player was fragged. This was unheard of in eSports before this point. Most people were use to a one versus one battle and intrigued by that battle, but didn’t understand the complexity of eSports. With the release of HLTV and the meeting of the two best teams in the World after an amazing event, it all culminated perfectly. A script writer couldn’t have done better.

Then the match; it lived up to the billing and then some. The first map showed most of the excitement. Many thought X3 might get rolled after their 13-9 loss on Train in the upper bracket finals against NiP. X3 not only didn’t get rolled they dominated the first match. Largely that was on Kyle “Ksharp” Miller’s shoulders. Do you want to know why Ksharp is the most well known player in American CS?

He got the fortunate spot of playing next to Dustin “Chameleon” Porter. Everyone in the building knew Porter wasn’t up to the standards of the rest of the nine players in the server. Some, including X3 members, believe that if they had played Bobby “sickness” Moyini, their sixth man, instead of Porter they would have beat NiP. They might have been right.

Still, the key for Miller was that not only X3 and everyone knew Porter wasn’t up to the same skill level, NiP knew it too. NiP attacked his spot, ramp room, mercilessly. Everyone round they attacked and because Miller played support at ramp he was constantly helping out Porter. With that Miller racked up a 21-8 score in 12 rounds, 1.750 FPR. The play was astounding against the best team in the World.

X3 had trouble though giving up a few rounds to end the half as Miller cooled down and even lost a chance to win a 1v1 after he fragged two members in a 3v1. Still a 7-5 first half win was salvaged by X3. They all but iced the match by winning the pistol round in the second half.

X3 creamed NiP in a ramp rush as Ray (Bigdog), three, and Miller, two, scored impressive frags. X3 used the advantage to take the next three rounds, two saves and another ramp rush. Finally NiP won a round before X3 came back and won the next round. At this point NiP had no money and was forced to save on defense. The match looked like it was over at 12-6 and NiP in a forced buy with no money. Still NiP changed the game right there.

Stacking ramp they took out a few members before X3 fell down into the lower bomb site. NiP used the guns to take out a few more X3 members leaving a 2v1 against Ray. This is one of the rounds in the game that really hurt Ray later after the tournament was over. He placed a ton of pressure on himself for X3’s loss and this round was a large part of that feeling. NiP pushed on Ray who was in the dead hall and fragged him with neither guy having armor.

NiP used that round to run off the next five rounds and force a tie. One of the rounds was the well known boost by X3 outside on the platform. Ron “Rambo” Kim was boosted and managed to score two frags but had a chance to do much more including two more NiP members in the upper bomb site. Still NiP won and forced overtime.

NiP used that save round to build momentum and take on X3 in the second map. X3 rolled in overtime of the first map 4-0 but the second map was mostly NiP who defeated X3 13-11. The impact of the game is enormous.

Not only did it start professional CS and prove to everyone this is a huge deal but it might be the directly responsible for the creation of SK.swe. All of CS can be tied back to this match and without it we wouldn’t be where we are today.