TSM are the first to advance to the ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational grand final after a 2-1 victory over NiP (de_dust2 7-16, de_mirage 16-8, de_inferno 16-10).

The first map chosen for the first semi-finals best-of-three was NiP's pick, de_dust2, where the Swedes started as Terrorists, setting a quick pace throughout the entirity of the half.

With a pistol round in the bag, Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström led his team to a 6-0 lead with quick pushes, through short in the first gunround, and split B in the second, enforcing a tactical pause on TSM's side.

That seemed to be fruitful enough, as the Danes picked up two in a row afterwards, just for NiP to reply with two gunrounds of their own to make it 9-2. As the Swedish side was unable to win duels across the entire map, TSM were allowed a third in the half, but that was all the ESL One Cologne semi-finalists could do for the remainder.

The second pistol round went TSM's way by the skin of their teeth, and they also survived both scary anti-ecos, in both of which NiP were in in a number advantage at certain points. 

Another solid performance from f0rest helped NiP win de_dust2

The teams then exchanged two rounds for 13-7 as TSM pushed through short to win a forcebuy, but NiP's one at the B bombsite shut them down again, which was enough to close map one out at 16-7.

de_mirage followed and it was NiP yet again picking up the initial pistol on the Terrorists side and make it 3-0 in their favor to start things off. A quick A split didn't work out as well in the following round, TSM's crossfire disposed of the offence.

A couple of forcebuys went 50:50, as in the first, TSM barely won a 2-on-1 against Xizt, while in the second Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund's insane 180-degree Tec-9 double forced TSM to save two weapons.

A rush B backfired into NiP's faces, but another forcebuy afterwards kept TSM on low economy for 5-4 in the Danes' favor before NiP tied it up again after Xizt's 1-on-2 off of Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg's triple. Three peculiar buys afterwards didn't put a dent in TSM's armor, but towards the end of the half, Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli showed up with six kills in two rounds to set the score at 8-7 in favour of Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's squad.

The Danish in-game leader himself was having a good game, as usual on de_mirage, and his team's quick mid rush overpowered NiP for 11-7 after another two scary anti-ecos. Quick link push in the first gunround gave them another round, as well as abusing Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg alone inside the A bombsite for 14-7.

As usual, karrigan was in the spotlight on de_mirage

NiP managed to hang onto their mirage lives for a round, but it wasn't enough to get them back in the game, as we could see TSM tie the match at 1-1 before the server switched to map three, de_inferno.

There it was TSM to start as Terrorists that time around, and picked up the first pistol round as they won a 2-on-2 afterplant on the B bombsite for a flying 5-0 start after a quick A split in the first gunround.

Xizt's five kills in the next two rounds helped NiP get up on their feet, eventually for 6-5, still in TSM's favor, which was when Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz defended an afterplant situation on B with a solo triple in a 3-on-3. A three-rifle forcebuy on NiP's side worked out well, and another 3-on-2 retake went their way too before they made the half 8-7 with a solid defence on A.

A clean pistol round put them up on 10-7 before they gave a weapon away before running into a B stack, which was enough for TSM to start rolling rounds in, when NiP's economy was shredded into pieces. Time and time again NiP were unable to make a good enough entry into either of the sites, and TSM stormed through the remainder of the rounds to advance to the grand final at 16-10.

ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational 2015Best of 3 TSMMatchpage 2 1 11th September 2015 Ninjas in Pyjamas 7Dust2 16 16Mirage 8 16Inferno 10

TSM	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	64 - 51	+13	-	1.22
René 'cajunb' Borgcajunb	54 - 49	+5	-	1.05
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	45 - 49	-4	-	0.93
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	44 - 45	-1	-	0.92
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	43 - 52	-9	-	0.85

Ninjas in Pyjamas	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt	57 - 50	+7	-	1.09
Patrik 'f0rest' Lindbergf0rest	53 - 52	+1	-	1.00
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundGeT_RiGhT	52 - 50	+2	-	0.97
Aleksi 'allu' Jalliallu	44 - 49	-5	-	0.95
Adam 'friberg' Fribergfriberg	39 - 50	-11	-	0.78

Next up at ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational is the second semi-final of Virtus.pro and fnatic, kicking off as soon as both teams are ready.

Richard 'Xizt' Landström Age: 24 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 781 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Aleksi 'allu' Jalli Age: 23 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 451 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.64 Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund Age: 25 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.22 Maps played: 787 KPR: 0.82 DPR: 0.60 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 20 Team: TSM Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 449 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.63 Adam 'friberg' Friberg Age: 23 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 775 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.65 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Age: 25 Team: TSM Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 505 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.69 Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg Age: 27 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.19 Maps played: 774 KPR: 0.81 DPR: 0.63