In the first game of the European League of Legends Championship Series since Rift Rivals, Vitality took down Ninjas in Pyjamas by a 2-1 margin on Thursday during Week 6, Day 1 in Berlin.
Vitality (3-4, 7-9 match record) came into Game 1 with a high-damage, double-marksman composition, and picked up an early lead with two kills just a few minutes in. Once the midgame hit, Vitality snowballed immensely and began to rotate around the map to slowly pick up towers with ease. In the late game, AD carry Pierre "Steeelback" Medjaldi's Ashe landed a beautiful Enchanted Crystal Arrow onto NiP AD carry Martin "HeaQ" Kordmaa's Tristana, leading to a triple kill for Steeelback and a huge tempo swing for VIT. Taking down NiP's mid inhibitor and a Baron, VIT's 33-minute 9,000-gold lead was too much for NiP to overcome, taking Game 1 after a final 5-for-2 ace at 35 minutes.
Not content to just fall apart after a loss, Ninjas in Pyjamas (0-8, 2-16 match record) drafted a team with multiple sources of global pressure with Shen and Tahm Kench's ultimates along with Ashe's arrow and LeBlanc's clone and teleport. After picking up a couple of kills heading into the midgame, NiP's gold lead was small, but it showed it was more than capable of picking up kills from anywhere. With four members of the team able to relocate almost anywhere on the map rapidly, NiP's kill threat gave it an uncontested Baron kill at 28 minutes, which it parlayed into a 5,000-gold lead by 32 minutes. While Vitality secured a Baron of its own a while later, NiP's revenge couldn't be denied as HeaQ's Ashe picked up a triple kill in a final 5-for-0 ace as NiP won its second game of the split in 39 minutes.
NiP went with a teamfighting composition in Game 3 centered around Jarvan VI and Galio, but Vitality's double marksman composition with Corki and Twitch never gave NiP a chance. Vitality mid laner Erlend "Nukeduck" Vatevik Holm came alive early on with that Corki, securing first blood at just three minutes in what would be a dominating performance. Nukeduck pumped out massive damage as VIT took fights all across the map to snowball its lead out of control. After picking up a clean ace and Baron at the 24-minute mark, Vitality pushed its gold lead to 11,000 and quickly finished off the 27-minute romp behind Nukeduck's pentakill and 10/0/3 KDA (kills/deaths/assists).
Vitality prepare for a clash against Fnatic on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET, while Ninjas in Pyjamas will take on Splyce at 2 p.m. ET next Friday on July 21st.