Ninjas in Pyjamas live to fight another season in the ESL Pro League after defeating Heretics 2-1 in the relegation stage.

As the match came to an end, the Swedish players certainly breathed a sigh of relief. Relegation to ESEA MDL at a time when things seem to be so unstable for them outside the server and questions remain about Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund's future would have been nothing short of devastating. It took them three maps and almost four hours to beat a stern Heretics side, but in the end they got what they wanted and held on to their Pro League spot, exacting revenge on the French team for the pre-relegation stage defeat.

The Ninjas will now turn their attention to the StarLadder Major, where they will be playing with Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim as a stand-in. They lie in wait in the New Legends Stage, kicking off August 28.

The first map of the series was Nuke, where Ninjas in Pyjamas were in control for the vast majority of the game. After keeping Heretics in check in the first half, taking eight rounds on the Terrorist side, the Swedes assembled a watertight defense and prevented their opponents from stringing rounds together to lock down the map at 16-10.

Plopski shines as NiP beat Heretics in a hard-fought series

Next up was Inferno, where Heretics had run out 16-14 winners in Thursday's pre-relegation game between the two sides. Ninjas in Pyjamas got off to a slow start to the game and found themselves down 1-5 despite winning the pistol round, but improved towards the final stages of the half to reduce the gap to three rounds. After switching sides, the Swedes tried to overcome the deficit, but the Frenchmen held strong on the defense to force a third map.

Dust2, which had also been the decider in the previous series, saw a dominant Terrorist side from Ninjas in Pyjamas, who cruised to a 10-5 lead. It looked like the Swedes had the game under control, but Heretics responded in kind in the second half to pile the pressure on their opponents. But all of a sudden, a lost anti-eco as the Frenchmen were about to equalise the score swung the tide back in the favour of Ninjas in Pyjamas, who put together a string of rounds to lock down the map.

ESL Pro League Season 9 Europe RelegationBest of 3 HereticsMatchpage 1 2 18th August 2019 Ninjas in Pyjamas 10Nuke 16 16Inferno 12 11Dust2 16

Heretics	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Bryan 'Maka' CandaMaka	56 - 57	-1	77.0	1.03
Jérémy 'jeyN' NguyenjeyN	55 - 53	+2	75.7	1.02
David 'Davidp' PrinsDavidp	52 - 49	+3	67.5	0.99
Logan 'LOGAN' CortiLOGAN	46 - 58	-12	64.0	0.91
Gaëtan 'JiNKZ' JaminJiNKZ	38 - 58	-20	54.0	0.80

Ninjas in Pyjamas	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez ZamoraPlopski	79 - 47	+32	110.9	1.69
Patrik 'f0rest' Lindbergf0rest	63 - 47	+16	79.2	1.19
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundGeT_RiGhT	45 - 48	-3	61.9	0.98
Jonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonLekr0	48 - 56	-8	66.9	0.92
Fredrik 'REZ' SternerREZ	39 - 49	-10	59.8	0.88

With Ninjas in Pyjamas coming out on top, the team list for ESL Pro League Season 10 Europe is now complete. The tournament will kick off on October 8, featuring the following 16 teams:

Vitality
Natus Vincere
G2
North
fnatic
Windigo
HellRaisers
Sprout Astralis
FaZe
MOUZ
HEROIC
OpTic
BIG
Aristocracy
Ninjas in Pyjamas Ninjas in Pyjamas #11 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonFredrik 'REZ' SternerNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora OpTic #18 René 'cajunb' BorgMathias 'MSL' LauridsenKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeNikolaj 'niko' KristensenRené 'TeSeS' Madsen HellRaisers #29 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowTomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýChristian 'loWel' Garcia AntoranIssa 'ISSAA' MuradŽygimantas 'nukkye' Chmieliauskas Maikil 'Golden' Selim Age: 25 Team: Cloud9B Rating 1.0: 0.94 Maps played: 489 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.70 BIG #25 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschJohannes 'nex' MagetIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşOwen 'smooya' Butterfield Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund Age: 29 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 1594 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.64 HEROIC #14 Adam 'friberg' FribergPatrick 'es3tag' HansenNiels Christian 'NaToSaphiX' SillassenMartin 'stavn' LundBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Astralis #3 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif North #12 Philip 'aizy' AistrupMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeJakob 'JUGi' HansenNicklas 'gade' GadeValdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangså MOUZ #10 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongÖzgür 'woxic' EkerDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' Kool Windigo #24 Kamen 'bubble' KostadinovBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınAli 'hAdji' HaïnoussGeorgi 'SHiPZ' GrigorovValentin 'poizon' Vasilev Sprout #32 Florian 'syrsoN' RischeTimo 'Spiidi' RichterSabit 'mirbit' CoktasarNils 'k1to' GruhneJosef 'faveN' Baumann G2 #8 Audric 'JACKZ' JugRichard 'shox' PapillonKenny 'kennyS' SchrubFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayLucas 'Lucky' Chastang Heretics #52 David 'Davidp' PrinsLogan 'LOGAN' CortiBryan 'Maka' CandaGaëtan 'JiNKZ' JaminJérémy 'jeyN' Nguyen Aristocracy #37 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasJacek 'MINISE' JeziakKarol 'rallen' RodowiczMikołaj 'mouz' KarolewskiPaweł 'dycha' Dycha fnatic #15 Richard 'Xizt' LandströmJesper 'JW' WecksellSimon 'twist' EliassonFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Natus Vincere #6 Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov Vitality #2 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlex 'ALEX' McMeekinMathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut FaZe #7 Filip 'NEO' KubskiOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard