Neither of these teams expected to be fighting for survival this early, which makes this one of the most interesting series of the round. The good news for NiP is that the format changes to best-of-three, and that should suit a roster with this much experience much better than the opening BO1s.

Luminosity have shown flashes of good Counter-Strike, but they’ve also struggled to close out important rounds. They were competitive against both Nemesis and Lynn Vision, yet still walked away empty-handed. That lack of chemistry after the IGL change is very hard to ignore when every map now matters.

NiP haven’t looked convincing either, but they’ve arguably had the tougher path, losing a close overtime game to 3DMAX before being completely outplayed by Alliance. With Snappi, sjuush, and stavn leading the way, this feels like the type of series where experience should finally make the difference. I don’t expect it to be comfortable, but NiP are still my pick to survive.