HooXi gets one over Snappi in the Danish IGL derby - EWC 2026

NIP's potential remains unrealised - if one can even call it that any more - as Astralis won out to move into playoffs at EWC 2026 over them.

At one point we were definitely excited by this team, but with each move they make and each time we see them play we become more and more embarrassed by that former opinion. Snappi has always been an IGL who gets the best out of hodge-podge teams of talented misfits, but even he's struggling to get a tune out of this one.

This isn't a horrendous result, or anything, we're just tired of NIP being nearlymen.

As much as we've stuck up for Snappi in the opener there, he and sjuush were truly awful on Nuke as Astralis were given the freedom of the plant to hurt NIP. xKacpersky put up some resistance against the onslaught, but he was essentially powerless to stop the inevitable tide of Danes on Nuke.

Never play Danes on Nuke, kids.

Inferno was a much better map from NIP, as they hung in 'til the end and came out on top in a close game, which has often been their kryptonite. They've struggled with closing out maps at times, so this was a relief. HooXi, remarkably, was having a stormer, and Astralis still didn't win that map.

But as NIP so often do, they fell with a whimper on map three. Their T side looked undercooked, and just as their CT side looked like it could take a foothold with Snappi finding a free kill in middle and stavn Scouting someone down at B to win a forcebuy, they were immediately pegged back by a fast A hit and forced into broken buys for most of the game.

sjuush tried to force NIP back into the game, but got caught out at B in a crucial round as he looked to bring them something down the stretch, and Astralis closed out the map quite easily.

MOUZ' Israeli duo powered them past a half-hearted PARIVISION who seriously lacked input from two of their younger players.

xiELO was one of the breakout players of the last 12 months but he had a horrible day at the office, offering just 13 kills over two maps as MOUZ ran rampant on Dust 2.

Even on Inferno, which was a much more competitive map, it was the experience of Jame and FL1T that kept PARIVISION in the map, with slaxejezzz having a torrid time. MOUZ huffed and puffed a bit, but always had the fallback of hitting the younger players who couldn't handle the raw power of xertioN and Spinx.

The duo combined for 70 kills in the series - zweih, slaxejezz and xiELO combined for just 54. It was a lesson that PARIVISION's youngsters are unlikely to forget any time soon.

Vitality recovered from Friday's ignominy to slaughter poor Lynn Vision, who were never even in with a shout.

ZywOo skipped down banana over and over again to wreak havoc to the defence on B, and even when they had a man advantage or two, they let mezii mow down four to take A and win the round.

Vitality won rounds with just a single gun, with man disadvantages - just totally unwinnable rounds, and they were winning them with ease. Whisper it quietly, but it felt like the era might not be over yet.

tikuak and DarkMeister continue to contribute as The MongolZ keep on chugging along and exceeding expectations. We were really unsure what to think of this team and eventually just decided to believe in maaRaa, and we're glad we did. They look a very decent side, and 2-0'd paiN without any real worries.

Legacy got a very important win over mibr, if not just for playoffs, but for bragging rights and confirming their spot near the top of the food chain in Brazil. It was a scrappy, messy, typical Brazilian derby, but Legacy just about got their noses ahead on both maps.

magic pulled off an eye-catching win over 9z, with that game covered in more detail in an earlier article.