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“Actually, they [SANDBOX] were quite explosive”: NiP detail Invitational-opening upset loss

It's early in the tournament still.

Image via Ubisoft

Ninjas in Pyjamas arguably had the roughest first day out of all the participants at the Six Invitational 2022. 

While SANDBOX are no slouch, it wasn’t hard for fans and analysts to predict the Brazilian NiP roster to triumph. NiP are the reigning world champions, they’ve been in the grand finals in three of the past four S-Tier events, winning one of them: SI 2021. Their aggression is bordering on legendary at this point, another SI victory would place this roster among truly elite company – only the old PENTA/G2 roster, the Evil Geniuses core, and Team Empire can lay claim to multiple S-Tier titles. 

SANDBOX shocked the world, not just by winning, but by how they did it. 

They took the first map from NiP, winning 7-4 behind a blistering attack. NiP bounced back on Clubhouse, one of their best historic maps, to force a map three. There, it looked like NiP were ready to close out SANDBOX’s upset bid after going up 3-0 on their attacking half. They would only win one of the next eight rounds. 

“Actually, they [SANDBOX] were quite explosive”, Gustavo “Psycho” Rigal said when asked about what went wrong for NiP. The answer was translated into English by a Ubisoft-provided translator. “...They can dominate, hold a great area of the map. That’s impressive.”

Psycho says they believe in the potential of the Korean teams as well.

The way NiP describes SANDBOX is similar to how other teams describe NiP. This is a team that scraps for every single inch of the map, that has the gun skill to contest all angles and any comers. They’re rarely on the back foot, they’re far from a holistically dominant dynasty but they’re clearly in the upper echelon of Rainbow Six Siege teams. 

Part of NiP’s day one struggles has to do with their coach, Jair “Mity” Soares not being in the room with them. Andre “BOB” Cardoso is there, and according to Kamikaze, he plays an important role in keeping the team’s infamous energy up. “We had this experience with BOB in 2020,” João “Kamikaze” Gomes said. “...he has a very important psychologic role.”

Without their coach there, the team is having a bit of trouble relaying information, but as long as BOB can keep their heads on straight, NiP is capable of anything. 

The tournament isn’t over yet for NiP, far from it. This is just the beginning, however unpromising it currently appears. They’ll need to figure some things out on the backend, but this is still a dangerous team. 

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