Both teams chose to forfeit in the middle of a professional Counter-Strike 2 match, letting the final map and the series itself be determined by a simple coin flip. Why? Because another qualifier scheduled for today has much higher stakes in the Valve Regional Standings.
Earlier today, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Aurora faced off in a best-of-three as part of the CCT Season 2 Europe Series 18 Closed Qualifier. However, both CS2 teams wanted to compete in the BLAST Rising Europe open qualifiers later on, meaning the match would have to end after two maps for both teams to have time. Unfortunately for both NiP and Aurora, they split the first two maps, and with their BLAST Rising qualifier matches starting soon, both teams chose to forfeit.
Following the third map, caster Charlie “Cmd64” Drudge explained that Aurora had forfeited the map due to scheduling. However, the official NiP account on X stated that both teams had actually forfeited, but NiP had won the coin toss.
The decision to skip the rest of the CCT match in favor of the BLAST Rising qualifier actually panned out for NiP. The Ninjas won the Nordic Open Qualifier, earning a guaranteed spot in the closed qualifier that begins tomorrow. Unfortunately for Aurora, they didn’t just lose the coin toss, as they were eliminated in the semifinal of their BLAST Rising open qualifier.
Both teams consider the risk worth the reward. The closed qualifiers for BLAST Rising are events ranked by the Valve Regional Standings, and making it past qualifiers would be very rewarding to a team’s ranking. Format is the big difference maker. The CCT closed qualifier is also ranked, but it uses a group stage format, so one loss won’t immediately eliminate a team like Aurora. However the BLAST Rising open qualifier is a single-elimination bracket, so missing your match would result in instant elimination.
Do you think we’ll see this happen more this year in CS2? Let us know what you think down below or in the official Insider Gaming forums.
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