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Ninjas in Pyjamas easily made their way past French team LDLC.com in the second semi-final of ESL Major Series Winter, winning 16-3 on de_mirage_csgo and 16-2 on de_nuke_se.

After Imaginary Gaming secured their spot in the grand final of ESL Major Series Winter 2012 a few days ago, tonight came the time to decide who will join them in the battle for 2,500€ that the champions will receive.

NiP and LDLC.com were the two candidates for that spot, both of whom came to this stage after topping their groups and then easily disposing of their opponents in the quarter-finals, LDLC over gamed!de and NiP beating Wizards from Spain.

The former eXtensive squad earlier today announced that they were joining LDLC.com and they confirmed Mathieu "MaT" Leber and Fabien "atLaNtis" Deguiraud as their new members, the pair that already played with them in the quarter-final against gamed!de.

Perhaps sadly for them, their debut under the new name came against the best team in the world, the untouchable Ninjas in Pyjamas who firmly hold the number one spot in our team rankings.

The first round of the first map, de_mirage_csgo, hinted that this might become a tight affair, as we saw Richard "Xizt" Landström coming out on top of a 1-on-1 situation with a last second defuse. But it didn't turn out to be a close match after all, as the Swedes didn't allow any more hope to the fans of the French team, cruising to a 12-3 half-time lead.

Xizt topped the scoreboard on de_mirage_csgo

Landström excelled in the second pistol as well, completing his 4-kill round with a 1-on-2 clutch to practically secure the first map. Indeed it ended right away with 16-3 for NiP and Landström was on top of the scoreboard with a 23:7 score, closely followed by Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson with 19:10.

Moving on to de_nuke_se, the recently updated version which is almost identical to de_nuke_ve, Ninjas in Pyjamas started on the favored CT side and continued ruthlessly keeping the French away from the bombsites. LDLC did manage to take the first buy round thanks to 4 kills from Vincent "Happy" Cervoni, but NiP made it 5-1 before long.

Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson was also in great shape tonight

In the seventh round LDLC seemed to be on the way to getting their second, but Johansson came out victorious in a 1-on-3 situation to further demoralize the French. They did get their second round a bit later though, but it was all they could accomplish in this map as NiP made no more mistakes and brought the match to a close with a 16-2 victory.

ESL Major Series Winter Season 2012Best of 2 eXtensiveMatchpage 0 2 13th January 2013 Ninjas in Pyjamas 3Mirage_ce 16 2Nuke_se 16

Ninjas in Pyjamas	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt	41 - 15	+26	-	1.74
Robin 'Fifflaren' JohanssonFifflaren	36 - 17	+19	-	1.57
Adam 'friberg' Fribergfriberg	33 - 19	+14	-	1.42
Patrik 'f0rest' Lindbergf0rest	36 - 18	+18	-	1.38
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundGeT_RiGhT	29 - 22	+7	-	1.11

eXtensive	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Vincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerHappy	26 - 32	-6	-	0.87
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	22 - 36	-14	-	0.64
Mathieu 'MaT' LeberMaT	14 - 35	-21	-	0.52
Mathieu 'Maniac' QuiquerezManiac	17 - 36	-19	-	0.52
Fabien 'atLaNtis' DeguiraudatLaNtis	12 - 36	-24	-	0.37

LDLC.com will look for redemption in the 3rd place decider, where they are set to meet former 3DMAX squad in a battle for 1,000€.

In the main event, NiP will play against Imaginary Gaming for 2,500€, with 1,500€ going to the loser of that match.

Both the grand final and the 3rd place decider are scheduled for next Sunday, January 20th at 20:00 , so make sure to check back then for GOTV IPs or Stream links right here on HLTV.org.