Ninja defuses are a classic move in games like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty. If you’re not sure what it means, it’s when someone defuses the bomb to win the round while outnumbered against the enemy team. It’s a rare occurrence because usually teams will leave at least one player back watching the bombsite to ensure it doesn’t happen but on the rare occasion it does, it’s a moment to behold.

During the upper bracket round two match between Astralis and North at IEM Chicago yesterday, Astralis were leading 15-4. It’s a heavy lead and one that North were unlikely to come back from, but in the potential final round of the map, Andres “Xyp9x” Højsleth was left in a 1v5 situation on Nuke. Knowing that his chances of killing all five members of North were slim, he opted for a different method of winning.

Since North were so far behind, they were all hunting for the player in order to get the kill and increase their finances for the next round. This meant nobody was left behind to watch the bombsite. Xyp9x snuck through an air vent and down to the bombsite with just a few seconds left, before defusing it and making the commentators go crazy. “Is he going to go for this?!” exclaimed one commentator, while the other one said “not like this boys… no!” between laughs. “Unbelievable from Xyp9x! He is the clutch master!”

The 1v5 ninja defuse meant that Astralis were able to take the map 16-4 and advance to the next round where they’ll be facing off against FaZe Clan later today. On the other hand, the loss means that North have gone down to the lower bracket and will be playing against Team LDLC who lost to FaZe Clan 16-14 in the upper bracket first round, followed by a 2-1 victory over Renegades in the lower bracket first round. To catch the rest of IEM Chicago, tune in on the official ESL CSGO Twitch account later today. In other gaming news, check out the PUBG Global Championship announced yesterday.