FaZe Clan vs Ninjas In Pyjamas

EPICENTER,

As we go into the final few days of EPICENTER 2018, we take a look at one of the quarterfinal matches between Faze Clan and Nip. These two teams have fought through 2 best of three matchups in order to get to this spot on the main stage and neither team wants to be leaving anytime soon. In this tip, we will break down both teams, map pools, and outstanding performers on each team.

Faze Clan :

Faze Clan has been slowly climbing back from their hiatus without Olofmeister, and they are looking decently strong. With Niko still in the in-game leader position and karrigan just trying to pull his own weight, the team does have its struggles. However, despite these downsides to the team, they have had decent results as of late. Most notably Niko has retained his star form holding a 1.19 HLTV rating over the past three months. Though the remaining members of Faze have struggled to find themselves, this even they have shown that they can put up a fight against the upper tier teams and dominate the lower end of the spectrum.

The Map pool for Faze Clan looks like this: Inferno is 6-10, Mirage is 7-6, Overpass is 5-7, Dust 2 is 3-3, Train is 4-2, Cache is 1-2 and Nuke is the permaban.

Nip :

Nip is another team that has found solidity in their lineup. After Draken created turmoil and left the team for Fnatic, his replacement Lekro has done nothing but bring positivity to the lineup. Nip is a team I can see going to that next level but inconsistencies with their rifles and AWPing has lead the team to an overall negative win rate over the past few months. The only player that has been positive during this duration is that of Forest, who has a rating of 1.09 where the rest of Nip have a 1.02 or lower.

Maps for Nip look like this: Mirage is 6-8, Train is 7-5, Nuke is 3-6, Cache is 4-2, Overpass is 2-3, Inferno is 0-3 and Dust 2 is 1-1

Map Pick/Ban:

This is a best of three series where each team will ban two maps, pick one map and the final untouched map will be chosen as the decider. Nip will want to stay safe and pick Train while Faze will opt for a Dust 2 to catch Nip off guard. Bans will be Nuke and Cache for Faze clan and Overpass and Inferno for Nip. Leaving Mirage as the decider. In this case, I favor Faze Clan to win the series but I do foresee Nip taking at least one map.

Final Thoughts:

When comparing these two teams a lot of different storylines rise. Will Faze ever regain their form? Will Nip ever win another event with Forest and Get Right in the lineup? The list goes on and on. I can see Faze getting back to where they were, but where they were cannot compete with where teams like Astralis is now. Nip I fear will continue to have lackluster results moving forward. This being said, with the current form and direction of each team I feel Faze Clan will take this game. Medium bet on Faze Clan.