Ninjas In Pyjamas vs FaZe Clan

IEM Oakland 2017 Finals,

It's finals say and by a very much a surprise to me, NiP beat SK to advance to the finals. Props to MasterYoda for predicting that upset. And to not much surprise Faze beat Cloud9, although I expect Cloud9 to put up much more of a fight than they actually did. I wanted more from the americans and expected at least for them to grab one map against the EU super team. Non the less, here we are in the final matchup of IEM Oakland 2017 Nip vs FaZe.

Ninja's In Pajamas:

Yesterday's performance against SK was by far some of the nest counter strike i've seen played by NiP in a while. Rez and Draken especially. These two younger talents being brought in really allow the veterans of Forest and Get_Right to use their experience to gain an advantage against a predictable opponent, or fully take advantage of a stressful situation. Much like in the final rounds of "Inferno" when Get_Right wrapped entirely around into CT spawn and SK was non the wiser. That play in it of itself, solidified the final map for NiP.

As this event progresses we can see the dominance of NiP on "Overpass" and how they have not dropped a game on it yet, despite playing it three times against world class opponents. Yesterday did have a bit of a curveball as NiP played two maps that they haven't played this even yet; and that was "Inferno" and "Cache". The loss on "Cache" was pretty bad at the scoreline of 8-16, with this result against a strong team like SK i doubt it will be picked again by the NiP side. This being said FaZe might take advantage and pick "Cache" against NiP.

FaZe Clan:

The bullies of EU stomped Cloud9 into the dust yesterday and it was painful to watch. Cloud9 has been having so much success on the local and international level and I had hoped for much better results from them. But FaZe is no pushover and I don't think they ever intend to be. The only map they've lost this event was to Gambit on "Mirage" and that was one loss that was not expected from FaZe, with a scoreline of 3-16. This new FaZe lineup has never lose that badly before. I would hope that was a one time fluke; even after the match all the FaZe players twitter's all were filled with disappointment and confidence for the next challenge to come their way.

Much like NiP, Faze has played the map "Overpass" three times this event and has yet to lose a single match. Following "Overpass" is "Train" where the FaZe lineup has played twice and still remains undefeated on it. "Inferno" was the only other map to be played this event where they won against Team Liquid, who has a very strong "Inferno".

Map Pick/Ban:

The pick/ban will be interesting, but being a best of five, both teams will only get one ban a piece, and will have to duke it out amongst the remaining maps. So let's talk about the two most likely maps to be banned. "Nuke" is a map that FaZe can win on, but with a record of 3-3 it doesn't look likely to be picked against NiP, whose record of "Nuke" sits at 7-4. "Cobblestone" is an equal 50-50 for both teams, FaZe with a record of 2-2 and NiP with a record of 3-3. I expect both "Nuke" and "Cobblestone" will be banned and the remaining five maps will be what are fought upon.

Final Thoughts:

Both of these teams have showed great form this event, with NiP being a very big surprise in my eyes. I hope NiP can continue this form into later events and start getting their Legend spot back for the majors of 2018. That being said, I see the basically unstoppable force of FaZe taking this series. FaZe is a team that can be off for the first game and then come roaring back to reverse sweep the entire series against you. When the ball is rolling in FaZe's favor, almost nothing can stop it. I expect NiP to take one map off them, in my hopes that map would be "Overpass", but other than that, the odds don't look likely. I enjoyed writing about this event and I hope every enjoyed watching it as much as I did!