This article is part of our CS:GO series.
It all comes down to this, the grand final stage has been set, with FaZe Clan and the Ninjas in Pyjamas jumping into the best-of-five to battle it out over the $120,000 grand prize.
Matchup: FaZe Clan vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
Winner: FaZe Clan
The Oracle Arena will be packed out shortly as FaZe Clan and Ninjas in Pyjamas gear up for the long best-of-five grand final. FaZe Clan are now in their third consecutive grand final in North America as the multi-international lineup comes in as the favorite to take it all. Although FaZe had a rather bumpy and challenging group stage showing, their playoff performance has been nothing but the the new norm for FaZe Clan. The semifinal matchup against Cloud9 was another quick affair as FaZe looked very composed to earn their place in the grand final. The big individual plays helped fuel the fire for FaZe throughout the semifinals, giving the team the upper-hand despite losing a man advantage early.
The reigning IEM Oakland Champions, Ninjas in Pyjamas, will return to the grand finals for the first time since their last appearance at DreamHack Valencia. The Swedes have found success along the way in the group stage with a solid map pool and young talent Fredrik "REZ" Sterner leading the team with the highest rating throughout the playoffs. The Ninjas in Pyjamas have looked more coordinated and confident in their play to win rounds and take some teams down on their strongest maps. However, the depth of NiP may not be able to withstand the long best-of-five battle as their map pool may not be up-to-par with that of FaZe Clan.
Ultimately, it comes down with FaZe Clan having the upper-hand in almost every aspect. Despite NiP running on full momentum and riding the wave of the 19-year-old REZ, the best-of-five might be out of the reach with the depth of the map pool. Finn "karrigan" Andersen has managed to widened the teams access to play more loose, giving the team a much better grand final approach. Although NiP share some strengths in the map pool, it also comes down with the individual plays from FaZe that are more dangerous than ever. Even though one member of FaZe goes down, there are still four more super-star players in the way of winning rounds. That should be more than enough to give FaZe yet another victory here on Sunday.
