MOUZ vs FaZe Clan. Who will be the champion of IEM Chengdu 2024?
Another Counter-Strike 2 championship is coming to an end. IEM Chengdu 2024 came to its logical conclusion extremely quickly and rapidly, but giving a lot of emotions and colorful games. In the grand final, two strong international teams that definitely deserve each other will meet. The confrontation between MOUZ and FaZe Clan should be a worthy end to the tournament in China and will put a beautiful end to the dynamic, but rather short championship. In this article we will discuss the teams’ chances for the title, and also discuss their strengths and weaknesses.
MOUZ
MOUZ made it to the grand finals in the shortest possible way. The team managed to complete the group stage without defeat and emerge victorious from the final of the upper bracket. The team, although not without problems, defeated TYLOO, FURIA and Team Liquid. These are not the most formidable opponents, but winners are not judged and MOUZ ended up in the semi-finals quite deservedly.
The team’s first opponent in the playoffs was G2 Esports, which had previously destroyed Virtus.pro without a chance. The opposition was fairly even, but thanks to the individual performances of the MOUZ stars, they managed to emerge victorious after three fairly even maps. For the team, this victory meant even more than just qualifying for the grand final. She managed to break the curse of playing on the big stage and won the first map in the playoffs for the first time since the summer of 2023.
MOUZ’s only strong point is definitely its young talents, who sometimes amaze with their individual performances. Jimi Jimpphat Salo is holding a great tournament and doesn’t give his opponents a chance in the most important rounds and clutches. The young talent played 9 maps with a rating of 1.28 and is one of the best players at IEM Chengdu 2024, and if MOUZ wins, he will definitely earn his first MVP medal.
But unlike, for example, G2 Esports, Jimi Jimpphat Salo does not have to pull his team out of difficult situations alone. MOUZ also has another talented shooter – Ludvig Brollan Brolin. After an unpromising time in NIP, he proves that he is worthy of more and playing on the tier-1 stage. He is not the main star of the team, but makes a big impact on its victories.
MOUZ also has a promising sniper, who, although not always stable, is at IEM Chengdu 2024. Adam torzsi Torzhas shows a bright performance and creates for the team the very necessary space that is so lacking when he fails in statistics and does not make frags with AWP. He is not the strongest sniper on the planet, but with two star players on the roster, his level is often enough for MOUZ victories.
However, despite three talented players, the team is far behind tactically. Kamil siuhy Szkaradek is not an experienced captain and he has to fulfill this role rather due to the lack of an alternative in the team. Despite IGL’s position, he sometimes has successful matches statistically, which cannot be said about the team’s preparation. He is still young and has a long way to go to becoming a tier-1 leader. MOUZ coach Dennis Sycrone Nielsen cannot be mentioned in a positive way. He did not have a successful career as an esports player and as a coach he was unable to achieve significant results. He also cannot be labeled as a mental leader like Danny zonic Sorensen.
It is because of the inexperienced captain and coach that MOUZ constantly experience problems in the playoff stages. The team cannot cope with the mental pressure and nerves that come from spectators and CS fans who most often support their opponents. The team itself tries to ignore the crowd as much as possible and abstract itself from it, rather than engage the audience and maintain contact with it, as Finn karrigan Andersen and FaZe Clan masterfully do.
FaZe Clan
Lately, FaZe Clan has rarely been able to show good play in the group stage. But this team is famous for its high-quality performance in the championship playoffs. Coming onto the big stage, the band plays on a completely different level. At IEM Chengdu 2024, FaZe Clan also set a new record in CS history – they became the first team to reach eight grand finals in a row. At the last four tournaments the team finished in second place, but in China they are ready to break this trend.
The positive side of FaZe Clan is certainly its enormous experience, which no team on the modern professional scene can boast of. They have played countless grand finals and won many of them, but they have lost even more of them. This experience plays an even greater role, because the team understands not only the value of victory, but also the bitterness of defeat. FaZe is ready to lose the grand finals of IEM Chengdu 2024, but clearly does not intend to do so.
FaZe will also have a crazy Chinese audience on their side, which Finn karrigan Andersen masterfully turns on. The grand final gets tougher when you have to deal with your opponents and their fans as well. The Dane himself is the most experienced captain on the professional stage and he will have no problems preparing the team for another final match.
But the FaZe Clan roster is famous not only for its first-class captain, but also for some of the best players in the tier-1 scene. If a team is in a game, it simply cannot be stopped, because to do this it is necessary to deal with all its participants, and even individually they are a big threat. The only drawback of FaZe is the age of Finn karrigan Andersen and Howard rain Nygard. However, they are irreplaceable parts of the roster. You definitely won’t find a captain like karrigan on the professional stage, and rain has spent 3007 days at the club for a reason.
Mappool
The IEM Chengdu 2024 Grand Final, unlike the tournament organizer’s larger championships, will be played in the BO3 format. This will certainly be an advantage for the underdog MOUZ, as the team will have to prepare for the fewest maps against the formidable FaZe Clan. But overall the task won’t be much easier, and their opponents won’t have to play their weak maps either. And FaZe Clan masterfully approaches the grand finals and will present the most inconvenient veto for opponents.
Despite the experiments at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, FaZe is obliged to get rid of its permoban – Vertigo, this is one of the best maps of MOUZ. Their opponent will respond by banning Anubis, despite the low win rate of Finn’s team karrigan Andersen. As in recent matches, FaZe Clan will want to pick Nuke, which MOUZ is quite weak, and their opponents will respond with Overpass or Ancient, which FaZe are having problems with. Next, Jimi Jimpphat Salo’s team will abandon Inferno, and the favorites of the grand final will remove one of the opponent’s strong maps, which MOUZ will not pick. The decider will remain Mirage, which both teams are playing very well.
Personal meetings
In personal meetings, FaZe Clan is also head and shoulders above their opponents. In the last five matches, which took place in the BO3 format, MOUZ only managed to win one map twice, not to mention full-fledged victories. At IEM Katowice 2024, BLAST Premier World Final 2023 and CS Asia Championships 2023, FaZe finished personal matches with a score of 2:0, which is likely to happen at IEM Chengdu 2024.
Like the last few grand finals, the final match of IEM Chengdu 2024 will be as close as possible in terms of the strength of the opponents, but only in terms of the individual form of the teams. Despite the equality in star players, experience and mental preparation for games of this magnitude play a big role in these confrontations. And according to these criteria, FaZe Clan has a colossal advantage, which will allow them to break their opponents and prevent them from playing their CS. We expect Finn’s karrigan Andersen squad to be able to break the curse of second place and secure a long-awaited victory in another grand final for the club. The chances of this are quite high, around 65 to 35 in favor of FaZe. A sensation like the one at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 cannot happen twice with such an experienced and talented team.