Team Spirit – FaZe Clan. Who will win the IEM Katowice 2024 Grand Final?
The grand final of the next IEM series tournament in Katowice will take place on February 11. Team Spirit and FaZe Clan will meet in the BO5 confrontation. In this article, we will talk in detail about the rivals and their chances of winning.
Team Spirit
The appearance of Team Spirit in the grand finals of IEM Katowice 2024 was a surprise to everyone. The team showed a bright performance after the addition of Dmitry sh1ro Sokolov, but before the start of the championship no one expected that it would get this far, perhaps even Spirit themselves.
Path to the final
The team’s path to IEM Katowice 2024 began with Play-in, which they overcame with ease. First, Team Spirit destroyed Apeks with a score of 13:0 on Ancient and closed TheMongolz 2:0 in the BO3 series. Despite the excellent performance, the team was still not the main favorite in the group stage, but the first game against Natus Vincere convinced everyone that Spirit was something to be reckoned with. The match with compatriots was the most difficult for the club at IEM Katowice 2024, it ended with a score of 2:1. Next, the lineup dealt with Complexity, and in the match for reaching the semifinals, they destroyed their opponents in the grand final 2:0 on cards. FaZe Clan have already been defeated, which means that repeating this success will not be so difficult.
But even after these matches, the question arose: how the young team would perform at the Spodek Arena in front of a huge audience. Team Spirit once again shut up its haters and in the semi-finals crushed the star-studded roster of Team Falcons. The team did not have any problems on both Anubis and Ancient.
Strengths of Team Spirit
One of the main advantages of Team Spirit in the grand final is 17-year-old Danil donk Kryshkovets. The whole community is talking about the young talent, and this motivates him even more to win. He already showed the best debut on a major LAN. Donk became the first player to win MVP after losing in the semifinals. After its successful completion, there was no longer any doubt that the esportsman would receive a medal, not taking into account the result of the match with FaZe Clan.
Danil Kryshkovets perfectly fulfills his role on the server. He runs all over the map and destroys his opponents. So far, no one at IEM Katowice 2024 has been able to stop the aggressive style of the esports player, not even their opponents in the grand finals of the group stage.
Another advantage of Team Spirit is their recent acquisition – Dmitry sh1ro Sokolov. The team received one of the best snipers in the world. And in the match with FaZe Clan he plays an even bigger role. The Russian is far superior to his counterpart Helvijs broky Saukants in skill. But the advantage in the grand final is not even personal performance, but the difference in playing style. Sniper FaZe uses AWP more to support the team, while Sokolov allows himself to play aggressively, moving around the entire map in search of a quick advantage.
Lately, young players have been achieving more success in Counter-Strike esports than seasoned veterans. Team Spirit is significantly superior to FaZe Clan in this indicator: the average age of the Russian roster is 21 years, and the European mix is as much as 26 years old. BO5 series are the most grueling and energy-consuming; if the game drags on, FaZe may not have the strength to continue fighting on the fourth or fifth map.
Team Spirit’s team style is also an advantage. The team is the embodiment of FaZe Clan in its best years: the team shows aggression in all areas of the map. Most often, she succeeds in this; the team wins 62% of rounds at IEM Katowice 2024 after the first kills and 84% of 5v4 situations. FaZe themselves began to play more academically and allow themselves such actions only occasionally.
Despite the lack of experience at large LANs, everything is fine with the moral component of Team Spirit. This is the merit of psychologist Alexander Kuznetsov. He helps the team approach games correctly, as well as during matches: the specialist cannot be with the team in the playing area, but he gets the crowd going, which begins to support his team. At Spodek Arena, this plays a huge role; it becomes much easier to play when a huge crowd chants the name of the club and the nicknames of the players, and also reacts to every successful action of the esports players. This energy energizes the young Team Spirit roster, especially donk.
FaZe Clan
After 2 years, FaZe return to Spodek Arena to claim another IEM Katowice title. But they are no longer the formidable team they were in 2022. The team will have to prove that they can win without Russell Twistzz Van Dulken.
Path to the tournament
Unlike Team Spirit, FaZe had a longer road to the grand final. The team had no problems in the group stage until the first meeting with donk. Because of this defeat, the European team had to start the playoffs with the quarterfinals against G2 Esports.
However, the roster of Ilya m0NESY Osipov, as well as MOUZ in the semifinals, could not oppose FaZe Clan. Both matches ended with a score of 2:0. Now the team will have to take revenge on Team Spirit for their disappointing defeat in the group stage.
Strengths of FaZe Clan
The main advantage of FaZe will be their vast experience both at the major events themselves and in the grand finals. Finn karrigan Andersen’s wards already know how to properly tune in to such meetings and have experienced the bitterness of defeat in them. FaZe learned from victories and defeats, something that Team Spirit could not do, who achieved success only at the small BetBoom Dacha 2023 and PARI Dunav Party 2023. If FaZe use all their experience and can control the aggression of donk and his teammates, they will be able to turn the big ones around and the ending is in your favor.
The map pool was also on the side of FaZe Clan. The Grand Final is played in a BO5 format, which means that your opponent will only be able to get rid of one of the weak maps. In the case of FaZe, this is more difficult to do, because the team plays at all seven locations from the active tournament pool. They perform best on Ancient and Anubis, but it is worth noting that these maps are also strong for Team Spirit. FaZe is unlikely to want to try their luck on Mirage, on which the Russian team has a 100% win rate. Spirit will have to get rid of Inferno, which they don’t play. Overpass and Vertigo remain in the map pool, which are the weakest maps of both teams and personal performance and working with opponents’ mistakes will play a big role on them.
Despite the lack of experience in major grand finals and playing on the big stage, we have more faith in Team Spirit’s victory. The team showed a beautiful game at IEM Katowice 2024 and deserves to win, especially donk. The Polish public fell in love with the young player and will give all their support to see him triumph.
But the confrontation with FaZe Clan should be very close, Team Spirit’s chances of winning are about 60:40 or 55:45. The grand final is likely to end 3-1 or 3-2 with tight scores. Even if the Russian squad fails to win, it has come a long way and deservedly made it to the grand final. The team will be able to work on the experience gained and come back stronger at future championships, including PGL Major Copenhagen 2024.