For both of these teams, they had already overcome so much to be here. FaZe were dipping in and out of substitutions all tournament as COVID ravished players, and G2 had achieved the unexpected and taken down the CIS giants Natus Vincere 2-0 in the semi-finals. Neither team had ever lifted the IEM Katowice trophy, until tonight. The skilled team that managed it? FaZe!

Starting the match confidently, G2 went up 11:4 on FaZe's choice of Inferno, before the Karrigan led team then reversed it for their own 11:4 taking the first map to overtime 15:15. G2 were not able to keep up pace and failed to get any extra rounds in overtime, giving FaZe Inferno at 19:15. Over to Mirage, and this is where it looked like we were going to be here all night in the Spodek Arena, the map started off as a near repeat of Inferno, 4:11 then 11:4 for each team in each half. We went straight into overtime once again, and it took an amazing 5 overtimes before G2 were sidelined by FaZe, the final score for Mirage being a whopping 31:27, essentially adding another maps worth of rounds to the game. The third, and final map as it turned out was the ever-present Dust2. With the teams being split almost exactly in the middle again, the first half 7:8 to FaZe, but this time around G2 just barely missed the post and gave the second half 7:8 to FaZe too, for yet another close map win to FaZe but this time, it was the all important match point they needed, to take the IEM Katowice trophy, at long last!

FaZe won the tournament with jks in a power position in the team, one he was only able to take up after 'rain' was taken ill with COVID shortly before playoffs. During the first weekend of the tournament, jks was also playing in place of ropz, who was thankfully able to take his place in the arena, whilst rain was put on the side. Many commiserations must go to G2, who it felt could have easily gone 3-0 or 3-1 themselves in this match, if certain key rounds had gone just slightly differently, given how close all the maps played were in the end. For G2's m0NESY, he will certainly have a long career if he chooses, at an age of just 16 he was able to not only take to the tier 1 tournament and even keep his cool on the Spodek Arena stage, he was a key player time and again, demonstrating you don't need years of practice to perform with the AWP. After the experience gained here, it is certain it'll make m0NESY an even greater force in the future, now knowing what to expect against the best teams in the world.

Looking into the future, it is possible G2 & FaZe may meet again shortly, whilst they're not in the same groups for the upcoming ESL Pro League, it seems likely both teams shall escape the group stage and land themselves into the playoffs in the tournament that kicks off on the 9th March.