With five maps lined up and ready to be exploited by both teams, just Inferno, Dust2 & Nuke was all it took for Vitality to secure a stable & confident victory against NIP.

For NIP, it was already an unsteady start to the playoffs, with their star AWPer 'device' being replaced by 'phzy' upon doctors orders after device had spent some time feeling unwell, and whilst the team was eager to point out that tests for COVID-19 were negative, it was felt best for device to not be at the playoffs. Despite that though, NIP's first step at the semi-finals was positive, as they scored a close victory against G2, which included an overtime 19-16 on Nuke for NIP, being followed by a Dust2 (16-10) loss, and then a close finale within Inferno (16-14) to seal the deal for them.

Moving to the Grand Final, for map voting the maps fell down as Inferno (picked by NIP), Dust2 (picked by Vitality), Nuke (NIP), Mirage (Vitality) and finally Overpass as the decider. However, Mirage & Overpass were left feeling a little unloved, after Vitality decided to get the job done as soon as was possible. ZywOo wracked up 70 kills to just 42 deaths across all 3 maps, whereas for the NIP side, the highest was REZ with a measly 54 kills compared. On Inferno, Vitality won 16-10, a feat they also managed on Dust2 with the same scoreline. NIP tried to muster all of the strength they could on what turned out to be the final map, Nuke. Where they lost 16-13, improving on the last 2 16-10s. 

The victory at IEM Winter also serves as the first notch in the next, fourth, Intel Grand Slam Season, making Vitality already a win closer to the $1,000,000 grand prize this season will offer. The previous winners have been Astralis, Liquid & Natus Vincere. For all teams though, they have plenty of time to lay in wait before the next Intel Grand Slam contributing event will take place, which is IEM Katowice that usually occurs in February of each year.