Ninjas in Pyjamas win IEM Oakland over FaZe
The Grand Final of IEM Oakland 2017 between Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan began on somewhat unexpected turf. The international team in FaZe opted not to ban their usual permanent-veto Cobblestone in favor of their second worst map Nuke. The Ninjas vetoed their usual least favorite map Mirage, which led to a series on Cobblestone, Inferno, Train, Overpass, and Cache in that order.
The first map began with NiP on the CT side, and after a retake onto the A site, the classic duo in Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg secured the pistol round. With some lucrative UMP-45 kills by Richard "Xizt" Landström, NiP got the first three, a big help on the CT side of Cobblestone. The next two rounds went the way of FaZe however, as Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and Finn "karrigan" Andersen won consecutive clutches to put their team on the board.
After a straight-forward anti-eco, yet another clutch situation presented itself, and FaZe prevailed again as Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer took down William "draken" Sundin to win FaZe a fifth round. NiP fought back in round 10 and took their first gun round of the map and draken helped his team to covert the round after a big triple kill on the B site defense. Interestingly, Xizt forgot to buy a weapon in the next round, but after getting a kill himself, draken won the fourth 1v1 of the map against Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács to keep the Swedes' streak alive.
NiP then cleaned up the rest of the rounds in the half, with f0rest leading the way, ending with a 9-6 scoreline going into the T side.
f0rest again, along with Fredrik "REZ" Sterner, powered NiP to another pistol win. The second round of the half went back the way of the FaZe side however, as Deagle and CZ-75 play by NiKo and Håvard "rain" Nygaard kept the international squad in the running on Cobblestone. This didn't last long though, as f0rest bailed out his team with a superb triple kill with the Desert Eagle and M4A4 to reset the FaZe Clan.
f0rest continued his path of destruction, and along with REZ, NiP edged closer and closer to 16 rounds. In round 21, GeT_RiGhT pulled off a masterful spray transfer, but was unable to win the entire 1v4 and FaZe took their first gun round of the second half. The next rounds were back and forth, with big plays by REZ and olofmeister, but NiP won out in the end with a score of 16-10.
Inferno began with a quadruple kill by the pistol master rain and FaZe got off to a strong start on their Terrorist side. With rain at the helm, the FaZe side took five rounds in a row, until REZ finally shut down the karrigan-led team in Banana. Round 8 went down to the wire, as NiKo and rain turned a 2v4 into a 2v1, but REZ managed to win the clutch and ended the round with a quadruple kill.
rain and NiKo won the following round however, this time a 2v3, allowing rain to rack up 13 total kills in just nine rounds. FaZe then regained complete control of the game, wnning five rounds in a row, including a clinical 1v2 by GuardiaN on the A bombsite. Despite some heroic in the final round by REZ, FaZe finished up the first half of Inferno 11-4 going into the CT side.
The lone Norwegian continued to decimate the NiP side as he quickly propelled FaZe to 13 rounds, but a solid B take by the Ninjas delayed what seemed inevitable. f0rest with an incredible post plant defense secured a sixth round for the Swedish roster, putting FaZe onto an eco. In round 21, FaZe showcased their specialty, as they won a pistol force-buy off of some good Deagle kills by none other than NiKo and rain.
NiKo put NiP into the grave, as a triple spraydown at the top of Banana finished off Inferno with a 16-7 win for FaZe.
FaZe began their campaign on Train with their third pistol round win, but surprisingly lost the following round as f0rest and GeT_RiGhT both picked up two frags each. FaZe retook control of the economy in round four with a 1v1 win by karrigan, but after three consecutive rounds, NiP fought back with three of their own. The Swedes finally pulled away, and with f0rest leading the way, NiP finished the half with an 8-7 scoreline despite a few close rounds stolen by FaZe along the way.
The duo of f0rest and REZ kept the pistol record even between the two squads, and put NiP in a great position to potentially close out map three. NiP easily took round two, but FaZe answered back with a round three buy. The FaZe side couldn't convert the round however, as a big triple kill by GeT_RiGhT put the momentum back in NiP's favor. The Ninjas made their way up to 13 rounds, until FaZe found a crack in the NiP defense, and strung together a few important rounds.
GeT_RiGhT, along with f0rest and REZ, stopped FaZe in their tracks as NiP secured map point. GeT_RiGhT then closed out the map for his team and NiP secured Train 16-10.
FaZe began Overpass with a dominant B retake on the pistol round, and followed it up with two more relatively easy round wins. NiP were completely unable to penetrate the FaZe defense, and took a tactical timeout after round five, but it didn't pay off as rain and NiKo shut down NiP's A attack. The FaZe train continued to plow along garnering eight rounds in a row, until NiP finally won round nine with a fast B play.
Thanks to a 1v1 win by f0rest, NiP avoided the eonomic reset, and took two in a row. They couldn't keep up the pressure though, as rain and olofmeister shoveled more coal into the FaZe train. The train didn't stop for the rest of the half, as each member of FaZe showed off their skill, ending with a 13-2 lead.
NiP could only muster a single kill in the pistol round, as rain and olofmeister continued to shine. The Ninjas weren't set on giving up yet though, as f0rest's Deagle combined with a 1v2 by draken prevented FaZe from taking map point. GeT_RiGhT and draken helped NiP hang on by a thread and actually strung a few rounds together in a last ditch comeback attempt.
GuardiaN finished out Overpass in style as he secured a triple with the AK-47 with FaZe winning map four 16-6.
The final map of Cache kicked off with a pistol for the FaZe Clan. GeT_RiGhT fought back and picked off three with the MAC-10, taking round two, but NiKo with two huge Deagle kills in round three allowed FaZe to continue the back and forth. In round four, a sneaky play by GeT_RiGhT and a massive 1v2 clutch from Xizt secured a gun round for the Ninjas, making the score 2-3.
This led to the Swedes taking the lead from the T side, but not for long, as NiKo and rain locked down the A site. FaZe went on to take two more, but NiP didnt allow FaZe to take a lead larger than two rounds, as Xizt led his team by example and equalized the scoreline again. Xizt continued to have a spectacular game as once again he won a clutch situation on the A site, helping his team to finish the first half 9-6.
NiKo let NiP know that FaZe weren't done, as he and and GuardiaN quickly evened the score. The first gun round didn't go the way of NiKo's team though, as NiP established a strong economy. Even on two HP, rain was still able to secure two big Deagle kills, but f0rest and co. kept a strong grip on the game and didn't falter.
NiP's Counter-Terrorist side seemed unstoppable, as GeT_RiGhT and REZ stepped up massively and got multi-kill rounds, leading to the Swedish underdogs securing match point. karrigan kept his team in tournament though with a huge 1v4 clutch after a very poor series from the Danish in-game leader. The comeback was not meant to be, as GeT_RiGhT closed out the final map 16-10 to win IEM Oakland 3-2 over FaZe.
Ninjas in PyjamasFaZe| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg |
99 - 81 | +18 | 82.4 | 75.6% | 1.18 |
| Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner |
86 - 81 | +5 | 80.5 | 69.1% | 1.13 |
| Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund |
88 - 84 | +4 | 76.1 | 65.0% | 1.00 |
| William 'draken' Sundin |
62 - 76 | -14 | 56.4 | 61.0% | 0.83 |
| Richard 'Xizt' Landström |
64 - 98 | -34 | 60.3 | 65.0% | 0.79 |
| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
103 - 82 | +21 | 90.8 | 69.1% | 1.27 |
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
97 - 75 | +22 | 78.5 | 71.5% | 1.15 |
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
82 - 78 | +4 | 74.3 | 69.9% | 1.09 |
| Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
91 - 79 | +12 | 75.6 | 66.7% | 1.06 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
47 - 85 | -38 | 54.5 | 67.5% | 0.75 |
The final results of IEM Oakland, with prize pool breakdown, are shown below:
1st. Ninjas in Pyjamas - $129,000
2nd. 
FaZe - $54,000
3rd-4th. 
SK - $28,000
3rd-4th. 
Cloud9 - $28,000
5th-6th. OpTic - $15,000
5th-6th. 
Gambit - $14,000
7th-8th. Astralis - $8,000
7th-8th. 
Renegades - $7,000
9th-10th. 
EnVyUs - $5,500
9th-10th. G2 - $5,500
11th-12th. Liquid - $4,000
11th-12th. 
The MongolZ - $2,000
This win also gives NiP their first win in the Intel Grand Slam, alongside FaZe, G2, and SK, and a chance to win $1,000,000. The next Grand Slam event will be the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals, where FaZe, NiP, and SK will have a chance to extend their wins to two.
