A French vs Swedish showdown is set to happen in the finals of IEM 2021.
After a gruelling winter season, the grand final of the IEM Winter 2021 is upon us as two teams from EMEA are set to battle it out to see who will be walking away with $100,000 and 1000 ESL Pro Tour points. The two teams, giants in their own rights, will be duking it out in a no-holds-barred battle to see who reigns supreme.
G2 Esports vs 
Ninjas in Pyjamas
In the first semi-final match, G2 Esports faces off Ninjas in Pyjamas, with the former coming in as the seed from the upper brackets matches. In the first map, Nuke, both teams showed that they are capable as the map was played to a draw, and this evoked extended time.
NiP showed their power as they managed to grab enough wins in the extended rounds to win 19-16. In the second map, Dust 2, G2 Esports woke up and showed their domination in the first half as they led NiP 12-3 by the end of the first half. NiP tried to catch up to G2 but unfortunately the points difference was large enough that G2 only needed 4 wins in the second half to win 16-10.
In the last map, Inferno, it was NiP who found a second wind, and they played a very consistent match to win both halves of the map without too much problem, giving them a 16-14 win.
Ninjas in Pyjamas won 2-1.
Outsiders vs 
Team Vitality
The matchup between the French and Russian teams was biased towards the French side. While both teams are just about on par in performance, in this instance, Team Vitality just had a bit more than Virtus.pro. In the first Map, Mirage, Virtus.pro was leading, not by much, in the first half. However, Team Vitality managed to scrounge up a bit more effort for them to catch up and eventually win the map 16-13.
Vertigo, the second map, saw an almost similar scatter pattern as the first map, Virtus.pro was leading in the first half, but Team Vitality managed to come back from behind in the second map to get past the Russians to secure the win.
Team Vitality won 2-0.
The grand final for Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI – Winter will see Ninjas in Pyjamas, hailing from Sweden, face off Team Vitality, which originates from France. The two EMEA teams are sure to deliver some interesting plays for the fans, as they duke it out to see who will win the IEM Winter 2021.
