Déjà vu! Didn't we already see this match? No! It's back... and this time it's personal

OK António "Haunter" Rodrigues, you were right.

The devilishly handsome, tuna-chugging Portugeezer put it to me last week on Tuesday 16th February that the EMS Season V Grand Final he was to play that very night was in fact not a Grand Final, but a mere Final; a warm Carlsberg shandy rather than the sublime pint of Guinness I had suggested. Little did I know that EMS structure requires the Lower Bracket finalist to win the first Final outright to tie the series, and win they did!

Power Gaming overcame the odds which had been seemingly stacked in favour of TCM-Gaming who had picked Well as their map only for it to be also chosen as the tiebreaker under EMS rules, much to the despair of commentators across the land. With the general perception being that TCM would steamroll Well, things appeared to be over as they had began as a lacklustre performance on their chosen map, Gravelpit, saw Power Gaming hanging over the precipice of second place: TCM 1 - 0 Power.

I won't lie to you, this very scribe thought it was all over and didn't even stay to watch the second map, Well, but by all accounts it was a hard-fought and well earned victory for Finland's flagship side, Power Gaming. Even on the third map, Well again, TCM struggled to plug the leaks and correct the mistakes and so sank their hopes of an easy title defence: TCM 1 - 2 Power.

So now with both teams having been eliminated once in this double elimination tournament I am happy to inform you that tonight brings us the ultimate game of EMS Season V, the Grand Final! The stage is set and the team captains have released statements on the ESL site to whet your appetites.

Prematch statement from Power Gaming's Jani "hocz" Laakkonen

Grand Final I: It's not a secret that we haven't been performing good in cp_well. We knew TCM will pick that map and propably they knew that we will pick gravelpit because they are kind of weak in it. This match will most likely go to decider map and unfortunately it's cp_well again. Even though, this will be a tight match and I'm sure this time we will give them a hard time in cp_well.

Grand Final II: We have a good feeling about this match, even though TCM picked badlands and they have been quite good in it lately. We decided to pick gravelpit again and now I hope we have learned from last gravelpit and we are not doing the same mistakes again. cp_well as decider should be an advantage for us as we beat them twice in it last time.

Prematch statement from TCM-Gaming's Bart "skinnie" De Helt

Grand Final I: We're going into this match with a good feeling after we beat Power-Gaming in our previous match in the ESH cup. Nonetheless every match we played so far against them was very even so it will be a great match to play and watch. The decider map cp_well definitely gives us an advantage but I'm pretty sure they made the necessary adjustments after the ESH final. Gravelpit will be the most interesting map I think, they will probably use the dual sentry defence so we will have to adjust our game a bit.

Grand Final II: Once again we meet pwr this month, and the good thing that comes out of all this matches we played is that we can't predict the winner. Both teams have been playing equally good and I can only expect this match to be as good as the previous ones. Lately with all the officials we didnt have time to sort specific tactics to the grand final maps, but I am confident that everyone on my team knows their role and we can't expect nothing less than a positive result.

SourceTV: relay.toaster.fi:27020

Streams: Pwnage TV, Level Up TV, OnlineGamer.se & n2oTV.de

You know the score: check this article and the match ticker to your right for up-to-the-minute information on the plethora of video streams and STV servers.

Forehead out.

EMS V: Grand Final Part II