96 players have been whittled down to two at Alexandra Palace as the 2021 PDC World Championship comes to a close.
Big names like Michael Smith, Rob Cross and Peter Wright exited at early stages, we saw Dave Chisnall absolutely steamroll Michael van Gerwen in the quarter final and we also got to witness the resurgence of former BDO world champion Stephen Bunting.
The Bullet reached the semi final and at one stage looked like he was going to run away with his match with Gerwyn Price.
Unfortunately for the St. Helens man, Price raised his game exponentially in an encounter that saw a record-breaking 13 ton-plus finishes and the Welshman ended up victorious in a 6-4 scoreline.
Price has only been on the tour for seven years, a relative newcomer to the game after playing rugby professionally earlier in his life, but he's taken to the sport like a fish to water and his defeat of Bunting means that he will contest his ninth major final.
It's his first World Championship final though, unlike the man he's facing in the form of Gary Anderson, who will take to the stage as a finalist for the fifth time at Ally Pally.
Casual fans could've been fooled for thinking that Anderson was 'finished' by looking at his seeding only, which put him at 13th in the world going into this years showpiece.
But that is simply down to The Flying Scotsman not playing as much of the tour as he used to - he still retains the same world class quality he's possessed for years, as evidenced by his Premier League semi final finish and runner-up in the World Matchplay to Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Unlike Price, who has had to battle to the last set against Jamie Lewis, Brendan Dolan and Daryl Gurney on his way to the final, Anderson has faced less legs as he swept past Devon Petersen 4-0 in the last 16 and disposed of Dirk Van Duijvenbode 5-1 at the quarter final stage.
Anderson's 6-3 semi final defeat of MVG's conqueror Chisnall was vintage stuff from the 50-year-old, and despite a knee injury troubling him in the last few months, Gary seems to be almost at the level that saw him win back-to-back World Championships in 2015 and 2016.
So we know the finalists - but what can we expect from them when they go toe-to-toe on the oche at the Palace on Sunday night?
Well we just have to reflect on their Grand Slam of Darts battle in 2018, don't we?
It was perhaps one of the most controversial games in recent memory, and thankfully the PDC recently uploaded the full thing to YouTube recently for everyone's viewing pleasure - it's must-watch stuff.
To cut a long story short, Price's antics on the oche really got to Anderson, who seemed visibly distracted on several occasions by the Iceman playing up to the Wolverhampton audience.
And the two ended up coming into physical contact with each other in the latter stages - Anderson shoving Price after he appeared to celebrate a high-scoring visit right in the Scotsman's face.
The incident eventually went in-front of the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA), and after an appeal Price was fined £6,000 for his actions (and a further £4,000 for an incident that occurred in the quarter final of the same tournament against Simon Whitlock), whilst Anderson was simply given a warning for placing his hands on Price.
It caused much controversy in the darting world and it propelled Price to become the ultimate boo-boy for the fans if he wasn't already.
Gezzy has had his problems with the crowd for a while and has let their reactions get the better of him at times, but he now seems to have mellowed and with no rowdy fans to distract him, Price took his third major to add to two Grand Slam's with a World Grand Prix victory in October 2020.
Every Price v Anderson clash since the 2018 Grand Slam clash has passed without incident - their last one coming in the 2020 Premier League which saw Price win 7-1 - but with the World Championship final being Price's first, will his emotions get the better of him?
The most important question of all of this is - who wins?
Every time Price has been put under pressure, he's hit back with aplomb. He was down in his first match to fellow Welshman Jamie Lewis and fought back to win, Brendan Dolan gave it his best shot and it wasn't enough, and Daryl Gurney threw the kitchen sink at Price to no avail.
But Anderson is the more experienced tungsten slinger at this level, and a tournament average of 97.2 is impressive considering the first few sets of his last 32 match with Mensur Suljovic was riddled with gamesmanship by the Austrian, which majorly got under Anderson's skin.
His running average is only slightly eclipsed by Price's at 97.34, but the Welshman's finishing has been out of this world, especially in his last match against Bunting - he simply could not miss the double 10 for most of it.
Price has consistently spoke of his ambitions and hopes to be the world's number one ranked player, and by beating Anderson he would do just that, and would go nearly £300,000 clear of van Gerwen on the order of merit.
Unlike Anderson though who has got better the further he's advanced through the tournament, Price has had wobbly patches in all of his matches and has relied on his supreme finishing to get him past his rivals.
Gary will not be so forgiving, which will make for a hopefully incredible contest - don't bet against it going all 13 sets!
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