Asia’s last hope at the Major has been eliminated.
“I’m not losing to them twice,” Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek said in the pre-match interview, and MOUZ delivered on those words. Seeking revenge for the Bo1 loss in the Elimination Stage a week earlier, the European team ran out 2-0 winners against The MongolZ in the first match of the playoffs, knocking the Asian team out of the tournament.
This year’s Major darlings had hot starts to both maps but faded as the games wore on. They squandered five map points on Ancient, with Sodbayar “Techno” Munkhbold admitting in a post-match interview that the pressure got to his team. MOUZ looked much more comfortable on Nuke, where they recovered from a 0-6 start before taking control of the game on the CT side.
“Back in Copenhagen, we didn’t have much experience on stage, especially with each other, but during this season we had a lot more stage matches,” Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin said after the match.
“We handle the pressure better. I think we are really there, that we can win the whole thing.”
MOUZ could not have asked for a worse start on Ancient. They let a 2vs4 lead slip in the pistol round and were left reeling after losing the first gun round to a 1v3 clutch by Ayush “mzinho” Batbold.
The 17-year-old talent was a nuisance throughout the first half, posting an 18-7 score and averaging a whopping 154 damage per round to inspire The MongolZ to a 9-3 lead.
The second half became a battle of attrition as neither team managed to string more than a couple of rounds together during the early stages. Techno then put The MongolZ on map point with an AK quad-kill in a round where his teammates had only pistols to work with.
Many certainly thought that the map was all but done, but MOUZ kept their composure and gave The MongolZ a taste of their own medicine with a 3v5 clutch to send the game to overtime. With the momentum firmly in their favor, MOUZ picked up two rounds in each half — thanks to some great fragging from siuhy and Brollan — to put the game past the Mongolians.
MOUZ came out looking slow and predictable on Nuke and couldn’t even plant the bomb once during the first six rounds as The MongolZ jumped out to a strong lead with some stellar AWPing from Usukhbayar “910” Banzragch. A 3v5 clutch then kick-started MOUZ’s comeback as siuhy’s troops managed to bring the deficit down to two rounds before half-time.
The second half turned out to be a one-way street. Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo and Brollan combined for 23 frags as MOUZ’s tight defense prevented The MongolZ from stringing rounds together, earning siuhy’s charges the first semi-final spot in Shanghai.
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