VP over mouz to ELEAGUE final

The second semifinal of ELEAGUE's $1.4 million first season was between Virtus.pro and MOUZ, teams respectively ranked #5 and #9 in the world, and it was a match-up which has favoured the German-Dutch-Bosnian mousesports team in 2016.

The best-of-three got started on the Polish team's map pick of Train but it was Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell of mousesports who secured the first pistolround for his team with two quick USP kills near the B site of Train followed up by two more later on in the round. Solid defending from Timo "⁠Spiidi⁠" Richter continued mousesports' early lead as they claimed the first gunround after the anti-ecos.

Despite being down 0-4, Virtus.pro still had enough of an economy to string together a buy on the fifth round and this was where team elders Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas and Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski were able to make an impact as they each picked up two frags apiece to give the Polish team their first round of the series.

mousesports again managed to trade well in the following round, but any hopes of reversing Virtus.pro's revving engine were dashed when Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski won a one-versus-two on the B bombsite which included noscoping the final retaking mouz player with the AWP.

Enjoying the benefits of mouz's shattered economy, Virtus.pro were able to surge ahead to a 6-4 lead before mousesports again began to mount a defense; the eleventh round saw two MAG-7 kills from denis early on force the Polish team to save while the twelfth round continued to reap benefits for mouz as star Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač won a one-versus-two on the A site.

The score thus tied up at 6-6, but this was as far as mousesports would get in the first half as VP's continued aggression ultimately saw them close out the half with a 9-6 lead. A four-on-three retake in Virtus.pro's advantage on the second pistolround was successful and the score moved up to 10-6.

Due to mousesports' second pistolround plant, the team were able to buy up AK47's and successfully take a site and win the eighteenth round but Virtus.pro's decision to save their remaining guns paid off in the next round as they were able to defend and pulled ahead to a 11-7 lead.

From here on out, the first map was Virtus.pro's playground and with Snax warming up (including a rarely seen wallbang through Z hut onto Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong in the ninteenth round and an AWP triple kill on the twentieth) and Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński consistently fragging, Virtus.pro closed out the first map 16-7 and moved on to mouz's pick of Cache.

Virtus.pro claimed the first pistolround on Cache thanks to a triple kill from Jarosław "⁠pashaBiceps⁠" Jarząbkowski, who was able to flank mousesports as they were setting up outside the A site and pick off a couple of the team's players. mousesports had no plants in the first two rounds but still desperately bought on the third round, but Virtus.pro were able to survive the round and a retake as byali picked up three kills for his team.

mousesports had their first success on the fifth round as two AWP entry kills from chrisJ opened up the round and this actually allowed mousesports the T-side leverage and momentum to tie the game at 4-4 early on.

The two teams engaged in a slight back-and-forth of rounds, which included a nearly won one-versus-three from byali on the tenth round (only stopped by an exploding bomb), but it was mousesports who would finish the half in a 9-6 lead (helped in part by Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget winning a one-versus-three on the A site on the thirteenth round).

The famous Virtus.pro aggression returned for the second half, and the Poles took the pistolround on their T-side as a triple kill from TaZ helped shut down a mousesports retake.

After this point, VP were in full control of the game and mousesports only claimed a single round (while at match point) while the Poles marched ahead to a 16-10 win on Cache and claimed the series with a 2-0 score.

ELEAGUE Season 1Best of 3

MOUZ

Matchpage

0

2

30th July 2016

Virtus.pro

7

Train

16

10

Cache

16

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	49 - 22	+27	89.0	77.6%	1.59
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	49 - 26	+23	94.8	85.7%	1.54
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	34 - 30	+4	92.9	77.6%	1.22
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	35 - 25	+10	77.6	69.4%	1.19
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	28 - 30	-2	74.4	69.4%	1.04

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Denis 'denis' Howelldenis	33 - 39	-6	72.8	61.2%	0.93
Timo 'Spiidi' RichterSpiidi	30 - 40	-10	79.2	61.2%	0.87
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	22 - 38	-16	59.9	57.1%	0.74
Johannes 'nex' Magetnex	27 - 39	-12	51.1	53.1%	0.69
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	21 - 40	-19	59.8	51.0%	0.64

The grand finals of ELEAGUE Season 1 are therefore a match-up between fnatic and Virtus.pro, a duel which historically favours the Swedes although the last time these two teams played against each other in the United States, it was the Poles who claimed the win.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter