mousesports edge past FaZe in Atlanta

MOUZ have booked a spot in Group B's winners' match at ELEAGUE Premier after beating FaZe 2-1 on Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer's return.

MOUZ opened up the action on Train, the opening map of the series, with a well-timed A execute. A flawless anti-eco ensued, but then a massive blunder on their part, which included a teamkill, gave FaZe their first round of the game.

mouz did not let that get to them, however, and replied immediately, but FaZe still had money in the bank and rallied back with a quad-kill from Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács on B. That round propelled FaZe into a dominant run as Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's men kept a water-tight defence until the end of the half, taking 11 rounds into the break.

Now playing on the CT side, MOUZ began the second half in full control of proceedings, winning seven of the first eight rounds to put FaZe in danger of getting blown out. karrigan then called a timeout in an attempt to halt mouz's momentum, a move that paid off as FaZe instantly got back on the board, increasing their lead to 13-11.

Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard turned hero in the following round as he clutched a 1v3 situation after getting a kill onto the defusing opponent, with olofmeister single-handedly preventing the reset in the next round with a quad-kill. It then looked like MOUZ had found a lifeline back into the match on a desperate buy, but Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač clutched a 1v3 to wrap up the map.

Next up was Cache, which saw FaZe draw first blood thanks to NiKo and olofmeister coming up huge to overturn a 2v4 situation in a round that looked all but lost. MOUZ responded in the third round with a full buy and quickly took the lead with some fast-paced executes.

Unable to get a double AWP setup to work and with some risky calls simply not paying off, FaZe simply could not find a way back into the game in the first half. Any round won by them was immediately countered with a round by MOUZ, who cruised to a 10-5.

After that one-sided first half, FaZe found a lifeline as they took the first three rounds as Terrorists to bring the deficit to 8-10. But after getting their economy back in order, MOUZ kept a very tight defence, eventually hitting map point on the back of a key triple kill from Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool.

With no room for error, FaZe put together a run of rounds in a bid to push for overtime, but their resistance finally collapsed in the 28th round as Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski delivered a triple kill to wrap things up.

The decider map, Mirage, began with MOUZ winning the pistol round and the following anti-ecos for a 3-0 lead. FaZe replied by taking the first gun round, but mouz fought back immediately, with Snax and Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong doing the work for the team.

MOUZ kept pressing on and eventually brought their lead to 7-2 after shutting down any chances of their opponents building up an economy. This was starting to look like an uphill battle for FaZe, but then a successful eco propelled them into a dominant run as they took the final six rounds of the half to take an 8-7 lead.

FaZe took that momentum into the second half and won the pistol round with an ace from rain before bagging the following anti-ecos. When MOUZ finally bought up, however, the landscape changed dramatically, as the CTs won seven consecutive rounds, only letting FaZe plant the bomb on one occasion.

Down 11-14, FaZe found a lifeline as they took two rounds in a row - the second of which on the back of a 1v2 clutch by karrigan -, but MOUZ would not let the game slip away and tightened up their defence to lock down the map.