mousesports beat fnatic in New York

MOUZ came from behind to beat fnatic 2-1 and progress to Group A's winners' match at ESL One New York.

The series began on Inferno, fnatic's map pick, with the Swedish side - fielding Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom as a stand-in after parting ways with Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist - cruising to a 3-0 lead after picking up a team ace in the pistol round. A trio of kills by Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi inside A, coupled with a questionable flank by fnatic in a 2v2 situation, put MOUZ on the board for the first time.

The game then entered a hectic period, as the teams took turn stringing a couple of rounds together, but MOUZ dominated proceedings in the final stages of the half to head into the break up 8-7.

Now playing on the Terrorist side, MOUZ took the pistol round in convincing fashion following a quad-kill by Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný in the banana. There would be no follow-up, however, as fnatic did what they do best and hit back on a force-buy, setting themselves up for a 10-9 lead.

Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski went huge in the following round with a 1v3 clutch to keep MOUZ in the game, and the European mixture secured the following two rounds for a 12-10 lead. But after that, the game was all about fnatic's water-tight defence as the Swedes won six rounds in a row to secure the map, with ScreaM topping the scoreboard on 29 frags.

MOUZ headed into Train determined to turn things around and stormed to a 3-0 lead after winning the pistol round thanks to a triple kill by oskar. The complexion of the game changed completely after fnatic got money in the bank, though, as the Swedes set up a very solid defence and controlled the economy, closing out the half with a 10-5 lead.

The Swedish side picked up where they had left off and won the pistol round on the back of a massive quad kill by Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell, who wreaked havoc in ivy. A successful gun round by MOUZ was immediately countered by fnatic, leaving the CTs without any money, but Snax rescued his team with a fiveseven triple kill.

That round turned the game on its head: MOUZ went on a spectacular run thanks to a double AWP setup that proved to be extremely difficult for fnatic to break, and hit map point before the Swedes managed to win the final round with a desperate B push, forcing overtime.

MOUZ did not let that last round get to them and picked up a 2-1 lead in the first half of overtime. It then looked like fnatic would battle back CTs, but oskar clutched a 1v2 with a timely molotov, with mouz sealing the deal shortly afterwards with a fast execution onto the A site.

It all came down to Mirage, the third and final map of the series, which started at a frantic pace as fnatic hit back on a force buy after losing the pistol round, only to get shut down in the following round. The rest of the half ended up being a walk in the park for MOUZ, though, as Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong's side ran all over the Swedes and took a convincing 12 rounds into the break.

Things then went from bad to worse for fnatic, who were picked apart in the pistol round as MOUZ stormed the B site. The Swedish side still tried to get back in the game, but without success, and they now find themselves up against Natus Vincere in a battle for survival at the North American tournament.