mousesports top Group A over Gambit, move on to ESL One New York playoffs

MOUZ have defeated Gambit 2-1 (Train 11-16, Dust2 16-11, Nuke 16-6) in Group A's winners' match to move on to the semi-finals at ESL One New York.

Train was chosen by Gambit to kick off Group A's winners' match and it turned out to be a good choice for the Kazakh-Russian team. They picked up momentum early on as Terrorists, grabbing the pistol round and the second gunround, courtesy of Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov's 1v3 in the latter, to secure an 8-1 lead.

MOUZ then got two on the board with Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi and Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong putting up triple-kills. The match went back and forth for the remainder of the half, with the Finn adding two more multi-kills to give his team five rounds on the board in the first half, while Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev wreaked havoc against him.

HObbit stepped up again in the second pistol with three kills as Gambit rallied to 14-5, but there was still life left in the European squad, who went on a six-round streak after several slow-paced attacks. However, a quicker approach in the 26th round backfired as Gambit shut down the B execute to reach match point and finish off the opening map at 16-11.

Dust2 followed and MOUZ were looking to redeem themselves after securing the pistol round as Terrorists, but the match took an immediate turn when Mihail "⁠Dosia⁠" Stolyarov met his opponents' attempt of a long control with three kills in the second round.

Gambit took over the first 10 rounds of the half as Rustem "⁠mou⁠" Telepov started getting his way with the AWP and AdreN carried over his great form from the first map. It wasn't until the last five rounds that MOUZ found some success, courtesy of chrisJ's ace, which led to a four-round half for his team, in the end.

It turned out that those four rounds were more than enough for MOUZ, as when Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski clutched a 1v3 in the pistol round, they mounted an incredible defence. Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný and chrisJ came alive with the double-AWP setup.

Gambit were only presented with one opportunity throughout the entire second half, when mou had a great chance to win a 1v3 clutch, but Snax played the time well, winning the final 1v1 to get his team to 14, and soon it was over at 16-11, 1-1.

Nuke was left to decide the series, with MOUZ starting on the CT side and getting off to a 6-1 start after a back-and-forth beginning, with Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool's Deagle ace in the third round setting the tone. Gambit were able to put two on the board after mou clutched a 1v1, but MOUZ still ran away with the half following a B retake in the 10th round, with Gambit unable to recover as they finished the Terrorist side with only three rounds to their name.

It all looked decided when MOUZ ran a quick A tactic in the second pistol round and got their 13th round, but Gambit replied right back with Dosia securing a triple with a Deagle for three rounds in a row. Nonetheless, the deficit proved too much for AdreN's team, as MOUZ quickly closed it out at 16-6, 2-1.