mousesports, Windigo qualify for Europe Minor

MOUZ and Windigo are the first two teams confirmed for the Europe Minor after defeating Vitality and Valiance, respectively.

The first upper bracket quarter-final of the 16-team European closed qualifier began on Inferno, Vitality's map pick. Despite losing an anti-eco, the Frenchmen got off to a flying start as CTs, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. MOUZ still reduced the deficit to three rounds by half-time, but, with Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt leading the way with a 1.69 rating, the French team easily closed out the map at 16-7.

MOUZ started well on their map pick, Mirage, bagging the first two rounds as Terrorists. Vitality countered the European mixture with just pistols, setting themselves up for a 5-3 lead, but Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong's men did not back down and secured an 8-7 half-time lead.

MOUZ quickly increased their lead to 14-8 in the second half, but Vitality still made a late comeback into the game. MOUZ remained calm and collected, however, and closed out the map in the last round of regulation.

The decider, Nuke, started off with MOUZ winning their CT pistol, the subsequent anti-eco and the first gun round on the back of a 1v5 clutch from Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk. The French squad finally got on the board five rounds into the game, but they would only be able to get through the stern MOUZ defence three more rounds until half-time.

chrisJ's troops then picked up their fourth pistol of the series, but Vitality responded well and brought the gap to 10-13. It was in vain, though, as MOUZ would go on to wrap up the series with a successful three-round streak.

On the secondary stream, the match between Windigo and Valiance - who had beaten ENCE and LDLC, respectively, in the previous stage of the qualifier - also kicked off on Inferno, the Bulgarians' map pick.

Neither squad managed to be in control during the first half, with Valentin "⁠poizon⁠" Vasilev and co. coming out on top with a narrow 8-7 lead as Terrorists. Still, the landscape of the map changed drastically after the break as the Bulgarians took the map at 16-9, with the 20-year-old topping the scoreboard with 32 kills.

After picking up their third pistol of the series on Dust2, Windigo remained in charge of proceedings with a five-round winning streak. Valiance then finally got on the board, securing two of the next three rounds, but the Bulgarians refused to let go off the gas and took a 12-3 lead.

In the second half, Windigo won yet another pistol round to hit 13 rounds. Valiance still tried to mount a comeback by stringing three rounds together, but Viktor "⁠v1c7oR⁠" Dyankov's men picked up three rounds of their own to seal the deal, 16-6, and book their spot at the Europe Minor, which will run from January 16-20 in Katowice, Poland.