FaZe and mousesports go 2-0 in ESL Pro League

FaZe and MOUZ now have two wins each in Group A of ESL Pro League following their series wins against OpTic and BIG, respectively.

After FaZe picked up their first win in Group A on day one over OpTic, they were set to clash with BIG on the second day. From the start, it was clear that Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač wasn't in the best shape as he got off on the wrong foot on Nuke, but despite conceding the first three rounds, the Bosnian's team was able to lock down a dominant CT side worthy of 11 rounds.

Although the German-majority squad put up a great effort to come back, winning seven out of the first eight rounds in the second half, FaZe put their foot down and closed out the map 16-11 with a four-round streak.

Mirage saw the two teams go toe-to-toe in the first half, with Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz & co. switching over to the CT side with respectable seven rounds. Although FaZe went on a five-round streak to start the second half, BIG did what their adversaries had done to them on Nuke, mounting a huge defense to equalize the series at 16-14, 1-1.

It came down to Inferno, where BIG looked like the better team early on as they denied FaZe consecutive rounds en route to a 6-3 lead, but with Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David at the helm, the European mixture dominated the proceedings to grab their second victory in the round-robin at 16-8, 2-1, with the Brazilian star surpassing the 2.00 rating mark on the decider.

In the other match, MOUZ and OpTic went head to head, with Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's squad picking Vertigo to kick off the series against his countrymen, who are playing the tournament with a stand-in, Oliver "⁠kwezz⁠" Rasmussen.

Although the first three rounds went their way, MOUZ were unable to find their stride in the gunrounds, ending their offensive half with only six rounds. OpTic were the first to reach double digits after switching sides, but with David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský and Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool putting in big numbers, the European side pushed the opening map to overtime and came out on top with a four-round streak there.

The Danish squad opted for Train as the second map, but they found little success there early on, with MOUZ' second-round break earning them a huge string of rounds on the Terrorist side, as they reached 10 rounds without a response from their opponents.

That finally came at the end of the half, as OpTic gave themselves a chance with the last four rounds and a pistol round on top, but yet another forcebuy victory ensured MOUZ a swift victory, as they ended things 16-7, 2-0.

The two European mixtures have now secured a top-two placing in Group A and are set to meet on Thursday at 18:25 for a place at the seasonal finals. The full standings of the group are the following: