mousesports edge out Invictus; MIBR eliminate Imperial in Belek

MOUZ claimed two narrow map victories over Invictus (16-14 Dust2, 16-14 Train) to continue their tournament run at StarSeries i-League S8, while MIBR overcame Imperial 2-0 (16-4 Inferno, 16-13 Train) in an all-Brazilian matchup.

Invictus caught MOUZ off guard with a strong, 5-0 streak on the Terrorist side of Dust2, the European squad's map pick. Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool then stepped with four frags to turn around a 2v5 and get his side on the board, but the Chinese-Russian side bounced right back and kept putting pressure on their opponents' economy.

Big plays from ropz and Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker allowed MOUZ to put three rounds on the board before the half, while claiming the pistol round and surviving the anti-eco as T made the comeback a possibility. MOUZ were on a six-round streak before Invictus claimed their first, but no momentum was built as MOUZ narrowed the gap with two more comfortable rounds going their way. Then, in a very unlikely situation, woxic came on top in a 1v3 on A, which was enough for his side to complete the comeback and win out Dust2, 16-14.

Unlike on Dust2, MOUZ picked up a 3-0 lead to start Train on the right foot, however, Vadim "⁠V4D1M⁠" Panchuk proved deadly with an AK-47 as he secured an ace to get his squad on the board. The European squad still recovered, going on to take an 8-1 lead. Things were looking bleak for the Chinese-Russian mixture, but they managed to salvage the half with three rounds in a row, the last one coming off a weak buy from MOUZ.

The half finished with MOUZ sitting on a 10-5 lead, but unable to take the pistol, that lead started to slowly melt. Invictus then claimed the first buy round, despite losing the entry kill, as they managed a 4v4 retake of B. Soon, they snatched the lead from Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's squad, 13-10. woxic then came online and pushed his team back into equalizing the score, 14-14, before ropz exploded from Popdog with a 3K in a crucial round to swing the match his team's way, and MOUZ closed it out 16-14

In the second, all-Brazilian matchup, Imperial selected Inferno to kick-off the action and claimed the pistol round on the offense. However, a 2v2 was clutched out by Lucas "⁠LUCAS1⁠" Teles and Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo on the force buy which allowed MIBR to establish themselves as CT, 4-1. Imperial then picked up two rounds in quick succession, but couldn't continue their run into the late portion of the half as Vito "⁠kNgV-⁠" Giuseppe and Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga were on point, finding frags with their aggression time after time.

At 8-3, Imperial secured a 5v3 afterplant, but MIBR's stars shined and pushed them to an 11-4 lead before the switch. FalleN's men overran the A site in the pistol round and cleaned up the following rounds to conclude Inferno confidently, 16-4.

MIBR brought their momentum onto Train, again starting on the defense which looked impenetrable for the first seven rounds, as FalleN and kNgV- were on point with the double-AWP. Victor "⁠iDk⁠" Torraca and Felipe "⁠delboNi⁠" Delboni combined for Imperial's first and just like that, opened up the floodgates. The Brazilian underdogs were able to pounce on a weakened economy of MIBR and claim and seven rounds before the end of the half, making it anyone's map again.

Claiming the T side pistol gave MIBR some breathing room, but Imperial managed to cling on to the game by winning a flurry of rounds after they got the rifles in, with Eduardo "⁠dumau⁠" Wolkmer securing an anti-eco ace to bring the score to 12-11. MIBR didn't let go of the lead, however. Despite the best efforts of iDk and delboNi, who combined for multi-frags to equalize the score at 13-13, MIBR had enough in the tank to pull themselves across the finish line and win Train 16-13.