mousesports see off EG to book semi-final spot in Shanghai

MOUZ are through to the semi-finals at the CS:GO Asia Championships after moving past Evil Geniuses in a two-map series in the first round of the playoffs.

The European side have set up a semi-final encounter with the surprise package of the tournament, TYLOO, after a convincing victory over the No.2 team in the world. Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen left Overpass - a map that he tends to outright ban - wide open in the veto and Evil Geniuses played right into his hands as the opening game was a complete demolition job. Nuke was a much closer affair, but MOUZ were able to recover from a slow first half with a fine defensive performance.

Evil Geniuses leave Shanghai with their second consecutive top-six finish, but perhaps more worrying was the poor form displayed by Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte, who ended the tournament with a 0.91 rating - his worst on LAN since last year's DreamHack Masters Stockholm. The North Americans will need their star player to step up as they approach the final stretch of the season, with the team having just a couple of days to prepare for their next tournament, the ECS Season 8 Finals, in Arlington.

A trio of USP frags by David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský started what would be a dominant half from MOUZ on Overpass. Evil Geniuses surprisingly looked lost and out of place on their map pick and were often caught off-guard by the CTs' calculated aggression, with the scoreline blooming to an 8-1 advantage in favor of karrigan's charges.

The North Americans then finally managed to put together a string of rounds, thanks to key frags from Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov, but the first half remained a one-sided affair as MOUZ took an impressive 11 rounds into the break.

More misery was to come for Evil Geniuses, who were run over in the early stages of the second half as MOUZ quickly hit map point. Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold breathed life back into the game as he rescued EG with a 1v2 clutch, but the North Americans' comeback attempt was thwarted in the 26th round, leaving them to chase a one-map deficit heading into their opponents' map pick.

Evil Geniuses came out on Nuke looking a different side and kept MOUZ' players at bay during the early stages of the game with a tight defense. With half-time approaching, things were starting to look desperate for MOUZ, but karrigan's side still managed to amass five rounds before a CeRq quad kill with a Scout put EG on double-digits.

Now playing on the offensive side, Evil Geniuses were constantly frustrated as the rounds that they won were few and far between. MOUZ kept their cool at all times and won a series of close rounds to shut down any chances of their opponents building any momentum, laying the series to rest in the 29th round to advance to the last-four stage of the tournament.