mousesports defeat ENCE to win CS:GO Asia Championships

After a long final day in Shanghai, MOUZ took down ENCE in the grand final 2-0 (16-10 Train, 16-11 Inferno) to win the CS:GO Asia Championships.

Following two long and highly contested semi-finals ENCE and MOUZ secured grand final spots over MIBR and TYLOO, respectively, with the European mixture having less than an hour to get ready for the final match of the CS:GO Asia Championships.

The two teams met earlier in the tournament in the winner's match of group B, when ENCE took a 2-1 win, but this time the veto was changed by MOUZ, banning Mirage which saw ENCE select Train to start the series. The Finns picked up the T pistol, but lost momentum shortly as they walked into a B bombsite stack where Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool found two with a Deagle. The Estonian rifler was crucial to MOUZ early on, as they got a 3-1 lead, but ENCE found form in gun rounds, bouncing back to 6-4.

The double AWP then came into play on Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker and Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong, and all approaches to the sites were locked down by MOUZ. Finally at the end of the half, ENCE had a favorable situation on B, 4v2, but allowed woxic and David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský to retake it, ending the half 9-6 down.

Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli's men tied it all together after winning the second pistol, but it was all about Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and co. when the rifles came into play. MOUZ were on fire on the offense, losing only an anti-eco before closing out Train 16-10.

Inferno was up next and ENCE didn't look affected by their poor showing on the last map, grabbing a confident 5-0 start as CT on Inferno. However, karrigan's double-entry on B gave MOUZ their first and the in-game leader continued to find success in that role for rounds to come. Almost single-handedly, with opening kills in six out of eight rounds, he swung the score back in MOUZ' favor, 8-5.

ENCE managed to salvage the remaining rounds of the half by bringing out the AWP on Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi and finally stopping the Banana aggression (7-8), with a pistol round win equalizing the scoreline on Inferno. The Finnish side managed to take back the lead shortly, but MOUZ regained momentum after winning a round with a saved AWP and upgraded pistols.

As the map continued, karrigan and co. looked more and more convincing, locking down approaches with multi-kills from different players. On match point, ENCE attempted to take mid control, but they were once again shut down by the defenders and MOUZ secured the victory, 16-11 on Inferno and 2-0 for the series.

Final standing:

1. MOUZ - $250,000
2. ENCE - $100,000
3-4. TYLOO - $50,000
3-4. MIBR - $50,000
5-6. AVANGAR - $16,500
5-6. Evil Geniuses - $16,500
7-8. G2 - $8,500
7-8. ViCi - $8,500