mousesports send Renegades packing; ATK stun G2

MOUZ and ATK will contest the Group B lower bracket final later on Thursday after defeating Renegades and G2 in their respective matches.

Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong opened up the action on Nuke with a 1v2 clutch, with MOUZ taking advantage of that momentum to build a 4-0 lead. Renegades gathered themselves after that slow start and gradually took the upper hand, eventually bringing the deficit to a minimum at 5-6. They would not be able to equalise the score, though, as chrisJ secured another clutch with nothing but a USP, which was followed by two more rounds from MOUZ, who went into the break up 9-6.

After switching over to the Terrorist side, chrisJ continued his solid performance with another pistol clutch to keep his team in the driving seat. Renegades responded once they had guns in hand and built up a solid bank after a couple of flawless rounds.

MOUZ struggled to keep their footing in the game as they watched their lead shrink little by little. The Europeans still managed to get the occasional round but never looked like troubling Renegades, who completed the comeback in the final round to take the lead in the series.

After losing the pistol round on Train, the Australians responded with a successful force buy and put together a string of rounds, but their lead would not last. MOUZ took control of proceedings after that setback and ran all over the Renegades defense for the remainder of the half to grab a 10-5 lead.

The European team carried that momentum into the second half and hit map point without dropping a single round. Renegades pushed forward and sought a response, but they could only muster three rounds before MOUZ brought the game to an end.

Renegades enjoyed a lively start to the game on Inferno - the only map where they had come out victorious in the best-of-three series against mousesports at DreamHack Masters Malmö - and twice managed to pick up a three-round lead, but MOUZ improved as the game wore on and went into the break with a 9-6 advantage.

Ollie "⁠DickStacy⁠" Tierney brought some life into his team with a sensational clutch in the pistol round, but their comeback hopes were soon crushed as MOUZ hit back immediately on a force buy and put the match to rest with a flawless defensive performance.

Meanwhile, ATK pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament so far as they eliminated G2 in a three-map series after recovering from a disastrous performance on their own map pick, Vertigo. Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek had described this as one of his team's better maps but they were simply no match for G2, who ran out 16-4 winners.

The French team picked up where they left off in the previous map and ran rampant from the get-go on Train, cruising to a 10-5 lead with a dominant offensive performance. It looked like the game was a foregone conclusion, especially after the first two rounds of the second half went G2's way, but ATK refused to throw in the towel and constantly caught the Frenchmen off-guard with their relentless aggression to pick up a 16-13 victory and take the series to Inferno.

G2 came out the brighter of the two sides on Inferno and picked up a 3-0 lead on the CT side, but it all fell apart from there, as ATK took control of the game once they had money in the bank and won ten consecutive rounds before the French side were finally able to mount a response.

Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug gave his team a lifeline with a quad kill in the pistol round, but Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery - who had topped the scoreboard on the previous map with 28 frags - responded in kind with four kills of his own with a Scout. With the wind in their sails, ATK kept their defense tight and shut down the G2 offense time and time again en route to a dominant victory.