mousesports spoil Virtus.pro debut in Moscow

MOUZ came from behind to beat Virtus.pro 2-1 and secure a spot in Group B's winners' match at EPICENTER 2019.

The international squad continued their hot streak with a narrow victory against the ex-AVANGAR team, who were making their first appearance for Virtus.pro. With Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker back in contention after missing cs_summit 5, MOUZ were made to work hard in this series after being outplayed on their own map pick of Inferno. MOUZ hit back on Mirage with a near-flawless T half before completing the reverse sweep on Dust2, a map that went to double overtime.

It was far from an impressive performance from MOUZ, who looked a bit off the pace in certain moments, but they will still fancy their chances of booking a semi-final spot later today as they head into the series against Evil Geniuses, who will once again be without star player Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte.

Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong opened the action on Inferno with a quad-kill in the pistol round, setting MOUZ up for a blazing fast start on their own map pick. The Pro League champions looked to be in control of the game, shutting down any chances of Virtus.pro stringing rounds together, but the CIS side tightened up and gradually took the upper hand to end the half up by one round.

Virtus.pro came out of the break still on the front foot, further adding to their lead with a fast A execute through apartments. The CIS side fully took the reins of the game and hit map point at 15-9, though they would have to wait a couple of rounds to strike the finishing blow. MOUZ dug deep in search of an equaliser before Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali pulled off a 1v3 clutch on the B site to seal the deal for his team.

The Kazakhstani team carried that momentum into their own map choice, Mirage, and raced to a 7-2 lead after a flying start to their T side. MOUZ' defense seemed to be struggling to cope with Virtus.pro's vibrant pace, but a timely tactical pause allowed Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's troops to gather themselves and eventually bring the deficit to just three rounds before the break.

Now playing on the Terrorist side, Virtus.pro took the pistol round to get into double-digit territory, but it all fell apart from there. MOUZ hit back immediately with nothing but pistols and rode that momentum to a dominant victory after running all over the VP defense.

Dust2 began at a frantic pace as rounds went back and forth following some great Desert Eagle plays from both sides, including a sensational quad kill from Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev. After that chaotic period of play, Virtus.pro put their foot down and took control of proceedings, with the half ending with a 10-5 lead in favor of Jame's side.

The second half kicked off with Virtus.pro taking the pistol round on the back of a trio of kills from Aleksei "⁠Qikert⁠" Golubev in A, but there was no follow-up as MOUZ rallied back immediately. Just like on Mirage, karrigan's side took control of the action, often wreaking havoc on the B site, but they would not be able to go all the way this time around. With the game starting to get away from them, Virtus.pro used a variety of setups to keep the MOUZ offense in check and even reached series point before the Terrorists restored parity at 15-15 with another mid-B split.

The first overtime could not determine a winner as both teams won two rounds on the offense, with Virtus.pro coming back from two match points down to keep the balling rolling. MOUZ did not let that setback get to them and went one better in the second overtime, with David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský pulling off a triple kill in the final round to cap off an impressive performance on the map.