MAD Lions bully mousesports out of ESL One Cologne

MAD Lions cleaned house on Vertigo (16-5) and Nuke (16-4) to win an easy 2-0 series against MOUZ and proceed through the ESL One Cologne Group A lower bracket.

MOUZ and MAD Lions both had much to prove going into their ESL One Colgone Group A lower bracket match. The Danes, who recently brought on Paweł "⁠innocent⁠" Mocek, ended last at DreamHack Open Summer and lost their Cologne opener to Complexity. MOUZ on the other hand had a poor run of form before the player break, coming in last at several events, and started this season with a loss to Natus Vincere in their first ESL One Cologne bout.

MOUZ were nowhere to be found in the series against MAD Lions, as Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck and Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen shone bright in a two-map series that the majority-Danish squad dominated from start to finish, giving up less than ten rounds across both maps.

Four kills by Asger "⁠AcilioN⁠" Larsen put MAD Lions ahead on the attacking side of Vertigo after the first round. Two opening kills by Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker with an M4A1-S eased MOUZ to a victory in the first gun round, as the European mixture tied the match back up after six rounds, 3-3. The Danes took control from there on out with a formidable sjuush at the helm, ending a 10-5 half with 21 kills and 125 ADR.

MAD Lions increased their lead after the second pistol round, and the match remained one-sided in favor of Luis "⁠peacemaker⁠" Tadeu’s men as they closed out their map pick 16-5.

MOUZ attacked the B site on the first round of Nuke, but four kills by roeJ in the retake gave MAD Lions the first round. The European squad then won the forcebuy to tie it up, but a huge round by sjuush with four kills tipped the scales back in the defending team’s favor. Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company were able to tie it back up, 3-3, but then lost to a full eco. MOUZ then completely crumbled after their blunder, only able to win a single round on the attack in a 4-11 half.

MAD Lions showed no quarter, getting two opening kills on the A site of Nuke in the second pistol round to increase their already hefty lead, going on to win the series out, 16-4, proceeding to the next round of lower bracket play.