mithR: "Everyone wants revenge against NIP from Cologne"

MOUZ have drawn Ninjas in Pyjamas in their first match of the EPL playoffs.

Off the back of their success in Group C, MOUZ came out on top of a three-way tie with fnatic and FaZe where the latter of the three missed out on a playoff appearance. After starting the group 0-2 with losses to FaZe and Natus Vincere, the international squad turned things around and managed to finish second in the group.

MOUZ are set to face Ninjas in Pyjamas in the opening game of the round of 12, where they must defeat the Swedish team in order to progress. The two teams last met in the Play-In of IEM Cologne, where Ninjas in Pyjamas brushed off MOUZ in a 2-0 fashion on Ancient and Mirage. Before this, MOUZ had toppled the Swedes in the Flashpoint 3 finals and followed it up in the group A decider at Gamers Without Borders 2021.

frozen put up big numbers to get mouz over the line in EPL

According to IGL Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong, the team was happy that they were able to run things back after starting 0-2 down, but there was mostly a sense of relief for what they had achieved with their final result in the group, going 3-2.

While the start was shaky for the team, the team admitted that they only began to find their feet after the first two losses in the group. The coach of the lineup, Torbjørn "⁠mithR⁠" Nyborg, said that the first match could have gone either way but there were issues identified in the team coming off the player break and that their slow start was a result of them getting back into shape.

"It was a wake-up call after the NAVI game, which was the only game we felt we got destroyed. As the games went on we started looking more like ourselves," he said.

"Going into EPL is about getting back into shape and we play every game to win. Now that we're in the playoffs we need to take it one game at a time. I think that everyone wants revenge against Ninjas in Pyjamas from Cologne." mithR said.

Looking at the Ninjas in Pyjamas match, it is unclear which team has the advantage going into the series. While Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool is currently performing under his three-month average rating, it has been David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský who has been lighting up the scoreboard with an event rating of 1.18 thus far, putting the Slovakian above both his fellow teammates and the five Ninjas in Pyjamas players at this event so far.

Ensuring that the squad is firing on all cylinders going into the series will be needed for MOUZ and any slow start may see them exit EPL in 9th-12th place. Performances from both frozen and ropz will ensure they can mount the challenge of Ninjas in Pyjamas who managed to topple Gambit in their last match in the group stage. ropz acknowledged that while the statistics may suggest the teams are evenly matched, there is no way to measure or predict the form on the day and that may be what it will come down to. "I think we have a pretty similar map pool to Ninjas in Pyjamas and it comes down to who will win their map picks," ropz said.

The two teams will kick off the series at 16:00 , with the winner set move on to face OG in the quarter-finals.