MOUZ upset G2 in ESL Pro League

Star rifler Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač was thoroughly outdone by the young guns on the server as his G2 fell 0-2 to MOUZ.

G2 suffered without IGL Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen as MOUZ ran out 2-0 winners on Nuke and Mirage. The young talents on the server were the stars of the show, with academy graduates Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás and Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov producing the highlight rounds as the two sides battled in a relatively close series.

MOUZ will be relieved to have picked up an early win with their new roster, and will be pleased by the promising start Aurimas "⁠Bymas⁠" Pipiras has made in his new role lurking for the European side. They had previously lost their opening game of the tournament to Entropiq and now find themselves at 1-1 in the round robin.

G2 will be starting to worry about the form of their star player; NiKo has now posted four maps in the red of his last 11, and he was particularly woeful in this series. G2 fans will be hoping it was merely the IGL mantle weighing heavily on the Bosnian's shoulders.

The series opened on the MOUZ pick of Nuke.MOUZ started things off on the T side and they started well, getting out to a 7-3 lead off the back of a pistol win; NiKo had an uncharacteristically poor game holding yard for the G2 squad, whilst Bymas and torzsi were very effective for the MOUZ attack. G2 managed to recover somewhat towards the end of the half to shrink the deficit to 7-8 going into the second period.

G2 needed to convert off the back of the pistol to make the game seriously competitive, but instead the boys in black traded force buys in a scrappy opening to the half; once the economy settled into a normal rhythm it was MOUZ who took control of the game, picking up seven of the final nine rounds to take home their map pick 16-12.

G2's star player NiKo continued his shaky form since the IEM Katowice playoffs, posting a poor 0.67 rating with a measly 10 kills as he struggled throughout this map.

Moving onto their own map pick of Mirage G2 sought to get off to a strong start on their T side, picking up the pistol and recovering from a second round loss to take an early 4-1 lead. Once MOUZ found a gun round win they managed to string five together on the bounce, with torzsi once again proving to be the key man as he found several multi-kill rounds.

A pause netted G2 a further few rounds to get them to a respectable seven for the half, as MOUZ picked up the final two rounds off the back of a torzsi deagle highlight and an Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt 4k to go into the second period 8-7 up.

The game became scrappy in the second half, with hectic mid-rounds largely being decided by individual plays. It was at this point that the other Academy League product in the server, m0NESY, came to life, and NiKo also managed to find some short-lived impact after a poor first half; this enabled G2 to find six of the first seven rounds on defence.

Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong managed to find the right adjustment to his calling, putting more emphasis on B, bringing MOUZ back into the game as they picked up three in a row to get to 15; G2 needed a wild play from François "⁠amanek⁠" Delaunay on short, which included knifing torzsi, to help get them the final two rounds to force overtime.

The first half of overtime went to MOUZ on the T side 2-1, with torzsi winning a vital 1v4 in the last after going quiet towards the back end of this map; in the end this seemed to break G2, with MOUZ clinching the OT 19-17 to take the series 2-0.

NiKo finished the series with a 0.75 rating and a mere 26 kills, and G2 will need their talisman to pick up his form if they are to qualify from this tough group.