MOUZ see off TYLOO to book spot in IEM Cologne group stage

Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong's side had little difficulty moving past Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand and company in a two-map series.

MOUZ are through to the main group stage of IEM Cologne after easing past TYLOO in the lower bracket, claiming the win in 2-0 fashion after securing Overpass (16-7) and Ancient (16-11) to send the Chinese team packing from the event.

The loss ends the tournament run for BnTeT's troops, who suffered a one-sided loss to Vitality in the opening round of the Play-In. They managed to recover by beating MIBR in series play to keep themselves in the running, but MOUZ proved too tough an opponent to overcome.

As one of the lowest seeds to advance, MOUZ face a difficult opening round opponent in the main stage as they are set to play either FaZe or Natus Vincere, with their final draw set to be decided after the end of the match between 00NATION and Imperial.

There was a clear disparity in experience and ability on the server as Overpass got underway, a pistol round win from TYLOO doing little to help them garner an early advantage. dexter pulled his team through an early back-and-forth on the map, helping answer back with a double kill with the Deagle and adding an additional quad kill round, from which point MOUZ began to run away with the lead.

Even the few rounds that TYLOO scored an opening kill or two, it was MOUZ who found an answer back, and that reflected in the scoreline as the European combine pulled ahead 11-4 at the break before carrying that momentum into the second half, wasting only a few rounds before taking the map over the line 16-7.

MOUZ's pick of Ancient kciked off in almost identical fashion as a pistol win for TYLOO was once again responded to by dexter's side, helping them run up a 4-1 lead on the T side. It took an immense effort from BnTeT and Kelun "⁠SLOWLY⁠" Sun to keep their team in contention as they scraped together a decent defense considering their start, managing to just edge out a one-round lead by the break as they swapped to the attack.

The lackluster defensive showing would indeed come back to haunt TYLOO though, and it was clear in the second half that MOUZ were the superior side. Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás' AWP helped to pick apart TYLOO in a handful of key rounds, and multi-frag moments from the European riflers only added insult to injury as TYLOO were quickly drowned out. They did manage to add three rounds to their tally, but it is only a small consolation as their hopes in Cologne were brought to a swift end, 16-11.