ESL Pro League Season 18MOUZ relegate EG to Last Chance bracket
The European squad came out on top despite two late comebacks from the North Americans.
MOUZ live to fight another day in Group B's lower bracket after defeating Evil Geniuses 2-0, sending the North Americans to the Last Chance Stage. It is a deceiving sweep as both maps proved tricky to close out for the European mix, despite strong starts.
The Dennis "sycrone" Nielsen-coached squad still has a steep hill to climb if they want to reach playoffs as their next match will be against the world's No. 2 team, HEROIC.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| ESL Pro League Season 18 | ||
| 08/09/2023 |
20:00
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Match |
Colby "Walco" Walsh's men are now just one loss away from elimination, and will have to ride the single-elimination bracket for a chance to reach the playoffs. They fought hard over the series, but couldn't find the quality to close out either map.
Evil Geniuses almost completed a fantastic comeback on Ancient as MOUZ failed to capitalize on a 15-8 lead. The North Americans started slow after an underwhelming offensive half, but recovered late and strung seven rounds in a row to briefly claim a 15-14 advantage. David "frozen" Čerňanský and company had one last chance to force overtime, and snatched it with a B-site push.
frozen and Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek then proceeded to power MOUZ through extra time as the Europeans swept Evil Geniuses to take the lead in the series.
Inferno proved equally as close as Evil Geniuses refused to give up despite a poor 5-10 start on the defensive side. Jadan "HexT" Postma woke up after a quiet first map, finding frag after frag to keep the North American squad competitive throughout the match.
The Canadian rifler's 1.34 rating proved to not be enough, and a collapse against frozen's Deagle on round 24 turned out to be the start of Evil Geniuses's fall. MOUZ stole the last three rounds to close out the map 16-13 in their favor, and secure their progression in the lower bracket.
  Evil Geniuses |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 - 43 | -3 | 73.3 | 73.0% | 1.02 | |
| 38 - 37 | +1 | 62.3 | 69.8% | 0.98 | |
| 37 - 46 | -9 | 73.9 | 69.8% | 0.97 | |
| 37 - 51 | -14 | 69.7 | 65.1% | 0.89 | |
| 35 - 45 | -10 | 64.5 | 57.1% | 0.84 |
 MOUZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45 - 36 | +9 | 76.7 | 77.8% | 1.20 | |
| 45 - 35 | +10 | 73.5 | 76.2% | 1.18 | |
| 49 - 37 | +12 | 71.9 | 77.8% | 1.15 | |
| 40 - 40 | 0 | 75.7 | 69.8% | 1.07 | |
| 42 - 44 | -2 | 72.1 | 79.4% | 1.07 |
Richard 'Xizt' Landström
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Piano
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xrnavkha
mventurelli
braindeadmoda
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monkasam
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Eyosd
