MOUZ upset G2 to eliminate them from EPL

MOUZ's young squad proved their worth throughout the series, whilst G2's individuals struggled.

MOUZ pulled off a memorable upset to continue their ESL Pro League journey, defeating G2 2-1 to eliminate them from the competition. Wins on Mirage (16-13) and Inferno (16-7), which came either side of a narrow loss on Ancient (14-16), got the job done.

G2 were the favorites coming into this game, and they had their chances to win on Mirage and possibly take the series 2-0, but disappointing individual performances squandered the series. Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov completely vacated the server on the second half of Mirage, posting 3 ADR and no kills, Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač struggled badly on Inferno, and in general the team’s famed mechanical skill was not on full display.

Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás hopped on the broadcast after the game and he gave his thoughts on the upcoming rematch with ENCE, the team that beat MOUZ in the IEM Dallas grand final earlier this year.

"It fires me up a lot because in Dallas I didn’t play good, it will be a banger game I think. ENCE is a really good team, they have been playing really good the last half a year and are the second-best team at the moment. It’s hard playoff bracket for us."

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
30/09/2023	ENCE 19:00 MOUZ	Match

MOUZ kicked off their map choice of Mirage in poor fashion, falling to a 1-7 deficit whilst getting blown apart round after round. m0NESY ran amok, Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen even picked up a 1v2 AWP clutch, and G2 looked comfortable. The tide turned mid-way through the half, with MOUZ finding their way back into contention off the back of Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek’s fragging, earning a 7-8 score heading into the second period.

G2 struggled in the second half, in no small part due to the complete disappearance of m0NESY: the AWPer posted 3 ADR and no frags. Such were their struggles that NiKo started buying the Krieg over the AK-47, something the analyst desk lamented after the game. Still, a streak from G2’s offense in the middle of the half made the scores close, but MOUZ eventually ground out a 16-13 victory.

G2’s pick of Ancient started similarly to Mirage, with G2 battering MOUZ and running out to a huge lead. m0NESY had admirably shaken off his poor ending to the previous map, and provided the fragging needed to get G2 rolling. Once again MOUZ recovered, with Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo getting things started with a beautiful 4k, and multiple slick and well-coordinated retakes secured a reasonable 6-9 score.

The second half seemed to be firmly in control of G2, they shook off an 0-3 start to the half to march their way to map point. MOUZ lacked ideas in the gun rounds, resorting to a brute-force approach that saw them rushing through smokes more often than not. Somehow MOUZ managed to find some success late on, getting themselves to within a round of securing overtime, only for NiKo to stand tall with a filthy one-tap 3k to put his opposition away and force a decider.

Roles were reversed as the series turned to Inferno, with MOUZ starting the game swatting G2’s offense aside with ease, only for G2 to experience a mini-revival. torzsi made Inferno his playground early doors, finding kills on the AWP with ease, but a couple double entries from m0NESY up banana at least garnered a 6-9 score for his team.

There was very little offered by G2 in the second half, their individuals had been largely quiet so far, and that continued after the break. MOUZ limited their opposition to a single round and David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský shone as they romped to a 16-7 victory, ending the series in their favor.