IEM Sydney 2023MOUZ secure IEM Sydney playoff berth
MOUZ will play one last group stage game for a spot directly in the semi-finals.
MOUZ, the ESL Pro League Season 18 champions, have secured a spot in the playoffs in Sydney. Playing with Bram "Nexius" Campana instead of Jimi "Jimpphat" Salo, they beat Natus Vincere 2-1 in the battle of the stand-ins, as coach Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy is playing for the team he usually coaches in place of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev.
MOUZ were in the driver’s seat on NAVI's Mirage pick from the get-go, taking a 6-0 lead and ending the first half ahead up 8-4 on the CT side. They were ready to clear the map quickly as they put 11-6 on the board once guns were in play on the attack.
Strong defenses by Justinas "jL" Lekavicius, Mihai "iM" Ivan and Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy kept Natus Vincere in the fight long enough to push for overtime, however, as MOUZ blundered a player in opening duels five times in the final five rounds of the half. Finally, Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek and company veered course in overtime and sailed to victory, 16-13.
Natus Vincere didn’t let the overtime blunder hurt them and came out swinging, taking the CT-side pistol round on Inferno and then dominating the first half. B1ad3 even found his groove and provided an AWP double-kill in Mid as he and his team went up 9-3 at the switch. In the end, it was b1t who put on a clinic with 29 kills in the 17 rounds it took to close out procedures, 13-4.
MOUZ struck first blood on Ancient, but despite an early 0-3 deficit, Natus Vincere didn’t fall too far behind at any point on the offense, bringing it to within two at the half. The Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen-led squad couldn’t hold their own on the CT side, however, and a one-sided display by MOUZ ended up with the ESL Pro League champions securing the first spot in the IEM Sydney playoffs.
Before they head to the playoff bracket, they will have to play one last group stage series, however, for seeding, against the winner of BetBoom vs. GamerLegion. Natus Vincere, on the other hand, will face the victor of Vitality vs. FaZe, two big names that were dropped down to the lower bracket in the first round of the tournament.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| IEM Sydney 2023 | ||
| 17/10/2023 |
11:05
|
Match |
| 18/10/2023 |
07:30
|
Match |
 Natus Vincere |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 69 - 39 | +5.57% | 94.8 | 76.9% | 1.44 | |
| 47 - 45 | +0.64% | 78.4 | 66.2% | 1.08 | |
| 40 - 46 | -1.48% | 72.2 | 69.2% | 0.95 | |
| 36 - 42 | -0.96% | 67.1 | 60.0% | 0.93 | |
| 17 - 49 | -5.17% | 36.0 | 44.6% | 0.49 |
 MOUZ |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 - 48 | +0.36% | 82.1 | 69.2% | 1.18 | |
| 44 - 43 | +1.35% | 78.0 | 72.3% | 1.12 | |
| 48 - 40 | -0.54% | 74.7 | 69.2% | 1.07 | |
| 40 - 41 | +0.34% | 75.3 | 69.2% | 1.06 | |
| 39 - 39 | -0.52% | 59.5 | 64.6% | 0.90 |
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Helvijs 'broky' Saukants
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Isak 'isak' Fahlén
Ashley 'ash' Battye
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