MOUZ edge past Cloud9 in triple OT

C9 failed to close the series three times before falling to MOUZ in triple overtime.

"Honestly, I don’t even know [how we got the win]," Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek said after a marathon triple overtime decider on Ancient which put his MOUZ over the line to take their opening IEM Katowice series against Cloud9. "It’s great to see the composure that we showed on the server. We did some really good adapting throughout the game and I’m really proud of my teammates for not putting our heads down."

MOUZ tallied their first LAN victory of the season at the event in Poland, where they had a slow start on Overpass before building themselves up on Mirage. Cloud9, who came from eliminating none other than Virtus.pro in the play-in, were ruthless at the start of the series, going up 2-7 on the attacking side of Overpass. On their own attacking side, MOUZ couldn't get the engine going, despite starting off with a pistol win, and went down 8-13.

On Mirage, it was a similar story as the siuhy-led squad got off to a 7-5 lead on the attack and then went on to win 13-8. On that occasion, the trio of Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás, Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin and Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo stepped up considerably in the effort.

It was time for Ancient after two fairly one-sided maps and finally the series delivered like a firework show's finale. The two teams fought tooth and nail throughout, on either side of the half, all the way up until MOUZ denied Cloud9 their first match point in regulation.

Pushing overtime was done spectacularly, too, as Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy read a late-round scenario like a book and killed the bomb planter with six seconds left on the clock, but was denied victory by a last-second headshot delivered by Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman.

The Russians were more proactive, finding the lead and setting the pace in extra rounds, but in the end all it took MOUZ was getting ahead once, as they converted on the defense against a Cloud9 starved for ideas on the attack.

"We took a pause and talked about how to play B site," siuhy said about how the team is incorporating its newest addition, Brollan. "Towards the end of the second half and in overtime it worked in our favor." The Swede was the highest-rated player on the map with a 1.38 rating by the end of it.

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2024
05/02/2024	Monte 13:30 Cloud9	Match
05/02/2024	GamerLegion 16:30 MOUZ	Match

MOUZ now have their eyes set on GamerLegion in the second round of the upper bracket. "I’m happy to meet them, finally," siuhy said when asked about playing his former team. "I’m happy to play against my former teammates. Hopefully, it’ll be a good game. I’m expecting Overpass, like usual from them, but let’s wait!"

Cloud9 are up against the wall, slated to face Monte in a tough lower bracket that also includes Vitality and HEROIC on the other side.