MOUZ end loss streak to FaZe, VP stomp The MongolZ en route to Rio playoffs

Tough quarter-final matchups await MOUZ and Virtus.pro on Friday, but for now they can breathe a sigh of relief after they ensured their return to the big stage.

MOUZ and Virtus.pro are the final two teams to lock in their places in the playoffs of IEM Rio after beating FaZe and The MongolZ, respectively, in the group lower finals.

For MOUZ, the victory against Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's team came with a massive sigh of relief as they finally claimed their first win against FaZe in Counter-Strike 2 after seven unsuccessful series.

This time, it nearly looked as if FaZe would pull some magic out of the hat as they often do. After suffering a tough loss on their pick, Dust2, they delivered under pressure as they came back from the brink of elimination on map two, Mirage, from 9-12.

Always playing his mind games, karrigan tried to get into MOUZ's heads following the overtime win, but Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek's team came back from the break unfazed. A strong start to the T half gave them the cushion to withstand a response from FaZe, and closed it without too much drama on the CT side.

Throughout the series MOUZ looked undeterred by the pressure and positive from beginning to end in a "change of mindset," as Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman put it after the game.

"We just had a change of mindset, we're not playing as well as we should the last few months. We're just playing MOUZ CS, it's brawly, it's chaos, it's a lot of duels. We were super confident today," he said.

The job is far from over for MOUZ, who have a Vitality matchup ahead of them in the quarter-finals on Friday. It is one that has gone back and forth this year so far, MOUZ having won the ESL Pro League Season 19 grand final and Vitality a group match in their run to the title at IEM Cologne.

Just an hour earlier, Virtus.pro secured a dominant victory over The MongolZ. CT sides were the bane of the Mongolians' existence as they only won four and three rounds there on Ancient and Dust2.

For Virtus.pro it marks a return to the big stage for the first time since the previous season ended at the BLAST Premier Spring Final, where the Russian side got to the semi-finals.

Now, they're heading into their most difficult matchup yet in Rio, against a No. 1 side Natus Vincere, who had just lost to FURIA in their group's upper final earlier in the day.