MOUZ beat Vitality to set up FURIA rematch in Rio

The young international team has survived another elimination series in Brazil.

Reigning IEM Rio champions Vitality have been eliminated from the tournament after a 2-1 loss to MOUZ in the quarter-final stage. Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's troops started brightly and stole their opponents' map pick convincingly but struggled down the stretch as MOUZ displayed great composure to survive another elimination match in this tournament.

It's a tough blow for Vitality, who looked out of sorts and were mistake-prone during key moments of the series. They will now turn their attention to the BLAST Premier World Final, where they will be without William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman.

As for MOUZ, the victory puts them on a collision course with hometown favorites FURIA. It will be a rematch of the group upper bracket semi-final clash from Monday, which FURIA won 2-1. Despite the Brazilians having the crowd advantage, Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek expects his team to put up a better fight.

"It's going to be a different story," he said after the match. "We've just won three games. We're on fire and with a lot of confidence. We feel really good coming into the matchup. Even though it's a rematch, we're going to get there."

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2024
12/10/2024	FURIA 20:50 MOUZ	Match

The opening stages of Mirage presented a chaotic back-and-forth affair as neither team managed to get a grip on the game, but then Vitality took control of proceedings and easily shut down the MOUZ offense for the remainder of the half, with Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut posting an 18-2 score.

The second half began with mezii getting an ace in the pistol round to put Vitality on double-digit territory. MOUZ tightened up once they had money to work with, but their attempt at a comeback was derailed by apEX, who pulled off a quad-kill in the final round to put the game to bed before things could get out of hand.

MOUZ came out on Nuke looking livelier and vaulted to a 5-0 lead on the CT side. However, Vitality improved as the half wore on and managed to bring the deficit down to two by the end of the half, with Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi getting a crucial 1v2 clutch in the final round.

Vitality carried their momentum into the second half and equalized the score at 7-7 off the back of a quad-kill by mezii in the pistol round. The entire half was keenly contested as both teams wrestled for control, with MOUZ closing out the game in the final round of regulation.

And then suddenly the game turned into a rout. Vitality looked toothless in the first half of Inferno, where their mistakes proved costly as they picked up only two rounds on the CT side.

Vitality showed their fighting spirit in the second half and found a way back into the game, but the deficit proved too much for them to overcome as MOUZ locked down the map in the 23rd round with two key frags from Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo through a smoke in a B retake.