MOUZ move into playoffs over VP

Spinx will play in the arena on his MOUZ debut.

MOUZ have qualified for their first arena match with Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi by beating Virtus.pro 2-1 in Romania.

Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin's new-look squad have shown inconsistency in the group stages but showed their class in a 13-2 battering of VP on the decider of Mirage.

The team has experienced some trouble, collapsing from a 9-2 CT side lead against FaZe, 7-2 T side lead against Falcons, and 6-1 here on Inferno against VP — but they have also shown their ability to bounce back when it matters.

"Brollan is doing a good job," Spinx told the desk. "Some T sides were lacking but its not on him, it's on everyone."

While admiting apEX was a better caller "100%," Spinx repeated how "optimistic" he was about Brollan's potential.

Virtus.pro made playoffs at Katowice and will look to games against paiN and 3DMAX here as ones they should have won in order to make it two in a row with the new lineup. But this MOUZ match, against a team with similar weaknesses in terms of an unproven captain, was also a winnable one for Virtus.pro in theory.

Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev was signed to add a punch to a team that sometimes seemed tame or predictable under Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali but has struggled in more selfless roles and a new system, falling to a 0.98 rating on the team and just 0.67 in the series today.

Those stats paint a picture of the team's floor even while acknowledging the 20-year-old's impact on Inferno's eventual map win.

Date	Matches
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025
14/02/2025	MOUZ Finished 2:0 BIG	Match
15/02/2025	MOUZ Finished 2:0 3DMAX	Match
16/02/2025	MOUZ Finished 0:2 FaZe	Match
17/02/2025	MOUZ Finished 1:2 Falcons	Match
18/02/2025	MOUZ Finished 2:1 Virtus.pro	Match

Removing Jame can't save VP from Inferno's save simulator

VP had three or more players survive four rounds in a row early on Ancient, but down 6-1 were able to build back into the game as Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev shone on Banana.

They ended the half 5-7, using that bank of saved money with a style more reminiscent of their best days under Jame.

But on Mirage the wheels fell off once again as Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov called his way to a 2-10 T side half. The VP in-game leader went 0-6 on opening duels as the team slumped to a 2-13 defeat.

Add in that one of those rounds was a fantastic FL1T 1v3 from Palace, and the scoreline is even more incriminating.

MOUZ's firepower holds true

The removal of Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek brings more questions than it answers, but the firepower upgrade Spinx brings is the one place the move cannot be questioned.

Four players finished the group stage above a 1.10 rating in a good sign for the new project.

We will now see whether that can hold up in playoffs, where players like Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman — MOUZ's best player in groups — can sometimes falter and there is room for the experience of Spinx to cover for his younger teammates.

There is plenty of space for Spinx to affect games given that he has allowed Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo to keep his primary lurker role, signing up to new semi-lurk positions like Boiler on Inferno where he can be a more active T side presence.

"I have much more action," Spinx said on broadcast. "It's a bit harder, more responsibility, but that's what I wanted. When i joined here I thought that Jimi should be the main lurk and so far it's been pretty good."