MOUZ deny Falcons revenge in BLAST Open Lisbon opener

MOUZ will play Spirit in their next match with a spot in the playoffs on the line.

MOUZ beat Falcons 2-0 in their BLAST Open Lisbon 2025 opener, doubling down on their recent ESL Pro League Season 21 and PGL Cluj-Napoca victories over Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and company.

This time around, Falcons decided to ban Nuke and forced MOUZ to go with Ancient instead, but the gambit didn't pay dividends as Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin and his men took it 13-10 after stealing Train in the final round of regulation, 13-11.

The Spirit vs. MOUZ rematch is set

Up next for MOUZ will be none other than Spirit, a team that will no doubt be looking to also have a shot at getting revenge after they were sent home from the ESL Pro League semi-finals by the reds.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 21
15/03/2025	Spirit Finished 1:2 MOUZ	Match

Spirit kicked off their run at the BLAST Studios with a convincing victory against heavy underdogs The Huns as Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets showed fantastic form with a 1.90 rating in the series.

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Spirit teach The Huns a harsh lesson in BLAST Lisbon opener

jimpphat is working on getting back to his old self

Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo, a breakout player in 2024 for MOUZ, has struggled with stability at the beginning of the year as he left behind rumors of a possible transfer to another team that floated during the off-season.

The 18-year-old struggled in MOUZ's IEM Katowice disaster run — as did the whole team — and wasn't at his best during ESL Pro League, but he had a good showing in MOUZ's trophy run at PGL Cluj-Napoca and can now add to that topping the server against Falcons with a 1.17 rating.

"I didn't have the best performance [at EPL]," Jimpphat told Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche on the broadcast after the match, "so after EPL I was really looking forward to coming here because I know there are many great opponents here. I also knew what I could fix, personally, there were some problems, but now I'm trying to go back to my old self."

MOUZ are also finding their identity under Brollan and with new teammate Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi. "[Spinx is] really communicative and giving a lot of ideas to the team, and I think it's really good, especially now that we changed IGL," Jimpphat told Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers before the match against Falcons. "Everyone has to fit in and give some ideas, and Spinx is really good at that. He has this hawk-eye in a way that he can see the map really well."

Falcons hit the MOUZ wall again

Falcons won the first of four series against MOUZ this year, in the PGL Cluj-Napoca group stage, but have been unable to repeat the feat in the last three, which includes the PGL Cluj-Napoca grand final and two group stage matches at ESL Pro League and BLAST Open Lisbon.

Had Falcons been able to secure their Train pick in the BLAST Studios, the match could have taken a dangerous turn for MOUZ, who were denied Nuke in the veto but were still good for their Ancient pick this series, but some poor rounds in advantageous situation kept NiKo and company back.

The reason the scales could have been tipped had Falcons tipped Train the other way is because the decider map, Mirage, went to Falcons both times the two teams played it in Cluj-Napoca. Perhaps Falcons aren't there yet, but working on marginal gains could help paint a different picture in the future.