The MongolZ crush M80 on Inferno to avoid upset

13-11 and 11-13 scorelines on the first two maps gave way to a one-sided end to the series.

The MongolZ arrived in Denmark cold, looking more like how they have in their showings on stages than in studios.

Several mistakes across the first two maps of their opener at BLAST Open Lisbon meant M80 could have stolen the series 2-0, but Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren's side played themselves into form by the time the Inferno decider came around and ran away with a victory to avoid the upset.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
22/03/2025	M80 14:20 FURIA	Match
22/03/2025	The MongolZ 21:30 Natus Vincere	Match

M80 won both pistols on Dust2 but will lament not converting them, with The MongolZ winning the first force-buy to push up to a 6-1 lead. A push into B let M80 recover to post five at the break, and though they lost the second conversion to a Sodbayar "⁠Techno⁠" Munkhbold Tec-9 triple, they seized back control with a force-buy to take the lead.

The late stage of the map came down to the narrowest of margins, with The MongolZ winning out early to lead 11-9 only to lose to themselves by running out of time against M80's pistols. A Fritz "⁠slaxz-⁠" Dietrich quad kill then let M80 tie the game, but The MongolZ avoided disaster and closed out 13-11.

The same can't be said for Ancient, where The MongolZ were punished for picking into one of M80's comfort maps. Mason "⁠Lake⁠" Sanderson had woken up toward the end of Dust2 after a quiet T half and carried that through to map two, where his defensive impact in Middle spurred on an early M80 lead.

However, it was the ever-reliable Ethan "⁠reck⁠" Serrano who stole the show once the gun rounds kicked off in earnest, winning two key clutches and bagging seven multi-kills for an 18-6 K-D, 148.1 ADR and 2.22-rated CT half where M80 came out 8-4 up.

A second pistol win, conversion, and Lake's last-tick hunt down of two saving MongolZ players on the first gun round extended that to 11-4 for what looked like a sure-fire end to the map, but Ayush "⁠mzinho⁠" Batbold and Usukhbayar "⁠910⁠" Banzragch's MP9s threw that into disarray.

The Mongolian team had looked a shadow of themselves on the attack, one of their few rounds coming courtesy of a heroic quad-kill by a noticeably quiet Azbayar "⁠Senzu⁠" Munkhbold to recover a 2v4, but their CT side was a whole different beast.

That was largely thanks to the trio of 910, Techno, and mzinho, with the sniper kicking off the comeback after he got away with murder from broky with a triple kill.

Momentum built up and The MongolZ started looking unstoppable, late A takes by M80 falling by the wayside, but their seven-round comeback came undone after they got overly eager to close out the map and lost a 2v5 to a quad-kill and 1v2 from slaxz-.

That could have haunted their dreams if they had then lost on Inferno, but completely different teams returned to the server after the break.

The MongolZ were full of confidence with Techno starting out 12-1, while M80's offense floundered completely for a map they'll want to forget — particularly Lake, who ended up tallying his career-worst map on LAN and second-worst overall with a 0.27 rating.

The MongolZ went up 10-2 at the half and wasted no time in closing out after the switch, but can't walk away satisfied from the series overall as they look toward the possibility of an EPL rematch against Natus Vincere.