MOUZ flog paiN 13-0 on Dust2 decider to win Rivals opener

dgt showed promise in his debut with paiN despite getting thrashed in the decider map.

MOUZ beat paiN 2-1 in their opening BLAST Rivals Season 1 Group A bout, and will face the winner of Vitality vs. Wildcard in the upper bracket final.

The series kicked off on paiN’s Nuke pick, but it was the favorites who were in control from the outset on the CT side, going up 7-2. paiN put in a strong three-round push to keep things close at the half, but MOUZ won the crucial second pistol round on the attack and set themselves up for a win after reaching 11-5.

The European squad struggled to close it out immediately, but in the had enough of a round buffer to power through 13-9 with Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman and Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás leading the way with 20 kills each.

paiN came into Inferno with a 14% winrate in 14 matches, 12 wins and two losses, but kept MOUZ on their feet throughout. Despite trailing by two after the CT side, the Brazilians took the lead on the attack, 11-8, and set themselves up to tie up the series.

After taking it 13-11, Dust2 came around and MOUZ put their troubles behind them while paiN could not catch a break, as they were completely dominated in a 13-round map that left them with a goose egg at the end.

dgt performs despite the loss

If we don’t take Dust2 into account, where paiN suffered a collective collapse and were completely shut down, Franco "⁠dgt⁠" Garcia showed great promise in this new partnership despite having only one day of practice before his debut under the orders of Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt.

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dgt has slotted right into paiN, and proof of it was a beautiful 2vs3 retake alongside Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares while up against map point on Nuke. The Uruguayan player also had a great day individually despite the loss, with 1.28 and 1.10 ratings in the first two maps, showing that he could prove a fantastic asset for his new team.

MOUZ's confidence unshaken before facing paiN; Dust2 big win to keep a positive mood

MOUZ are second in the VRS, but their position as the number two team behind Vitality is not as solid as it could have been before IEM Melbourne, where Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin and his men were sent home in the semi-finals by Falcons.

“I don’t think our confidence is shaken, we’re one of the favourites,” Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi said on the BLAST broadcast before the match. “Right now, there are maybe four teams that can win this tournament: us, Spirit, Falcons, and of course, Vitality, but I don’t know how Spirit will be because we haven’t seen them in a while, and Falcons and Vitality were in the grand finals now [in Melbourne].”

MOUZ started out the series against paiN working their way to a victory on Nuke, but a possibly confidence-shattering loss on Inferno, their map pick, followed. In the end, no harm was done as Dust2 was a complete shutdown of paiN and Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen’s men will breathe a sigh of relief going into the following round of the group stage after at least one very positive showing.