Kicking off Global Esports Tour Dubai‘s second day was a semi-final matchup between MOUZ and Movistar Riders, where Christopher “dexter” Nong‘s squad triumphed over their Spanish opponents. They clinched their spot in the grand final after two maps, narrowly winning Vertigo, 16-14, and rounding out the series on Ancient, 16-12.
MOUZ now await the winner of the second semi-final matchup to determine their grand final opponent, either the new-look OG featuring Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar and Maciej “F1KU” Miklas, or a NIP lineup playing with Erik “ztr” Gustafsson temporarily calling the shots in Hampus “hampus” Poser‘s absence.
MOUZ are one win away from lifting the trophy in Dubai
The series opened on Vertigo with Movistar Riders drawing first blood and quickly finding themselves up 4-0 by breaking through MOUZ‘s defenses and capitalizing on their economic advantage. Both squads exchanged scoring runs as the scoreline read 6-3 in the Spaniards’ favor, before Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás‘s ace in the tenth and double-kill in the 11th brought his team to within one.
Even though the succeeding rounds were relatively close, Movistar Riders had their way for the remainder of the first half, finding success on either bomb site as they extended their lead heading into halftime, up 10-5.
MOUZ immediately erased any advantage Movistar Riders had as they came out of the break, with Jon “JDC” de Castro bouncing back from his slow start in the first half and torzsi continuing to show his AWPing prowess. The international squad took seven consecutive rounds which saw them secure their first lead of the game with a scoreline of 12-10 in their favor.
Movistar Riders managed to get the score level at 12-12, before MOUZ went on a three-round spree to arrive at map point. Unrelenting, the Spaniards fought back valiantly and took the game all the way to round 30, however dexter‘s crew were able to overpower their opponents in the most crucial round and claimed Vertigo, 16-14.
torzsi’s AWPing was a key factor in MOUZ’s Vertigo win
Ancient started off with early domination from Movistar Riders, whose site defense and sensational area control allowed them to garner a swift 7-0 advantage over their international opponents. torzsi‘s triple-kill with the AWP in the eighth, a round the rest of his team was on a hard-eco, finally put MOUZ on the board in map number two.
The rest of the half was a convincing display from dexter‘s men, with multi-kills coming in from every member of the team, highlighted by a quad-kill from the in-game leader himself and JDC hitting a triple in the ninth, MOUZ completely erased their large deficit and entered the switch leading by one.
A quad-kill in the pistol from Alejandro “mopoz” Fernández-Quejo Cano greeted the second half, which soon turned into a three-round spree from Movistar Riders, who reached double-digits and took back the lead with a 10-8 scoreline.
Similar to the first half, multi-kills from both sides were in abundance as the remainder of the game was a completely aggressive firefight, with MOUZ and Movistar Riders constantly exchanging scoring runs without a clear winner in sight. In the end, it was MOUZ who got the better of their Spanish opponents, taking six out of the last seven rounds to wrap up the series and book their spot in the grand final.
