MOUZ eliminate Vitality from IEM Cologne

MOUZ continue their run in the IEM Cologne lower bracket following their 2-1 victory over Vitality. Mathieu “⁠ZywOo⁠” Herbaut was on his usual shenanigans during the first map, pushing the French-Danish mix to a 16-12 victory on Inferno before Aurimas “⁠Bymas⁠” Pipiras was able to return the favor on Overpass, 16-10. The European squad then secured their survival on Nuke, 16-12, thanks to a fantastic T side.

The victory puts MOUZ in contention for the last playoff berth in Group A, facing the winner of NIP vs G2 on Sunday at 16:00 for the privilege to play in the LANXESS Arena.

On the other side, Vitality has been eliminated from the tournament. The European mix came into the Play-In with high expectations behind them following a final appearance at BLAST Premier Spring Final, but their run in Germany was far from perfect. The French-Danish side was sent to the lower bracket of both stages by Movistar Riders, but unlike the Play-In, Danny “⁠zonic⁠” Sørensen‘s men were unable to recover the second time around.

MOUZ are just one step away from playoffs

Vitality got off to a really slow start on Inferno. Despite apEX delivering the opening pistol on a silver platter, the French-Danish squad was not able to convert their early success into a substantial advantage as they conceded the following round to a MOUZ force buy.

Facing a 1-6 deficit, ZywOo took matters into his own hand on the defense, pushing his team to cut the deficit and only trail 7-8 behind at halftime. The Frenchman did not slow down after moving to the T side and continued to torment the European squad as he claimed a 30-bomb before securing the 16-12 victory.

After moving to their pick of Overpass, Vitality showed a much better performance from the get-go, smashing through the T side to gain an early 5-0 advantage. ZywOo was again great on the offense, but MOUZ could count on David “⁠frozen⁠” Čerňanský to keep things close. The Slovakian rifler was the center of a late resurgence which managed to salvage a 6-9 scoreline before the break.

The European squad carried their streak into the second half, only dropping one round throughout their whole offensive half. Bymas came alive after switching sides and his clutches in post-plant situations proved crucial in MOUZ‘s comeback to close the map 16-10.

Bymas was fantastic on Overpass’ T side

There was very little to celebrate for Vitality on Nuke’s CT side as MOUZ came into the half all guns blazing, taking the pistol and an early 3-0 advantage. Despite Emil “⁠Magisk⁠” Reif‘s best efforts, the defense was only able to claim a few sporadic rounds here and there before conceding the last one of the half to a force buy, switching sides 5-10 behind.

Christopher “⁠dexter⁠” Nong and Ádám “⁠torzsi⁠” Torzsás were the stars of the show on the T side, but they slowed down significantly after moving to the defense. MOUZ almost threw an eight round advantage and struggled hold out against Vitality‘s T side comeback before finally closing the map 16-12 and the series 2-1.

Europe

France

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