MOUZ sealed their grand final berth at BLAST Open Porto after overcoming their demons in Vitality, sweeping the series with victories on Dust2 (13-11) and Mirage (13-7).
Dorian "xertioN" Berman's men went into the series with a disastrous 2-12 head-to-head against Dan "apEX" Madesclaire that dates back over a year and a half, with their last win coming in the group stage of IEM Chengdu 10 months ago.
But MOUZ took full advantage of Vitality not being at full strength with Justinas "jL" Lekavicius as a stand-in, exploiting the Lithuanian on both maps and showing no fear with some excellent calls down the stretch by xertioN.
It is the second grand final of the season for MOUZ, who secured their first trophy at BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals over Spirit and will challenge the very same team in the final of Porto in hopes of grabbing some more silverware.
MOUZ weren't caught out by Vitality's chaotic, aggressive early stance on Dust2, converting a pistol into a 4-0 start. Vitality had just six kills in that stretch, but broke their goose egg and tied the game off the back of a few entries from Shahar "flameZ" Shushan and apEX.
That was all they mustered on the T side, however, finding themselves cut down by Adrian "xelex" Vincze and Lotan "Spinx" Giladi at nearly every turn as MOUZ surged to an 8-4 lead. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, after a quiet first half, then transcended, combining with flameZ to cut down a few Catwalk hits to grant Vitality a 10-8 lead.
But MOUZ found their avenue of attack, finding success with repeated B hits to tie the game as Robin "ropz" Kool and jL's hold crumbled. apEX found huge impact with a quad-kill to help Vitality momentarily cling to their lead, but MOUZ went back to exploiting B and stole away the victory, 13-11.
Hot starts out of ZywOo and ropz saw Vitality strike back early with four rounds on Mirage, but they were given no respect by MOUZ. Back-to-back smoke pushes completely swung momentum the other way, and xertioN continued to call circles around the defenses in what became a 7-5 half.
Vitality's struggles carried into the second half, where they couldn't convert a 4v2 with pistols for an early upset and squandered a hero AK 4k from ZywOo by dropping the round after to a destitute buy from MOUZ. Spinx's triple dismantled the B hit with one of only two rifles, and that crushed any momentum Vitality could have gained for a comeback as MOUZ stormed to victory.
Vitality
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautPast 3 months
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanPast 3 months
Justinas 'jL' LekaviciusPast 3 months
Robin 'ropz' KoolPast 3 months
Dorian 'xertioN' BermanPast 3 months
Adrian 'xelex' VinczePast 3 months
Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePast 3 months
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev
Lotan 'Spinx' GiladiPast 3 months
MOUZ
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Oldřich 'PR' Nový
Adrian 'xelex' Vincze
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen