Cloud9’s CS:GO team has been eliminated from the IEM Rio Major 2022 playoffs and MOUZ will progress to the semifinals, where they’ll face off against Outsiders in a best-of-three to see who gets to take a shot at the $500,000 prize.
The majority of the MOUZ squad came up from the MOUZ academy roster and have now made it to a semi-final of a major, all within a year of progressing to the main team. The up-and-comers have now reached new heights, showing that experience might not be a prerequisite to make it to the top.
The ex-academy team came in as the underdogs, taking down one of the favorites in the tournament 2-1. Each member of the young-gun MOUZ roster performed well throughout each map with no real standouts in the series. No longer was Cloud9 the youngsters in a series; the undeniably less experienced MOUZ squad held their own against the CIS IEM Dallas 2022 winners.
MOUZ’s map pick, Inferno (11-16), went the way of the CIS C9 roster. Abay “HObbit” Khasenov breezed past the international roster, with the Kazakstanian player helping C9 take the first map.
The second map, Overpass (16-13), saw David “frozen” Čerňanský wake up and carry his roster across the line. C9 almost mounted a comeback on the CT side, but MOUZ halted them in their tracks. Frozen guaranteed MOUZ the win, topping the leaderboard with 25 kills to 16 deaths, with an incredibly dangerous 97.3 ADR.
MOUZ’s CT side was too strong for the CIS roster on Ancient (16-9). C9 struggled to get past one round on the T side, with the rag-tag youngsters of the MOUZ roster holding strong until they came through on the very last round of the series.
Christopher “dexter” Nong and co. now progress to the semi-finals to take on Outsiders. Almost all the tournament favorites have been eliminated, with NAVI being the last top-tier team in the event, meaning this could be anyone’s major.
