MOUZ, fielding one of professional Counter-Strike‘s youngest rosters, have won the ESL Pro League Season 18 grand finals with a perfect 3-0 scoreline against NAVI. They cleared the veteran squad 16-10 on Inferno, 16-9 on Overpass, and finally, 19-15 on a back-and-forth overtime on Mirage.
It’s a stellar showing for young MOUZ in-game leader Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek, who led GamerLegion to the grand finals of the BLAST Paris Major mere months ago. In a relatively short time, siuhy has implemented his aggressive playmaking style of calling into a MOUZ roster brimming with talent.
Particularly, 17-year-old Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo starred in the finals series. His 1.25 HLTV rating in the final match, combined with his youth and clutch kills in crucial rounds, make him easily one of the brightest spots for this squad. Jimpphat won the DHL MVP for the season for his play despite being out-fragged by teammate Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás in the finals match against NAVI.
While MOUZ aren’t exactly outside of contention, their win at this event should catapult them even higher up the rankings among pundits and analysts. Not only did they win the finals in a clean sweep, they took the hard road to get there in the first place. A gauntlet of FURIA, FaZe Clan, G2, and ENCE stood in their way throughout the tournament: FaZe Clan, G2, and ENCE are all rated as top teams in the world by HLTV.
For NAVI, despite losing, there are good things that can be taken from their performance. Until their match against MOUZ, they didn’t drop a map over the duration of Pro League. However, their bracket wasn’t nearly as tough as MOUZ.
The next professional Counter-Strike tournament will be the BLAST Fall Showdown, which might remain on Global Offensive. Later in the month, at IEM Sydney, the Counter-Strike professional scene will transfer over to the new release, CS2.
