xertioN tops the scoreboard in debut victory with MOUZ

MOUZ claimed an important ESL Pro League Season 16 opening win in a group which has no clear favorite and is expected to be a brawl for the three available playoff spots. They did so with a clean 2-0, scraping by in their Mirage pick, 16-14, before shutting Heroic down 16-9 in a wild Dust2 pick.

The international squad came into the series with a new lineup, featuring MOUZ NXT’s Dorian “⁠xertioN⁠” Berman in place of the benched Aurimas “⁠Bymas⁠” Pipiras. The Israeli youngster rejoined his two former academy teammates, Ádám “⁠torzsi⁠” Torzsás and Jon “⁠JDC⁠” de Castro, in MOUZ’s main team. He proved more than capable at a higher level of play than his previous experience in the academy team would suggest, with a 1.25 rating, 1.46 impact and 86 ADR in his first team debut.

MOUZ and Heroic last met at IEM Cologne, where the Danish squad’s early struggles coming from the player break started to become apparent. On that occasion Casper “⁠cadiaN⁠” Møller and company were knocked out of the tournament in last place by MOUZ after an opening loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas. Heroic’s woes then continued on home soil at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, where they failed to make it to the Fall Finals.

MOUZ’s newcomer, xertioN, pushed deep into Mirage’s A site to tally the first frag of the series in a successful A execute that put his team ahead. JDC then got a triple in the anti-forcebuy to ease MOUZ into a 3-0 after the anti-eco. Heroic won the first gun round in a bid to stabilize on the international squad’s map pick, but it wasn’t until a seven round streak after going down 2-6 that the Danes asserted dominance and took a 9-6 lead.

Heroic hit double digits with a slow pistol round on A, but two Desert Eagle kills by xertioN turned the tides of the second round to keep MOUZ close and Christopher “⁠dexter⁠” Nong’s men continued to rack up the rounds until they regained the lead. It came to be a one-round match when MOUZ’s dominance was brought to a halt by Heroic in the dying embers of the map, but ultimately the international squad hung tight to pull off a last-round 16-14 victory.

The Danes then got off to a disastrous start on their Dust2 punish pick and were devoured by xertioN, who posted 17 kills in his team’s 9-0 start on the CT side. It wasn’t until the tenth round that Heroic found success on the A site, which opened up the can for three more round wins in a 4-11 half.

Martin “⁠stavn⁠” Lund and company went 5-0 on the CT side in blunt enough fashion for commentator Chad “⁠SPUNJ⁠” Burchill to predict a third map, but MOUZ had different plans and kicked into gear, striking with four successful attacks in a row to hit match point. Down and out, Heroic lost a 5vs3 against a B hit in the 25th round, the last dagger to the heart, which confirmed MOUZ’s first victory at ESL Pro League Season 16 in xertioN‘s debut series.

Dennis “⁠sycrone⁠” Nielsen’s squad will take on the other Danish squad in Group C, Astralis, in their second ESL Pro League match, while Heroic will have a chance to get back on track against the new-look ENCE.