Mouz’s playoff woes continue as they get knocked out of IEM Cologne by a dynamic NAVI, who will get a shot at the trophy against Vitality at the Lanxess Arena. NAVI failed to win the highly coveted Cologne trophy 2 years back against FaZe; now, they take on the number 1 team in the world in the Grand Finals.
Map VETO:
- MOUZ removed Anubis
- Natus Vincere removed Vertigo
- MOUZ picked Inferno
- Natus Vincere picked Mirage
- MOUZ removed Dust2
- Natus Vincere removed Nuke
- Ancient was left over
Map 1: Inferno; Pick: Mouz; Winner: NAVI;
A dominant start from NAVI saw Mouz instantly go on the back foot in their map pick. A well-drilled defence saw the reigning Major champions post a 9-3 lead before moving into the second half. Mouz’s offence got read on every occasion; their prowess saw them break through the NAVI defence on the 3 rounds they managed.
Mouz went further behind, losing out on the pistol round, but responded with a force buy conversion that saw them put together a streak of 5 rounds, upon which NAVI hit back to get two more rounds on the board. Mouz made a comeback from a 5-round deficit to push the game to overtime. Mouz, in overtime, lost a single round on their defence, which NAVI capitalized on by winning all the rounds on their defence to close out the map with a 16-14 score line.
Map 2: Mirage; Pick: NAVI; Winner: NAVI;
Mouz started strong on their opponent’s map pick. After winning a tough pistol round, they went 6-2 up before both teams shared the remaining 4 rounds to close out the half. Of the 4 rounds NAVI had in their bags, two were brought home by 1v2 and 1v3 clutches by w0nderful and JL, respectively.
NAVI started the map with an incredible 3K from b1t on the pistol round, upon which Mouz got back on the board on the first gun round of the half, which triggered a trade of rounds between both teams before NAVI went on the back foot. b1t’s heroic eco-round frags saw them get back on track. Mouz made it difficult, but an experienced NAVI roster could grind out the map with a 13-11 scoreline. b1t, after a heroic performance for NAVI, stood out as the best player, having secured a rating of 1.22.
