MOUZ sweep Vitality to lift first ESL Pro League trophy in CS2 era

The young international side defended their title and established themselves as part of the elite.

Torzsi celebrating at ESL Pro League Season 19 CS2
Photo by Adam Lakomy via ESL

The young international squad won back-to-back iterations of ESL Pro League, bolstering their elite credentials as they scored a 3-0 win against Team Vitality in the grand final.

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Though this MOUZ roster has mostly been the bridesmaid rather than the bride in Counter-Strike competitions, this youthful squad seems to have found a spectacular extra gear where ESL Pro League is concerned. Having lifted their first notable title in the final event of the Global Offensive era, they now defended their crown in impressive fashion in the first CS2 iteration of the prestigious tournament.

The MOUZ squad lift the ESL Pro League Season 18 trophy following their win.
Repeat: MOUZ back in Season 19, still with frozen on the squad rather than Brollan. Photo by Helena Kristiansson via ESL

It was a clean sweep for siuhy and co., who made up for the bitter disappointment of a semifinal finish at the PGL Copenhagen CS2 Major in style. MOUZ have not dropped a single series across the tournament, losing just two maps across the six matches they played as they coasted to a notable victory.

They went up against Team Vitality in the grand final, who put an end to FaZe’s grand final appearance streak in style just two rounds prior. With ZywOo firing on all cylinders, it was a huge challenge for MOUZ’s youngsters, but they all answered the call.

It was a dominant performance from the title holders, who scored a straightforward victory without dropping a single map. This time, it was Dorian ‘xertioN’ Berman who led the charge for MOUZ with a 56-41 K/D across the three maps played.

A strong CT hold on Inferno saw them take away Vitality’s map pick with a 13-9 score, which was followed by a 13-8 win on their own pick of Mirage. After racing to a 7-0 lead on the CT side of Nuke, the rest of the match was pretty much a formality and a 13-5 win proved to be a worthy capstone for a fantastic campaign.

“We are the kings of the studio,” said Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás after the series win, and MOUZ do seem to have something special going on in the small-scale Malta locale. Whether they can transform this poise to something more solid in cavernous arenas is still up in the air, but for now, they have a big win to celebrate. Meanwhile, ZywOo can console himself with a nineteenth career MVP award, courtesy of HLTV.

Author
Image of Luci Kelemen
Luci Kelemen
Weekend editor at Dot Esports. Telling tales of gaming since 2015. Black-belt time-waster when it comes to strategy games and Counter-Strike. Previously featured on PC Gamer, Fanbyte, and more, Occasional chess tournament attendant and even more occasional winner.