Vitality send MOUZ packing in BLAST Premier World Final 2024

Vitality are through the BLAST Premier World Final 2024 semifinals following a one-sided victory against MOUZ on November 1. They will face off against G2 esports to decide who moves ahead to the Grand Finals.

Although MOUZ have been a top team the entire year, they also consistently struggled on all events with a big crowd. Vitality capitalized on that to run away with a quick 2-0 victory despite playing with stand-in Audric "JACKZ" Jug instead of William "mezii" Merriman, who's on paternity leave.

MOUZ fans will also certainly question why MOUZ picked Mirage and let Dust 2 up for grabs for Vitality. These are arguably the two most puggy maps in the rotation, which certainly helps with the stand-in situation.

Vitality will come back to the server tomorrow, Nov. 2 to face G2 in the semifinals of BLAST Premier World Final while MOUZ will start their preparation for Perfect World Shanghai Major European RMR.

Here's the full recap of Vitality vs. MOUZ at the BLAST Premier World Final plus a post-match interview with JACKZ, conducted by esports.gg reporter Nicholas Taifalos.

Although MOUZ won the first pistol and the next two rounds of Dust 2, Vitality hit the ground running with their T-side. Not even a frustrating loss to just USP-S and one MP9 killed their momentum, and Vitality won the first half by 7-5.

Their CT side was better yet, as everyone but the IGL Dan "apEX" Madesclaire was hitting their shots. MOUZ tried to hit B a couple of times, but JACKZ was rock solid as the anchor and even advanced all the way through Lower Tunnels on one round to get a crucial kill.

There's not much a team can do when Vitality's star rifles Shahar "flameZ" and Spinx show up to help ZywOo. These two dictated the pace of the game and combined for 29 kills in just the first half, helping Vitality to secure a great 8-4 lead for their T-side.

MOUZ's woes continued in the second half as they won the pistol only to lose to an anti-eco. Vitality snowballed them from that point onwards as they had the economic edge, and closed out the map pretty fast.

Esports.gg: A long time since you've been in front of a crowd like this, tell me what's going through you right now after that win in front of this terrific crowd.

JACKZ: "It was really really good. My last arena was BLAST Lisbon, and we lost against Vitality in the semi-finals, but the arena vibes are always good and after two years, when you have the way I did to come back here, it's great."

Esports.gg: Talk me through the maps, because you guys came out with a bang on Dust 2 and you just kept it rolling on Mirage. Was this a veto that you guys expected?

JACKZ: "I just wanted to have this killer instinct coming into this series. We have the game plan, we are focused on that, and we were hungry to beat them because they beat Vitality in Rio in the final. So it was pure killer instinct, I would say the keywords."

Esports.gg: I spoke to apEX yesterday who said that before each of the maps he would introduce one or two T side strats to you and then you're given a little more room on CT side. Today we saw even more from you, especially on the T side. You're becoming a little more confident as you're settling into the team, is that it?

JACKZ: "At the beginning it was a bit tough because I wanted too much to adapt and listen and I didn't play with my feelings at all because they have a lot of keywords and a big system. I was a bit lost because I was thinking twice and in CS when you think twice it's over. So I try to do both now, but to play with my feeling mostly and it's better by the day. The more I play with them the more I'm feeling comfortable."

Esports.gg: What are you looking to make out of this event as a whole on an individual level? You've come in as a pretty late stand-in with no practice, it's just kind of off the cuff.

JACKZ: "I'm a competitor. I still want to play CS at the top level or even tier two because now in 2025 we'll have a good year of LAN. And yeah, I want to try and test myself and I think I have some answers already but I still want to compete. I think I deserve at least one or two good years to play CS."

That's all for now. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more BLAST Premier World Final 2024 content.