MOUZ sneak in an amazing comeback on Nuke to eliminate Heroic

Rohan

Rohan

Heroic’s first tournament with their new player did not go as per expectations.

After an exciting two-map series, Mouz eliminated Heroic from IEM Cologne 2022. The two-map series saw the two teams in close competition, but ultimately it was MOUZ that emerged victorious. This marks a disappointing start to the new Heroic roster after they replaced Refrezh with Jabbi. Heroic are now out of the tournament while Mouz continue their chances of possibly qualifying for the playoffs in the LANXESS arena.

MOUZ come back from a 3-12 half on Vertigo

The series started with Vertigo, which was MOUZ’s map pick. However, MOUZ seemed completely out of sorts in the first half, losing almost all their rounds save three. The 12-3 score on the CT half should have been more than enough for Heroic as they switched slides. But Mouz had different ideas. After some stellar performances by JDC and frozen in the first half on their defense, MOUZ ramped up a stellar display of performing under pressure at IEM Cologne.

I think everyone just kept it really calm. We just won the pistol and took it round by round and we didn't overhype ourselves and everyone was super calm in every situation. John played an amazing game on B, we played an amazing game on A and just controlled the whole game.

JDC ended Vertigo with 31 kills, miles ahead of anyone else on the server. With just 16 deaths across the entirety of the map, the player’s impact was unmatched. 

CT dominance continues on Nuke

Image Credit: ESL CS
Image Credit: ESL CS

The second map was Heroic’s map pick. They had chosen Nuke, partly due to their belief in their CT side. However, it was always going to be a difficult task for Heroic as they had a new player. The former Copenhagen Flames player has been filling in most of the roles that refrezh played for the team, however, there are still some issues within the team. 

Heroic lost Nuke after a 10-16 score and they are now out of the IEM Cologne LAN tournament. Their dreams of making it to the LANXESS arena have come to an abrupt end. 

Speaking specifically on the final round of the game, Dexter had only words of praise for Torzsi. 

That was crazy. We had some good T rounds and Torzsi was able to do an insane 1v3 clutch and pull out the win. It was great.

Mouz Dexter on the final clutch

With this victory, Heroic go into their player break. The Danish team had made the roster change in order to improve their performance and take the team to the next level. It is obviously a risky choice as the team can still fall down the rankings after multiple bad performances. However, how far they can go in terms of their performance will depend on how well Jabbi is able to integrate within the roster. 

Featured Image Credit: Adela Sznajder/ ESL