NAVI vs MOUZ: ESL Pro League Season 18 Grand Finals

The ESL Pro League is most likely the final Tier 1 CS:GO League. With Counter-Strike 2 already out, most of the big tournaments have already announced a switch to CS2. But we still have the Grand Finals remaining with MOUZ and NAVI set to face off against each other. Here’s all you need to know about the MOUZ vs NAVI matchup.

NAVI vs MOUZ Live Score and Results

MOUZ picked Inferno where they have been extremely comfortable. Since they were starting off the series with their map pick, it was imperative they have a strong start. But they didn't really have a strong start. It wasn't a bad start either as they were pretty much even in the first half. With a 9-6 lead in the first half, MOUZ had a slight lead.

But NAVI's defense completely crumbed in the second half. The key for MOUZ was just faster execution on A bombsite. Part of the reason this has worked was simply taking advantage of the fact that the defense usually puts a lot of people on the B bombsite in the earlier part of the round.

The mind-games that resulted from the fact that MOUZ could go to any bombsite is what seemed to have caught NAVI completely off guard. MOUZ won Inferno 16-10 and took a one-map lead in the series.

The next two maps seem to go a similar pattern, although NAVI did put up a very strong fight on Mirage. Taking MOUZ to overtime, NAVI seemed unable to win a single round in Overtime ultimately handing MOUZ the ESL Pro League trophy. With this victory, MOUZ have now earned themselves an invite to the BLAST World Finals as well as the IEM Katowice.

Coming into this tournament, NAVI have not had the best of events. The team finished outside the Top four in their last three events, including the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, IEM Cologne as well as Gamers8. 

But the team is full of superstar names and it would be foolhardy for any fan to count them out. And rightfully so, NAVI has found itself in the Grand Finals of ESL Pro League Season 18. The team did not lose a single map in the Group stage. Each of its three games ended with a 2-0 victory for S1mple and co. 

MOUZ started the tournament with a loss, but they have recovered really well in the group stage. They had 2-0 victories over Evil Geniuses, Heroic and MIBR to qualify for the playoffs. In terms of events, MOUZ has not really had a great showing. In fact, MOUZ has had even worse performances compared to NAVI, including a 9-12th finish at IEM Cologne 2023. However, their performance at this event has put some momentum behind them, which can make all the difference in a tournament such as this.

The ESL Pro League has a prize pool of $850,000 and the first-place team has a lot of benefits. Not only does the winner get the majority of the prize money, but the team also qualifies for two more important events. The ESL Pro League Season 18 winner will qualify for BLAST World Finals 2023 as well as IEM Katowice 2024. 

The ESL Pro League Season 18 Grand Finals will stream live on Twitch. We have also embedded the stream below for your convenience. 

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