From sweeping the lower bracket to overcoming a two-time TI winner, Mouz made a statement that they’re now one of the top contenders in the Dota 2 pro scene.
Mouz became the Dota 2 PGL Wallachia Season 6 champions after beating Team Spirit in a crucial rubber match that highlighted the Western Europe team’s skills and ability to bide time and maintain the upper hand despite losing team fights.
“Basically, we’re a team of rejects. Players that are maybe not wanted by other Tier 1 teams. But together, I would say we are one of the best now," Mouz’s coach, Daniel “ImmortalFaith” Moza said in the post-match interview.
MOUZ's roster is composed of players who were once part of the active rosters of several Tier 1 teams. They got Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng, who came from Team Secret’s inactive roster, Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov from NAVI, and Daniyal "yamich" Lazebnyy, a former Team Secret and 9Pandas support. Their carry, Crystallis, isn’t officially a member of the team yet, as he’s still a loan player from Team Tundra.
Despite an impressive top 4 finish in BLAST SLAM IV, Mouz suffered from a major setback before the start of PGL Wallachia Season 6, after they announced that Seleri and Crystallis won’t immediately join the tournament due to health issues. This prompted the captainless team to call a couple of stand-ins: Daniel “Ghost” Chan and Oleg “Kaori” Medvedok.
How MOUZ shocked everyone at PGL Wallachia Season 6
With the help of their stand-ins, MOUZ managed to survive the group stage, bearing a record of three wins and a loss from Team Spirit, securing fifth place. Fortunately, Crystallis rejoined the team at the start of the playoffs, where they had to face PARIVISION for a battle to stay in the upper bracket.
PARIVISION took the win over MOUZ, sending them down to continue their struggle in the lower bracket. MOUZ has performed much better since then, knocking out the last hopes of South America and Southeast Asia in Heroic and OG.
The last two series in the upper bracket tested the mettle of MOUZ to the fullest, with BetBoom and Team Liquid standing in their way to the grand finals. MidOne and the gang pull off an amazing reverse sweep over BetBoom and a thrilling Game 3 victory against Team Liquid, who almost looked unstoppable during the group stage.
Avenging their earlier loss to Team Spirit
MOUZ finally reached the grand finals, and the scene is set for a classic WEU versus EEU showdown. Team Spirit, with their strong counter-initiations and expertise in kiting their opponents, took the upper hand by winning the first game of the best-of-five series.
Games 2 and 3 showed a different story, as MOUZ hit Team Spirit back harder with well-drafted cores and disruptive support hero picks. Team Spirit still retaliated with their usual counter initiations, but despite winning lots of team fights, MOUZ turned out to be the better team.
Game 4 looked a bit grim for MOUZ, with Team Spirit’s Collapse leading his team using the global presence of Underlord, supported by the aggressive plays of Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk ’s Abaddon and Denis "Larl" Sigitov's Pangolier.
Just as Team Spirit was about to do the usual Team Spirit thing of making comeback victories, Game 5 became a highlight reel for all of MOUZ’s players.
From Kaori’s well-placed Macropyres and Ice Paths, BOOM’s nigh-unkillable Timbersaw to MidOne going after Team Spirit’s low-HP heroes, everything just went in favor of MOUZ, giving the organization their first tier one championship since 2013, when they won the RaidCall EMS One Summer Season as mousesports.
On X, MidOne thanked his team and admitted he was surprised about what they did in the tournament. He said that it’s been a rough journey, but it’s only the beginning for team MOUZ.
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