MOUZ go back-to-back

Back in October of last year, in the previous ESL Pro League season, MOUZ lifted the trophy, beating Natus Vincere in the final. This event was quite an emotional one for the scene, being the last big LAN event played on CS:GO. MOUZ played ESL Pro League Season 18 with David “frozen” Čerňanský who alongside Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás, was integral for their strong performances in Malta last time out. The Slovakian youngster has since moved to FaZe, a move that many considered an upgrade but both teams seemed to have made progress since the transfer.

The player who eventually replaced frozen was Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin, who hasn’t missed a beat since joining and looks twice the player he was on NIP. However, it wasn’t a singular individual that carried MOUZ to glory at ESL Pro League Season 19, all members of the roster were in great form, with all players averaging over 1.15 rating. MOUZ breezed through their group in Malta, beating Bad News Kangaroos, GamerLegion and Liquid, without losing a map, to qualify directly for the quarterfinals. Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo was particularly strong in the group stage but it was Dorian “xertioN” Berman who stood out in the playoffs.

The international quintet started their playoff journey against G2, who were slowly piecing some form together in Malta, after finishing fourth in their group. Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen’s men came out strong, giving MOUZ their first map loss of the event on Inferno 13-3 but MOUZ regained composure and took the series 2-1, winning convincingly on both Vertigo and Nuke. Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek’s squad then had a semifinal match against Complexity, a series which again saw them fall behind early, losing the American side’s map pick of Vertigo before reverse sweeping the series and winning 2-1. This set up a match against Vitality, who were looking imperious leading up to the final but MOUZ made it look easy, beating them 3-0, not letting Vitality reach ten rounds on a single map. MOUZ were excellent at Pro League, and with FaZe having a poor event, look likely to take that number one spot in the world rankings soon.

ZywOo takes the MVP

For MOUZ, xertioN was the leading contender for the MVP award and probably deserved it if it wasn’t for a record-breaking event from Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, getting his highest-ever rating at a Big Event, despite a poor final for his standards. The French superstar averaged a 1.56 rating on his way to the MVP award, taking him up to nineteen awards overall, tying himself with Nicolai “device” Reedtz and putting himself just two behind Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev.

Like MOUZ, Vitality made quick work of the group stage, beating Sharks, BetBoom and TheMongolz to top the group and progress to the quarterfinals. Their first playoff match was against FaZe, who have made every final so far in CS2, a tough matchup to say the least. And Dan “apEX” Madesclaire’s men came out on top, ending FaZe’s streak and that was mainly thanks to ZywOo, who powered them through FaZe with a 2.15 rating. This win set up a match against Astralis, who are in fine form since their changes, and it was a close series. Vitality won the series 2-1, losing their own map pick Mirage before reverse sweeping after picking up wins on Vertigo in overtime and Inferno. This led to the final against MOUZ, where they were admittedly outclassed but even so, ESL Pro League Season 19 was a strong showing for Vitality, their first final appearance in 2024 and if ZywOo continues this form, it won’t be long till they win an event.

New-look Astralis continue to be competitive

Back in Chengdu, we said Astralis look to be making progress with their new roster and that continued in Malta. ESL Pro League Season 19 makes it back-to-back semifinals for Astralis with Alexander “br0” Bro in the roster and with device leading the team. Astralis started their journey in Malta topping Group A, a group with seemingly unstoppable force FaZe in it. In the group, they blasted past Eternal Fire, FaZe and 3DMAX without losing a map, a great start.

The top spot gave them a direct pass to the quarterfinals, where they played Liquid, setting up a derby between ex-Heroic trio - Casper “cadiaN” Møller from Liquid and Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard and Martin “stavn” Lund from Astralis. Astralis, like they always do, made quick work of Liquid, setting up a semifinal against Vitality. Vitality did eventually get the better of them, beating them across three maps but it was a close-fought series. This constant progress means Astralis look likely to make a final soon, especially considering the strong form of the entire team, notably device, even with the burden of the IGL role.

Major winners fail to make an impression

Natus Vincere shocked the entire Counter-Strike community when they won the Major trophy in Copenhagen back in March and ESL Pro League was their first event since becoming Major champions. Everyone was keen to see if they would continue that form, or were they just a flash in the pan?

The international side came second in their group, beating FlyQuest and BIG before losing out to Complexity in the group final. Their first playoff match was against FaZe, a repeat of the Major final, but it didn’t play out the same. In a lower stakes playoff match, Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s men swiftly dispatched of NAVI, beating them 2-0, with a 13-5 win on Nuke and a 16-14 win on Mirage. Despite it being a fairly strong event for Ukrainian duo Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy and Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov, we think it would be fair to say Natus Vincere look unlikely to win another event anytime soon.

Heroic already making changes

Heroic put their international roster together in the winter break, as they retained Heroic duo René “TeSeS” Madsen and Rasmus “sjuush” Beck and joined them with Guy “NertZ” Iluz from ENCE, Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi from Preasy and Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski fresh of an impressive stint with Apeks. All players had had a strong 2023, and therefore this roster looked promising and the results did too, initially. However, things have seemingly turned and their performance in Malta didn’t impress and the Norwegian organisation have decided to make changes.

Rumours over nicoodoz’s future were circulating throughout the event and afterwards, they were confirmed. Ex-OG sniper Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov will be the one coming in to replace the Dane after almost a year on the sidelines. We have yet to see the Russian sniper play an official match on CS2, will he be the dominant force he was in CS:GO?