MOUZ sealed a grand final place at BLAST Open Porto by sweeping Vitality, winning 13-11 on Dust2 and 13-7 on Mirage.
The result ended a lopsided head-to-head. HLTV reported that Dorian "xertioN" Berman’s side went into the series 2-12 against teams led by Dan "apEX" Madesclaire over a period stretching back more than a year and a half, with their most recent win coming in the group stage of IEM Chengdu 10 months earlier. Vitality were not at full strength, with Justinas "jL" Lekavicius standing in, and MOUZ targeted him on both maps.
Dust2 turned on repeated B hits
MOUZ were not caught out by Vitality’s aggressive early stance on Dust2, converting a pistol round into a 4-0 start in which Vitality managed six kills. Entries from Shahar "flameZ" Shushan and apEX levelled the map, but that was the extent of Vitality’s T-side production: Adrian "xelex" Vincze and Lotan "Spinx" Giladi cut them down repeatedly as MOUZ moved to an 8-4 lead.
Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, quiet in the first half, then combined with flameZ to break up several Catwalk hits and put Vitality 10-8 in front. MOUZ answered with repeated B executes to tie the map as the hold from Robin "ropz" Kool and jL crumbled. A quad-kill from apEX kept Vitality in front briefly, but MOUZ returned to the B site and took the map 13-11.
Mirage slipped away in the second half
Hot starts from ZywOo and ropz gave Vitality four early rounds on Mirage before back-to-back smoke pushes swung the map back to MOUZ, who led 7-5 at the half with xertioN calling. Vitality’s problems carried over: they could not convert a 4v2 in the pistol round, and a four-kill round from ZywOo was wasted when they dropped the following round to a low buy. A triple kill from Spinx, holding one of only two rifles, broke up a B hit and ended Vitality’s comeback.
It was MOUZ’s second grand final of the season. They won their first trophy at the BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals against Spirit, and the Porto win set up a rematch with the same team for the title.