A Heated Rematch awaits
There is no better way to kick off things at Rio than with an exciting match between two teams that recently played against each other. The first semifinal in Rotterdam was a taste of things to come at the IEM Rio Major and gave the Outsiders a mental edge heading into their match against MOUZ in the first round of the Challengers phase of the Brazilian event in two weeks. The two teams prevailed on their respective picks before reaching Ancient, where Dorian “xertioN” Berman was not enough to get MOUZ over the line.
MOUZ struck the first blow in the series at Inferno, on what turned out to be a much tougher map than it first appeared. They had everything under control during the first half, starting on the TC side, with clutches from xertioN and David “frozen” Čerňanský at key moments that helped them stay on top and secure 10 rounds.
Once the sides switched, it was the Outsiders’ turn to shut down the defense. A pistol round in their favor and a famous 1v2 clutch put them ahead, until MOUZ finally managed an answer.
A crucial Dexter Deagle at 11-13 seemed in vain when Alexey “Qikert” Golubev denied MOUZ the momentum with a clutch of his own in the next round, but another 1v1 from the Australian leader in the game turned the tables once again. Breaking the economy of his opponents thanks to the moves of his captain, MOUZ strung together four rounds to close the map 16-14.
For MOUZ, the Comeback was on the Horizon
Mirage was up next as MOUZ’s pick. dexter and co. got away from the line first with a pistol round win, but began to struggle after the first three rounds against a strong Outsiders defense. FL1T and andn0rb3r7 led the way as the Russian side put together a 10-round half, with the latter stepping up with a key 1v2 to deny MOUZ a chance to regain momentum early in the half.
Another good start to the half from MOUZ turned into nothing in the second half. Jame’s quad-kill stopped the European team in the first pistol round, and from there Outsiders remained in control, with the AWPer closing the map with a 1v3 clutch at 16-9.
Looking determined to close out the series in quick fashion, xertioN stepped up to the plate on the CT side of Ancient with a superb display. He started out the map with a Dual Berettas triple in the pistol round and went on to add four big multikills to his name on the way to a double-digit half, in the end amassing 22 kills over the first 15 rounds to give MOUZ a big advantage.
But Outsiders did not relent despite a 0-8 start to the map, with Fame’s 1v1 breaking the streak and the Russian then helping Outsiders pick up another key round with just pistols a couple of rounds later as he opened up the B bombsite for them with a Tec-9.
Fame continued to put up great numbers once on the CT side, where Outsiders mounted their comeback with a retake on the A bombsite in the pistols and soon took their first lead as MOUZ seemed to have no answers. A couple of solitary rounds weren’t enough to break Outsiders’ bank, and the Russians rallied to a 16-12 victory to claim their spot in the Rotterdam final.
MOUZ vs Outsiders Match Information
- Date: Monday, October 31
- Time: 9:00am ET
- MOUZ vs Outsiders Live Stream: Twitch.tv
MOUZ vs Outsiders Prediction
Even though we have considered MOUZ to be a pretty good team before, to the point of backing them up when the odds are heavily against them, I don’t think that they’ll be able to start the tournament with a win.
From individual performance to team play, Outsiders is a good amount of steps ahead of MOUZ right now. The only way I see MOUZ picking up a map against Outsiders is if they end up playing on Mirage, where they are somewhat favored to win. But other than that, we can expect a clean game from Outsiders.
The IEM Rio Major is about to kick off, so make sure to stay tuned as we’ll be sharing our esports picks with you! Don’t forget to bet on esports at BetUS Sportsbook & Casino. We’ve plenty of CSGO odds for you to consider.
