MOUZ topple Vitality in two to move onto the semis - BLAST Rivals Hong Kong

Something feels a little different about this MOUZ team compared to the others.

Beating Vitality on a stage at a big event - albeit, not THE big event of the season - is something that they've been unable to do, especially in convincing fashion, for a while now. Not this time.

A near-perfect CT side on their ever-exceptional Mirage saw them go 1-0 up in the series, where they needed overtime to close out the 2-0.

xertioN has been on a tear of late, especially on the aforementioned map where he has had a vice grip on connector, and that form continued here today. He dropped 25, with the final two coming in a 1v2 to close out the map on the defence.

ropz stood tall for Vitality as he kept the game somewhat in the balance; an early 1v2 helped put Vitality in quite a commanding position early on, before an xertioN double entry broke the streak and started some momentum for MOUZ, which never really stopped. After Vitality went up 6-3, they went 2-10 and lost the map.

Cache was a lot closer, largely down to the endeavours of flameZ and xelex. flameZ drove Vitality forward with his reliable fragging, especially in the second half, while xelex had massive late round impact in the first half, and the game-winning triple in the final round of the game, round 30.

xelex's 1v2 stopped Vitality's run of rounds early on as they looked to establish dominance, which completely changed the game, and it was only fitting that he was the one to close it out.

G2 once more ground out an important first map before going limp in the final two and folding to a big team.

Falcons ran riot on Mirage and were comfortable on Anubis despite G2 going up 1-0 in the series with an impressive NertZ-powered win on Dust 2.

But Mirage was a disaster, as TeSeS woke up to post 20 in just 15 rounds, including a crucial 1v1 vs r1nkle after he found the two initial kills to make it a 2v1 from a 2v3. He was electric; TeSeS is always capable of these games, but since Falcons they've been few and far between.

TeSeS had a part to play on Anubis, too - as G2 looked to set the record straight with the first pistol round, TeSeS hit back with two openers in the second to even the score. G2 still found themselves up 6-4, but then m0NESY got 'in the pocket' and started opening up. For the next five rounds or so, he completely took over the map and turned what looked like a G2 map into a clean Falcons win.

A kyousuke 1v2 found Falcons their tenth, and he opened onto huNter- in the next round for eleven, which Falcons were able to close out cleanly.

G2 continue to be exactly what we think they are.