Welcome to EGamersWorld.
The group stage of ESL Pro League Season 20 continues. We are interested in Group C of The International, where the second round of the upper grid is getting ready for Long Cogneg.
It will be opened by MOUZ and Imperial. It's hard to overestimate the importance of the match, because the winner goes to the play-offs.
Let's try to understand how the match will end and who will advance to the main stage of ESL Pro League Season 20.
Let's go.
MOUZ Form.
Let's open the MOUZ vs Imperial match with an analysis of MOUZ's form. In this match, the Mice are playing the number one with odds to win at around 1.18.
One of MOUZ's major achievements last season was reaching the final of the Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023. There they battled ENCE, but were defeated 0-2.
Prior to Long Cologne IEM Cologne MOUZ made a splash at the Elisa Invitational Spring 2023. They failed to jump above the top 4 - they were beaten by Apeks on their way to the Grand Final.
Back in the season, they made it to the top 8 at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, and then to the event itself. It didn't end well, as the team finished Top-24 at Major e.
- MOUZ line-up: Brollan, siuhy, torzsi, Jimpphat, xertioN.
IEM Cologne 2023 will be a test for the new line-up of the "mice". After Elisa Spring, siuhy, who previously played for GamerLegion, and Jimpphat, who came from the youth team of MOUZ Nxt, joined the squad.
In the debut match the revamped MOUZ roster played against The MongolZ. An easy outing on paper ended in a nervous Bo1 on the dopes, followed by a 22-19 win for MOUZ on Nuke.
Already in the match to qualify for the group stage MOUZ were much more confident. They beat NiP 2-0 (16-12 Nuke and 16-7 Inferno) without any problems.
The first match of the group stage was not a big challenge for MOUZ either. NaVi lost at Ancient with a score of 16-9 and Overpass with a score of 16-12.
After beating NaVi, MOUZ failed to gain a foothold and lost the next two series. As a result, the "mice" at IEM Cologne 2023 took the top 12.
Before ESL Pro League Season 18, the team played at the local championship Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1. They managed to win, defeating BIG 2-0 in the grand finals.
In their debut match at ESL Pro League Season 18, MOUZ faced mibr. Being the favourites, MOUZ failed to defeat the Brazilians and unexpectedly ended up in the bottom of Group B.
The group stage was a mixed bag for MOUZ, but still more successful than not. An unexpected defeat in the top set cheered MOUZ up and they effortlessly went over the heads of their opponents, Heroic among them, at the bottom of the group stage table. Having not lost a single game in the lower grid, MOUZ made it here.
In the first round of the ESL Pro League Season 18 play-offs, MOUZ seemed to be off the chain. The Brazilians from FURIA were literally stomped, and the "mice" celebrated an easy 2-0 victory, giving their opponents a total of 9 rounds per game.
In the match before that MOUZ met another grandee of the European scene - FaZe Clan. "Mice" on a spree swept through the match and closed the series with a score of 2-0.
In the match for the exit here MOUZ met G2 Esports. They became the next trophy in the "mice" piggy bank at ESL Pro League S18.
MOUZ went on to defeat ENCE (2-1) and NaVi in the EPL S18 Grand Final with a resounding 3-0 score. Prior to the Thunderpick World Championship 2023, MOUZ played at IEM Sydney 2023, where they again faced FaZe. This time FaZe retaliated for the upset defeat and knocked MOUZ out at the Top 4 stage.
Thunderpick World Championship 2023 MOUZ ended prematurely. They lost in the first round of play-offs to FaZe, who later became the tournament champions.
Later was the CS Asia Championship 2023, where MOUZ performed well. They reached the grand finals, but there they lost to FaZe Clan with a score of 0-2.
At Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 MOUZ started their performance with a rather unexpected defeat. They defeated Apeks 16-19 in the first round of the group stage. Next up was a match with CoL for life at the event, which the "mice" won with a one-card deficit. However, they couldn't stay in the championship race for long: MOUZ crashed out at the Top 6 stage.
After that, it was BLAST Premier: World Final 2023, where the "mice" took TOP-4. This was the last tournament of the 2023 season. They started the 2024 season with a top-7 finish at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European Qualifier B. Next up was IEM Katowice 2024, where Mice finished in the top 4.
At PGL Major CS2 Copenhagen 2024, they made their way from TOP-1-2 to European RMR B. At the tournament itself, Mice started off with a win over Ecstatic and then beat Eternal Fire, which gave them a 2-0 lead.
Next up was IEM China 2024, where MOUZ continued to "dial it up". This time the team managed to reach the grand final, but FaZe were stronger.
MOUZ were very confident in the play-offs of ESL Pro League Season 19. They also confidently swept through the play-offs championship and won the tournament by shutting out Vitality 3-0 in the grand finals.
MOUZ attended IEM Dallas 2024 where they finished in the top 12, which is a very difficult result for a team of MOUZ's calibre.
Esports World Cup 2024 MOUZ started with a match against Sashi Esports, where they won 2-1, which again is not very good. After making it to the play-offs they defeated FURIA Esports with a score of 2-1. The Esports World Cup 2024 MOUZ finished in the top 4, Ledgeiv beating NaVi in the grand final.
IEM Cologne 2024 Long Competed straight from the group stage, where in the first match they played against Falcons and won 2-1. And in the play-offs match they beat CoL even more confidently with a 2-0 win. In the first round of play-offs "mice" very confidently beat G2 Esports with a score of 2-0, but then lost to NaVi, taking the final TOP-4.
ESL Pro League Season 20 started with a shaky 2-1 win over Rooster.
MOUZ Mapple
MOUZ's favourite card remains Inferno. The Mice have played it three times in the last 3 months and won all their games there. Nuke is also doing well, with MOUZ winning 3 out of 4 Nuke games played.
Among the good options are Vertigo and Ancient, where MOUZ have 2 wins in 3 games each.
The most undesirable map is Mirage. MOUZ have played it 6 times, but have only won once.
Form Imperial
We continue the match Imperial vs MOUZ with an analysis of Imperial's form. In this match they will play as an outsider with odds to win at around 4.8.
The World 16 team spent the first half of the year in various qualifying events and TIR-2 tournaments. Among the rare results is a victory at the local championship TG Masters Spring 2023. We can also mention the failure at EPL Season 17, where Imperial finished in the top 32.
Imperial's main Milestone was the performance at American RMR B, a qualifier for BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. There, the Brazilian club finished in the top-12. Later there was a disappointing IEM Masters Rio 2023 and top-16 there.
- Imperial line-up: VINI, HEN1, felps. noway, decoy.
Before the Long Convergence of IEM Cologne 2023, Imperial won the ESL Brazil Premier League Season 14 and finished in the top 4 at BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2023.
On top of that, Imperial have invited felps and HEN1 to join the team. The team's rookies lost their debut match at the club. They were run over by Monte, who won at Nuke 16-9. Next it was no better and as a result Cologne Brazilians took the top 20.
Later, they finished top-28 in ESL Pro League Season 18 and tried to make a name for themselves in other tournaments. They played at local championships like CBCS 2023 Season 1, Copa BetBoom, Game Arena and so on, but failed to achieve success there. Imperial looked better in the 2024 season.
So far, the main achievement of the year was winning the home PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: American RMR and making it to the Major itself. There, the team went 3-2 in the Opening Stage and then won the Legends Stage 1-3, which is pretty good.
They opened ESL Pro League Season 19 with a match against FaZe Clan, where they lost 0-2, but showed their teeth. In the middle set of ESL Pro League Season 19 Imperial played against Eternal Fire, where Ledgeila with a score of 1-2. Next was a loss by sAw and an elimination to the top 32.
Later Imperial won 2 "small" tournaments like Thunderpick World Championship 2024: South American Series #1 and ESL Challenger League Season 47: South America.
They got to IEM Cologne 2024 thanks to the top 2 at Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024: South American Qualifier. In the end, they finished in the top 24, but failed to make a miracle.
ESL Pro League Season 20 started with a loss to BIG in a very even match (2-1).
Imperial Mapple
Imperial's best maps are Ancient and Inferno. The former has 3 wins in 4 maps and the latter has 5 wins out of 7.
Don't mind playing Overpass either, where Brazilians have 57% wins in 7 matches. Can also play Nuke with Vertigo, where they have 50% wins at 6 and 4 mapx respectively.
They don't play on Anubis.
History of head-to-head meetings Imperial - MOUZ
The teams once played each other in 2022.
Predicted result of MOUZ vs Imperial at ESL Pro League Season 20
By the looks of it, we have a very interesting match to look forward to at The International. MOUZ didn't look ultimatised in the first game of ESL Pro League Season 20, while Imperial showed character. However, I'm still inclined to believe in a clean win for the "mice", even despite the fact that the maps were given to the objectively weak Rooster team.
Bottom line: MOUZ won with the score 2-0.