Vitality wipe the floor with MOUZ en route to IEM Cologne playoffs

Nine rounds in two maps were all MOUZ could muster against an in-form Vitality.

Vitality have guaranteed themselves a place in the playoffs of IEM Cologne with a landslide victory over MOUZ in the Group B upper bracket semi-finals.

It's not the end of the line for MOUZ as they fall to the group's lower bracket to face off against Astralis on Tuesday in an elimination series, but they require another win after that to make it to the playoffs. Vitality also have a match left to play against the winner of G2 and FaZe to see who gets to skip the quarter-finals in the LANXESS Arena.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2023
01/08/2023	MOUZ 12:30 Astralis	Match
01/08/2023	Vitality 16:00 G2	Match

Although the favorites looked somewhat shaky in the opening stages of Inferno, the rest of the match was anything but. Once Vitality stabilized on the CT side, they were in cruise control with Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut and Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif working beautifully in tandem, with the former finding openings and the latter locking down a few dangerous rounds.

After a 16-4 win on the opening map, on Mirage Vitality picked up where they left off with an unstoppable offense. MOUZ could only manage two solitary rounds on the CT side, unable to catch a break as they couldn't close out the few rounds in which they had a chance.

ZywOo's flashy 1v3 all but sealed the deal on the second map, and MOUZ couldn't help but laugh at the dire situation they found themselves in at halftime. A pistol round win did little to help them save face, as Vitality strolled to a 16-5 win on the second map.

"It means a lot that we do it in this fashion against MOUZ, so dominant. Very happy," Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan said after the match. "I'm feeling very confident, obviously, I performed very good individually, but there's still more to work on, and if we wanna win Cologne we need to keep going like that."

"Everyone is popping off individually right now, and that's why we are winning like we are right now. I think as a team we still have a lot to improve on, bringing in a new guy can be difficult," Magisk added in an interview on the desk.