MOUZ hand Spirit first Swiss group stage loss in 668 days to make EPL playoffs

Spirit's run of 32 straight wins in Swiss groups has come to an end.

MOUZ romped past Spirit 2-0 to secure the first playoff berth at ESL Pro League Season 24, tallying their second win out of six meetings this year and getting revenge for a loss in their last battle in the final of BLAST Open Porto.

Spirit looked destitute throughout the series, with an uncharacteristically bad map from Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets on Dust2 — his worst-rated showing on the map and seventh-worst of his career — combined with Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev having the worst LAN map of his career only adding misery to a series laden with errors and sloppy teamplay.

A rallying cry from 6-12 down on Mirage came too late as MOUZ eventually converted their lead at the eleventh hour, with Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen even laughing off the comeback in his final timeout by stating, "finally we have a fight."

The loss ends a terrifying streak of 32 straight Swiss group stage match wins by Spirit , a run that stretches back 668 days to their opener against FURIA at the Perfect World Shanghai Major. Beating MOUZ would have marked the 10th straight flawless Swiss stage from Spirit , but excellence from MOUZ across the board ensured that didn't come to fruition.

Spirit put a heavy focus on attacking B early doors on Dust2, but couldn't find their way past a stalwart defense by Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi and Oldřich "⁠PR⁠" Nový . A pivot to A didn't pay off either as Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás and Adrian "⁠xelex⁠" Vincze combined to shut down that avenue of attack, and MOUZ stabilized after some early force-buy wars in the second half to seal victory on Spirit 's pick.

MOUZ 's excellence continued on Mirage, where xelex and Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman took over early on and donk remained lackluster. Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia instead stepped up to break his team's slide, but they had to fight tooth and nail just to be competitive in rounds against a MOUZ that fired on all cylinders.

donk finally found some impact with two quad-kills to end the first half on eight frags, and started coming online after the swap with multi-kills and openers as Spirit started showing a bit of bite. But that effort came too late as MOUZ were already ahead 12-6, and the team made full use of their lead to eventually clinch the win, 13-11.