The world number one have to beat the team that knocked them out of the Cologne Major, and FUT have won the last four meetings between the two.
Four days is all it took for MOUZ to go from champions to a must-win match. On Sunday they lifted the IEM Beijing trophy without dropping a map. On Wednesday they lost 2-1 to G2, a team that had lost six series in a row. Now MOUZ meet FUT Esports in the Group B elimination match at BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 2 on . The loser finishes fourth in the group and goes home. The winner goes to Friday’s quarter-finals.
G22-1
MOUZNuke 7-13, Ancient 16-14, Inferno 13-7
Spirit2-1
FUTCache 13-9, Nuke 0-13, Ancient 13-5How MOUZ slipped against G2
MOUZ arrived in Hong Kong as the number one team on both the HLTV ranking and Valve’s VRS, and the start looked normal. They took Nuke 13-7, which stretched their run to 14 straight map wins going back to PGL Masters Bucharest.
The series turned on Ancient. MOUZ came back from 1-5 to lead 12-8 and needed one more round. G2 won the next four to force overtime and took overtime 4-2, with r1nkle finishing the map 31-18. On Inferno, G2 won the first five rounds and MOUZ never caught up.
Ancient is the map to watch on Thursday. FUT have played it against MOUZ three times this year and won all three (see the table below).
FUT have MOUZ’s number
On paper this is the world’s best team against an opponent that played Wednesday without its in-game leader. The head-to-head tells a different story. Since February, FUT have won four of their five meetings with MOUZ, and the last four in a row.
| Date | Event | Stage | Result | Maps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Feb | PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026 | Swiss round 4 | MOUZ 2-0 FUT | Mirage 13-8, Overpass 16-14 |
| 13 Mar | ESL Pro League Season 23 Finals | Quarter-final | FUT 2-1 MOUZ | Dust2 13-11, Overpass 10-13, Mirage 13-11 |
| 14 Jun | IEM Cologne Major 2026 | Swiss round 4 (elimination) | FUT 2-1 MOUZ | Ancient 13-11, Nuke 10-13, Mirage 13-7 |
| 14 Aug | Esports World Cup 2026 | Group upper semi-final | FUT 2-1 MOUZ | Ancient 13-6, Nuke 12-16, Mirage 13-11 |
| 21 Aug | Esports World Cup 2026 | Quarter-final | FUT 2-0 MOUZ | Dust2 16-13, Ancient 13-5 |
The June match is the one MOUZ will remember. Both teams were on a 1-2 record in the Swiss stage of the Cologne Major, and FUT’s 2-1 win sent MOUZ out of the tournament. The two meetings at the Esports World Cup in August came against the current MOUZ lineup, with PR and xelex already on the team. FUT went on to reach the final in Riyadh, where they lost 3-1 to Spirit.
Lotan “Spinx” Giladi, Ludvig “xertioN” Hornstrup and Kristóf “torzsi” Gyenes played in all four defeats. On FUT’s side, only dem0n and dziugss remain from all four wins.
A different FUT this week
The FUT that MOUZ meet on Thursday is not the one that beat them in the summer. Krabeni, their in-game leader, could not get a visa for Hong Kong in time, and coach András “coolio” Fercsák is playing in his place. Álvaro “SunPayus” García has also replaced cmtry since August.
The stand-in lineup still took Spirit to three maps. FUT won Spirit’s own Nuke pick 13-0, and the casters on BLAST’s broadcast singled out their CT side:
FUT were just by far and away the better team there. Their CT side defense had so many different win conditions.
SunPayus finished that map 17-2. FUT then lost Ancient 13-5 to Spirit.
FUT’s last event before Hong Kong was PGL Masters Bucharest. They went 3-0 in the Swiss stage, beating Vitality on the way, and lost their quarter-final 2-0 to Nemiga. They were not at IEM Beijing.
What a defeat would mean for MOUZ
MOUZ’s place at the PGL Major Singapore, which starts on 24 November, is not at stake. But a defeat would send the Beijing champions out in last place in their group, against a team that has now beaten them four times in a row, and leave them with no series wins in their final event before Singapore.
Under xertioN’s calling, MOUZ climbed from 11th to the top of the VRS. Thursday is a test of whether that team can handle the one opponent it has not solved.
Thursday in Hong Kong
| Time | Match | Group | Stakes |
|---|---|---|---|
 Legacy vs  Falcons | A | Elimination match | |
 FURIA vs  Vitality | A | Winner to the semi-finals | |
| FUT vs MOUZ | B | Elimination match | |
| Spirit vs G2 | B | Winner to the semi-finals |
