Vitality’s “Grand Old Men” stars in opening round win

In the opening round of IEM Winter, MOUZ and Team Vitality faced each other in a best of 1 match. After the usual “Day 1 technical issues”, the two teams went head to head on Overpass. A map that MOUZ very rarely plays with their latest match on the map dating back to the end of August.

MOUZ started well and had luck with keeping the starplayer of Vitality, Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut quiet in the first half. Instead, it was the two experienced Frenchmen, apEX and shox who kept Vitality in the fight during the first 15 rounds.

After the pause, Team Vitality won five rounds in a row to create a gap to MOUZ. Again it was shox and apex, who broke their opponents with their aggression.

But slowly MOUZ began to fight their way back into the match. Frederik "acoR" Gyldstrand won several duels against ZywOo, who could not make his usual impact on the server.

MOUZ made it 15-13 before throwing a 4vs2 situation to win the map.

Instead, Vitality equalized and forced the match to overtime. Here Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut finally came alive to help his team to a 19-16 win in their opening match. The Frenchmen will continue in the upper bracket, while MOUZ will need to make a run through the lower bracket to stay alive. Both teams will play their next match tonight.

MOUZ vs. Team Vitality 0-1 | IEM Winter Opening Round

Overpass (16-19) | apEX - 1.51 rating / 35-23 K-D / 113.4 ADR