It was once again heartbreak for MOUZ on the big stage as they lost two tight maps to a domineering NAVI team.

There was an air that MOUZ had beaten their stage demons yesterday. But the MOUZ-supporting section of the crowd was quickly silenced as NAVI strung together rounds early on to pick up a 7-1 lead.

Jimpphat almost salvaged a big round for MOUZ with two kills out of three in the clutch, but he fell to the third, and MOUZ ended the half with only a third of their opponent’s rounds.

When b1t mowed down siuhy to get into the B site on the pistol round, and torzsi was found out in a deep spot on ramp, it felt like the game was over — but a miraculous force-buy win and an uncomfortable conversion gave MOUZ an avenue back in.

Which, in fairness, they took.

MOUZ shut out NAVI, who only took two more rounds after the pistol and were pegged back all the way to overtime. Brollan was opening up rounds consistently (he was 7-1 in regulation in opening duels) and his teammates had his back.

Sadly, though, it was all to no avail. MOUZ went up 14-13 in OT, but NAVI tripled down on the CT side, including a mandatory 2v2 retake on the A site that in truth, MOUZ should have won - and probably would have if the stakes were lower.

They even won a round where b1t threw a nade at w0nderful for some reason.

NAVI scraped through to Mirage, 1-0 up, but they started poorly on their signature map. xertioN was running amok and was far and away the best player on the server for most of the map, and he powered MOUZ to an 8-2 lead.

NAVI stayed in it and collected the last two, with w0nderful winning a 1v2, before b1t mowed down three on the second pistol to give life to the MOUZ-hunters.

Having said that, the hometown (ish) team stabilised and looked to be pushing us to Ancient before they lost an eco-round in bizarre fashion. jL hit a stonking Deagle headshot the length of mid, before b1t hopped through a molotov, double-dinked one with the USP, and then got a kill with the AK.

It was an almost unlosable round, except for MOUZ.

They still had a chance, though. Aleksib was having a rough game and his B site was vulnerable, so MOUZ snuck in and found rounds there — but it was the Finnish IGL who stood tallest in the big moment.

With the game on a knife-edge, Aleksi won a 1v2 to get himself to six kills, then a double — including a 1v1 — in round 24 to seal NAVI’s win.