In most tales around the world, the dragon is the big, bad, menacing beast feared by all.

But over in Texas, the rules are a little different.

Inside the Moody Center, we watched as the humble mouse devoured the mighty dragon. But it wouldn’t be much of a story if the dragon had gone down without a fight.

Spirit started Mirage strong, giving early signs that this one might be a walk in the park. However, MOUZ proved they had more in the playbook than just Mid-to-Connector hits, stabilizing the half at a respectable 5-7.

In the second half, MOUZ kept up the momentum they’ve built up and mounted the comeback all the way to a 12-8, but Spirit answered back and managed to send it to OT.

It took four grueling OTs before Spirit finally broke through. Fueled by zont1x’s and magixx’s heroics, they edged out the win by dominating in the clutch department, converting six 1vX scenarios to MOUZ’s two.

An absolute banger of a map to properly kick off the BLAST.tv Austin Major Playoffs.

After a tightly contested Mirage, Dust2 flipped the script. This time, it was MOUZ who came out swinging, taking early control of the map while Spirit struggled to find their footing. Shoutout to sh1ro for this nasty scout no-scope, though.

Spirit found a spark on their CT side, with donk delivering the first ace of the Playoffs. Unfortunately for them, if donk doesn’t get 15 kills per round the team tends to look lost, and that’s exactly what happened in the second half. If they ever figure out a way for him to hold A, B, and Mid at once, they might just threaten NIP’s streak.

Until then, Spirit’s out of luck. MOUZ kept their cool and closed out Dust2 13-9 to level the series, setting up the Nuke decider.

In the final map, Brollan looked completely out of sorts on the T-side, finishing the half with zero kills as Spirit read MOUZ like a book. Almost every play was shut down, and donk’s 14-5 scoreline at the 8-4 half told the story. To be fair, there’s not much you can do against this but pray he whiffs.

But in the second half, Spinx stepped up and reminded Spirit that he, too, knows what it takes to win a Major. He was everywhere, dragging MOUZ back into the game and powering them to a 13-10 comeback win to book their spot in the semis.

Overall, the MOUZ we saw in this series was a different beast than the team we saw back in Stage 3. They needed a significant step up to challenge Spirit head-on, and it looks like they’ve taken it. That’s a promising sign for MOUZ’s Major dreams, but (most likely) standing in their way will be the unmovable wall.

The question now is: can the mouse also eat the bee?