Loading…
GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
The haters said MOUZ couldn’t do it. And they were right.
Rotterdam is full of strange results, except for Vitality who have no such time for your follies. stanislaw is on a European tour and we look at how his best friend got his start in CS.
We’d normally cover a result like this in the event recap, but this was something else. MOUZ didn’t just have an early exit at BLAST Open Rotterdam, they imploded so spectacularly that it deserves a story of its own.
The team had an absolute stinker of a showing, pure and simple. They’ve finished dead last after losses to The MongolZ and 9z. Yes, 9z. And it’s not just the loss itself, it’s how it happened.
MOUZ looked completely lost. No firepower, no teamwork, no structure. It was painful to watch, to the point it almost made us feel bad for them. Almost. Just look at their Nuke decider. One of the most baffling throws you’ll see - the kind that would make Falcons proud - and far from the only moment where they looked disconnected.
With that, the streak of 17 straight Playoff appearances is over.
Don’t get us wrong, the level of consistency is seriously impressive. But there comes a point where - after getting this close time and time again - you have to wonder if anything will change the next time. You can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Well, you can, but then you’d be named MOUZ.
Ultimately, after a quarter-final exit at the hands of FUT at EPL S23 and now this collapse, the question is no longer if they’ll make changes - it’s what those changes will be.
Just like with FaZe, it’s unlikely there’s a single move that fixes everything. But if there’s one place MOUZ have consistently found success, it’s their academy pipeline. If you don’t follow the Tier-2 scene, you might not have heard of xelex - but trust us, this kid is the real deal.
Unlike FaZe, though, MOUZ seem to belive the key to success lies within their current coaching staff, as they’ve just extended Sycrone’s and Xyp9x’s contracts.
You know it’s not going very well for Metizport when even Jackinho gets benched.
The Swedish captain has decided that, much like MaiL09, he’s not happy with his roles. Citing a will to find a fit where he can perform better individually, and has left the team.
We’ll keep you posted as soon as he finds one.
In other news we don’t think will happen, stanislaw is replacing him.
Wait, that’s real?
Oh god… did the vinS signing come with a ChatGPT subscription?
At least for the next event, Journey Spring in Stockholm, the Canadian skipper will take the reins in Metizport. He’s reunited with vinS, the polish coach with whom he guided Wildcard to their first Major appearances before the team died a painful death partially at the hands of a man with too much trust in large language models.
So, if nothing else, there is some precedent for this being a successful pairing. On the other hand, pretty much everything both parties have done after Wildcard can best be described as a flop.
Add to that, the Wildcard roster they had to work with consisted of individuals that have all since moved on to greater things. As it stands, stanislaw and vinS are the only two parts of the Wildcard squad from the Shanghai and Austin Majors that won’t be playing in the Cologne Major.
Comparing a roster of isak, Plopski, forsyy, and Dragon to players like JBa, susp, phzy, and Sonic paints a picture that we don’t think is exactly inspiring.
In any case, we could be wrong. And if there’s one player who might be able to prove the haters wrong, it just might be stanislaw.
In honour of stanislaw finding a new team, it’s only right to mention daps in some capacity, as stanislaw has spent his life stealing his valour.
Well, improving on it. But still.
The cool thing about the NA first game/last games is that they’re usually full of players you’ve heard of even back in 2014, whereas sometimes the Europeans can get a bit weird. daps is no different - we’re confident nearly everyone reading this will know eight of the nine other players.
daps’ first game was against that Cloud9 team. No, not that one, well not that one either, the tank top one. shroud, seang@res, Hiko, nothing, SEMPHIS. Legendary players, though less in a s1mple kinda way and more in a mOE and DaZeD kinda way.
daps in this game outfragged three of his teammates, which included NAF (which on recent form doesn’t seem that absurd…) and FugLy. juv3nile was the other one, but we don’t really know who that is. Sorry.
ShahZam topped the scoreboard for LunatiK in a 16-11 loss, while SEMPHIS dropped 29 for C9.
Depressingly, daps playing career ended in a loss too. A 0-2 loss to Imperial with noway going 38-18, which is as good a sign as any that it’s time to hang up the mouse. daps’ 16-30 was marginally better than br0’s 15-32, though neither should be massively proud.
Oh well. At least he never switched to VALO-
Vitality might just never lose a tournament again, guys and gals.
While Aurora’s ticket straight into playoffs over FURIA is a great result for them, and they should be extremely proud, what it means for FURIA is stark for those of us who aren’t massive Vitality fans. FURIA are about the only team who have shown anything approaching a level capable of beating them consistently, and they’re just not there any more.
Similarly, Spirit getting tonked by PARIVISION even with donk putting on a clinic means it’s likely to be a cold, cold, erm, Spring.
NAVI bizarrely look best placed to stop them, and their win over Falcons was a serious marker put down that they are coming for that #1 contender spot as everyone else falls, and makazze has one of the hottest hands out there right now.
He’s the fifth highest rated player at the event behind KSCERATO, donk, flameZ and ZywOo, which is bloody impressive, and he’s made The Leap (tm) from prospect to superstar in the last few months, for us.
donk’s on a 1.68 rating in third (?), and that’s somewhat powered by a 2.05 rating he got in a 13-3 loss to PARIVISION. Do you know how insane that is? They LOST 13-3 and he had a 2.05. Please, someone save this boy. It’s like watching Gareth Bale play for Wales.
Vitality are obviously yet to drop a map, which goes without saying, and FaZe obviously lost to TYLOO, because of course they did. karrigan even carried them in their map win, just to lose 13-11 twice.
We love TYLOO, but it’s not a good sign, is it?
Liquid are out after getting 2-0’d by the MongolZ (not disgraceful), but not before they eliminated perennial crisis org NIP, who now are in serious danger of missing the Major with FaZe.
TYLOO went on to take a map against Falcons in OT, then three rounds in the other two maps combined. That’s what a real team does to TYLOO.
NRG knocked out B8 and then were themselves knocked out by FURIA, which… fair enough.
There’s some crazy games today, with the pick of the bunch obviously being FURIA vs Falcons for elimination/progression. That’s an absolute plan-your-day-around must-watch thigh-rubbing gigabanger.
We WILL be there.
