MOUZ barely won the lower bracket of IEM Cologne 2022

We continue to consider one of the main summer events for fans of the discipline. The group stage of IEM Cologne 2022 is in full swing, and today we will talk about the first match in the lower bracket of group A between Heroic and Mouz.

In one of the first matches, MOUZ gave the victory to NaVi (1-2), while Heroic also failed to cope with NIP (0-2). Now they clashed for the right to stay in the tournament, what came of it, we will tell further.

List of maps

• MOUZ chose Vertigo
• Heroic chose Nuke

Overpass, Dust2, Ancient, Inferno are banned, Mirage remains.

The first map went on Vertigo and was very controversial. Despite the fact that it was the choice of MOUZ, the first half of the match did not work out for them at all. Heroic confidently took the pistol round and the next three rounds, after which they gave the opponents a little break. Then, total domination began on their part, having confidently outplayed their opponents, they significantly pulled ahead, making the score 12-3. After switching sides, MOUZ finally realized that this was their card, and began to incredibly comeback, first bringing the score to 13-11, and two rounds later evened it completely. The final part of the match was held in incredible tension: each of the teams was close to victory and no one wanted to give up the first map, but in the end it was left to the owners of the map. 13-16 in favor of MOUZ. The best result among the winners was shown by JDC finishing the match with a score of 31-16.

The second point was played on Nuke, and the situation here was not as dynamic as on the previous map. Heroic, whose choice was the map, showed themselves very mediocrely in the first half, for each won round they gave two to the opponent. The final score was 10-5 in favor of MOUZ before the switchover. The second part of the match was more intriguing, both teams gave their best and at some point Heroic players even managed to comeback a bit, but unfortunately for them, the gap was still too big. The map ended with the victory of MOUZ with a score of 16-10. The best result among the winners was shown by torzsi finishing the match with a ratio of 26-14.

Ultimately, Heroic are eliminated from the tournament in 13th-16th place, and MOUZ go to the second round, where they will meet with the loser pair of Movistar Riders and Vitality.

IEM Cologne 2022 takes place from 5 to 17 July in Germany at the Hyatt Regency Cologne and LANXESS arena. As part of the championship, 24 teams from Europe, the CIS, Oceania, China, North and South America are fighting for a prize pool of $1,000,000, as well as rating points in the BLAST Premier table.

Interim results of IEM Cologne 2022

• 1st place: $400,000 + 3,200 BLAST Premier points
• 2nd place: $180,000 + 1,600 BLAST Premier points
• 3rd-4th place: $80,000 + 1,000 BLAST Premier points
• 5th-6th place: $40,000 + 300 BLAST Premier points
• 7th-8th place: $24,000 + 300 BLAST Premier points
• 9th-12th place: $16,000
• 13th-16th place: Heroic - $10,000
• 17th-20th place: Sprout, TYLOO, Imperial Esports and BIG - $4,500
• 21st-24th place: paiN Gaming, Complexity Gaming, MIBR and ORDER — $2,500