Match Prediction: Heroic - MOUZ | CS2 (CS:GO)

Hello and welcome to EGamersWorld.

We continue to look at what's happening at the big autumn event - ESL Pro League Season 18. At the $835,000 tournament, the group stage continues and we're looking at Basket B.

There, the lower bracket is in full swing, where teams continue to fight for the play-offs with the right to make a mistake. Heroic and MOUZ are among them.

Quite an unexpected pairing for a lower grid match, but that's the beauty of modern competitive CSGO. You never know which top team will be out of favour this time.

We're trying to figure out which of the pair of European giants MOUZ/Heroic will win this match and advance to the next round of the lower grid, where they'll play against the winner of the Monte/MIBR pair, and who will have to go to the last chance grid.

Let's go.

Heroic Form

We start the match analysis with an analysis of Heroic's form. Here they play the first number one.

Bookmakers keep faith in the success of the Danish club. The odds for their success are at around 1.4.

Obviously, Heroic will be the favourites, because before the Long Beach tournament, they were one of the contenders not only to qualify for the play-offs, but also to win the tournament as a whole. The defeat in the top set has shaken the position of the Danes, but they still look more presentable than the mice.

All year long, Heroic have barely left the championship podium. It all started with BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023, where Heroic took the top 4.

Then there was IEM Katowice 2023 and an offensive TOP-2. The only spoonful of honey in Heroic's honey barrel was ESL Pro League Season 17, where the Danes didn't rise above TOP-8.

Then Heroic came back and had a streak of great tournaments. It was top-2 at IEM Rio 2023, top-4 BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 and IEM Dallas 2023. Heroic went on to win the BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2023 and also finished in the top 3 of the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023

• Heroic line-up: cadiaN, stavn, TeSeS, sjuush, jabbi.

Heroic have maintained their fighting lineup for over a year. All players have a KD greater than one, but the headliner is stavn, who has 1.13.

Before their performance at Gamers8 Heroic attended another prestigious tournament - IEM Cologne. Being one of the main contenders to win the German tournament, the Danes made it to the play-offs, but failed to move beyond the first round. Heroic lost to Astralis in the first round of the IEM Cologne play-offs with a score of 0-2.

At Gamers8 they debuted with a match against Falcons. In general, the game ended predictably, but the French gave a fight, especially on the first map (Mirage 22-18 in favour of Heroic). The second one went to Heroic with the score 16-10.

In the previous match Heroic met GamerLegion. Despite GL's seemingly lacklustre position in that match, they were able to get on the Danes' nerves and take the map, but still lost in the end.

Heroic finished off Gamers8 with a match against ENCE. The Danish club again failed to beat the Finns and left the major championship at the top-4 stage.

In the first match at ESL Pro League Season 18, the team played against Rooster. The Australians offered no resistance and took 6 rounds in two games.

Next was BIG - another passable opponent for Heroic, but it was not to be. The Danes lost 0-2, losing on Ancient with a score of 23-25 and on Inferno with a score of 13-16.

Heroic's mappool

Heroic's best map is Nuke. There the Danes have 5 wins and 0 losses.

They like to play Overpass, where they lost only once. In three months on Overpass - 5-1.

One of the most frequently played and yet successful maps is Inferno. Heroic has a 9-3 statistic here. It also goes well on Ancient, where Heroic is 3-1 in matches.

MOUZ Form.

Heroic will face MOUZ in this match. The German club will face us as an outsider.

Bookmakers do not believe in the success of MOUZ, although they are not in a hurry to sprinkle ashes. The odds on the success of the Germans are at around 2.9.

"Mice" is stormy, although they are doing well in ESL Pro League Season 18. However, there could have been a win in the first round of the top set.

The 14th team of the world ranking has also renewed the squad before IEM Cologne, which became a test for the "Mice". We have already seen how difficult it is for MOUZ to play against teams a few goals lower than NiP.

MOUZ's main achievement this season is reaching the finals of Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023. There they battled ENCE, but were defeated 0-2.

Prior to Long Cologne IEM Cologne MOUZ made a splash at the Elisa Invitational Spring 2023. They failed to jump above the top 4 - they were beaten by Apeks on their way to the Grand Final.

Back in the season, they made it to the top 8 at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, and then to the event itself. It didn't end well, as the team finished Top-24 at Major e.

• MOUZ line-up: frozen, siuhy, torzsi, Jimpphat, xertioN.

IEM Cologne 2023 will be a test for the new line-up of the "mice". After Elisa Spring, siuhy, who previously played for GamerLegion, and Jimpphat, a youth player from MOUZ Nxt, joined the squad.

In the debut match the revamped MOUZ roster played against The MongolZ. An easy outing on paper ended in a nervous Bo1 on the dopes, followed by a 22-19 win for MOUZ on Nuke.

Already in the match to qualify for the group stage MOUZ were much more confident. They beat NiP 2-0 (16-12 Nuke and 16-7 Inferno) without any problems.

The first match of the group stage was not a big challenge for MOUZ either. NaVi lost at Ancient with a score of 16-9 and Overpass with a score of 16-12.

After beating NaVi, MOUZ failed to gain a foothold and lost the next two series. As a result, the "mice" at IEM Cologne 2023 took the top 12.

Before ESL Pro League Season 18, the team played at the local championship Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1. They managed to win, defeating BIG 2-0 in the grand finals.

In their debut match at ESL Pro League Season 18, MOUZ faced mibr. Being the favourites, MOUZ failed to defeat the Brazilians and unexpectedly found themselves in the bottom of Group B.

In the first round of the lower grid MOUZ met Evil Geniuses. The North American CSGO failed and MOUZ celebrated a confident 2-0 victory.

MOUZ Mapple

MOUZ's favourite map remains Inferno. In the last 3 months, the Mice have played it three times and won all their games there. Nuke is also doing well, with MOUZ winning 3 out of 4 Nuke games played.

Among the good options are Vertigo and Ancient, where MOUZ have 2 wins in 3 games each.

The most undesirable map is Mirage. MOUZ have played it 6 times, but won only once.

History of head-to-head meetings between MOUZ and Heroic

The last time the teams faced each other was at IEM Dallas 2023. MOUZ beat Heroic 2-1.

Predicted result of MOUZ vs Heroic at ESL Pro League Season 18

This match is questionable. On the one hand, Heroic is a TIR-1 team with a championship roster and all that, but they lose to BIG with a score of 0-2. On the other is MOUZ, constantly somewhere near the title teams but still unable to do so.

On ESL Pro League Season 18 these teams for me showed equal play. MOUZ is even better in some ways, because they gave a fight to MIBR and beat EG, while Heroic has 0-2 from BIG, although it is close. In general, we are waiting for three games.

Bottom line: total +2.5.