Match Prediction: FaZe Clan - MOUZ | CS2 (CS:GO)

Welcome to EGamersWorld.

We continue to look at what's going on in the Thunderpick World Championship 2023. We're talking about the play-offs stage, where 8 teams come together to find the strongest.

At stake is the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 title and the top prize of $250,000. You'd agree, that's a pretty good motivation for a full-fledged game. Apparently, the top teams of the world, taking part in this local tournament, think the same way. FaZe Clan and MOUZ are among them.

MOUZ and FaZe will close the first round of play-offs with their Bo3 match. It risks to become the central match of the day and the round. We will try to figure out which side will be stronger and will advance to the next stage of the competition, where they will play against the winner of BIG/C9.

FaZe Clan Form

Let's open the match analysis with the analysis of FaZe Clan's form. In this match FaZe play as favourites with odds to win around 1.7.

One of the most stable teams of the season has quite an extensive record in the first half of the year. However, it mostly consists of "near" top results.

Among the main achievements - getting into the top three at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023 and winning at ESL Pro League Season 17. Also this year FaZe got the award for the 4th season of Intel Grand Slam, enriched by $1,000,000.

Speaking of award tournaments, there was less luck here. Top-12 at IEM Rio 2023, and Top-4 at IEM Dallas 2023. At the only Major e in the season FaZe did not cope with the tension, but made it to TOP-8.

Before the Long Conference IEM Cologne 2023 they attended two tournaments of BLAST series: Spring Final 2023 and Fall Groups 2023. At the Finals they were ranked Top 6, and at the Fall Groups 2023 they were in the top three, earning themselves a slot at the Autumn Finals.

• FaZe Clan line-up: karrigan, rain, Twistzz, ropz, broky.

Despite the ubiquitous Reshuffle and rather "average" results for the year, FaZe didn't change the main roster. However, there were some substitutions: FaZe presented a new coach, who became the legendary Pole NEO. On his post he replaced the legendary RobbaN and it affected FaZe's gameplay in IEM Cologne 2023, where FaZe took the top-12.

The setbacks continued from there onwards. At Gamers8 2023 FaZe Clan took a similar place (9-12), Ledgeiv at the Long Segment of the Vp tournament with the score 2-0.

Things didn't go too well at ESL Pro League Season 18. FaZe made it to the play-offs on the top grid of Group C, beating 9Z Team and Fnatic, but in the match for seeding in the main stage they lost to NaVi with the score 0-2. However, FaZe didn't manage to play long at ESL Pro League Season 18: in the first play-offs match, which for FaZe started from the second stage, the team met MOUZ. The future EPL champions sent FaZe Clan home. As a result FaZe found themselves on the 9-12th place of the top tournament.

FaZe rehabilitated quite quickly. Already at IEM Sydney 2023 they triumphed with the victory over CoL in the grand final.

FaZe Clan Mappool

The best FaZe map is Mirage. They played 12 matches and won 9 of them.

Then there were Overpass with 8 matches and 5 wins. Nuke (7 matches, 4 wins), Inferno (9 matches, 5 wins). Worse is Ancient with 3 wins in 6 matches, and worst of all was Anubis. His FaZe was picked 7 times, but played with a winrate of 42%.

Not playing on Vertigo.

Form MOUZ

We continue the match analysis with the MOUZ form. In this match they play as an outsider, but with a minimal margin of victory: the odds are at around 2.

MOUZ's main achievement this season is reaching the final of the 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 so well, as the team finished in the 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, who came from the youth team of 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 ended up in the bottom of Group B.

The group stage was a mixed bag for MOUZ, but still more successful than not. An unexpected defeat in the top set cheered MOUZ up and they effortlessly went over the heads of their opponents, Heroic among them, at the bottom of the group stage table. Having not lost a single game in the lower grid, MOUZ made it here.

In the first round of the ESL Pro League Season 18 play-offs, MOUZ seemed to be off the chain. The Brazilians from FURIA were literally stomped, and the "mice" celebrated an easy 2-0 victory, giving their opponents a total of 9 rounds per game.

In the match before that MOUZ met another grandee of the European scene - FaZe Clan. "Mice" on a spree swept through the match and closed the series with a score of 2-0.

In the match for the exit here MOUZ met G2 Esports. They became the next trophy in the "mice" piggy bank at ESL Pro League S18.

MOUZ went on to defeat ENCE (2-1) and NaVi in the EPL S18 Grand Final with a resounding 3-0 score. Prior to the Thunderpick World Championship 2023, MOUZ played at IEM Sydney 2023, where they again faced FaZe. This time FaZe retaliated for the upset defeat and knocked MOUZ out at the Top 4 stage.

MOUZ Mapple

MOUZ's favourite card remains Inferno. Over 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 played it 6 times, but managed to win only once.

History of personal meetings MOUZ - FaZe Clan

This year MOUZ and FaZe Clan played each other 3 times. MOUZ won twice, so FaZe has a chance to equalise the situation.

Predicted result of MOUZ vs FaZe Clan at Thunderpick World Championship 2023

In this match I expect an equal game from the two teams. Everything hints at a close match with equal play from both sides. The most logical result would be a full-fledged Bo3 with close play from both sides.

Bottom line: total +2.5.