Cloud9 vs  MOUZ Preview: ESL Pro League Season 17 Playoffs

Will Cloud9 get revenge for Rio or will MOUZ continue their winning ways? Find out in the first match of the ESL Pro League Season 17 Quarterfinals 

Due to the global nature of CSGO, there are often grudge matches and rivalries between teams that probably wouldn’t meet as much in other esports. One such is the current — albeit slight — beef between Russian side Cloud9 and mixed European outfit MOUZ. The latter emerged triumphant the last time the two teams fought back in the Playoffs of the Intel Extreme Masters Rio Major, and emotions will be running high as they lock horns once more. This is a great match to start out if you’re looking to do some CSGO betting, so pay attention to this preview!

Cloud9 

Cloud9 surprised many by being the first team to hand G2 Esports a loss in 3 months, but considering the German organization’s performance since, one could make a very convincing argument about how the team has simply fallen a bit out of form. Now up against MOUZ, C9 will be gunning for revenge but after almost a month of no top-level action, they might find themselves a little worse for wear. Nevertheless, they have the tools to get this win, and it only depends on how they use those tools.

Players 

Vladislav ”nafany” Gorshkov

• HLTV Rating: 1.03
• Impact Rating: 1.09
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.9%
• Average Damage Round: 74.1
• Kills Per Round: 0.66

Dmitriy ”sh1ro” Sokolov

• HLTV Rating: 1.26
• Impact Rating: 1.22
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 76.3%
• Average Damage Round: 78.9
• Kills Per Round: 0.77

Timur “buster” Tulepov

• HLTV Rating: 1.08
• Impact Rating: 1.03
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.0%
• Average Damage Round: 73.3
• Kills Per Round: 0.68

Sergey ”Ax1Le” Rykhtorov

• HLTV Rating: 1.16
• Impact Rating: 1.15
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.5%
• Average Damage Round: 80.6
• Kills Per Round: 0.73

Abai ”HObbit” Hasenov

• HLTV Rating:1.06
• Impact Rating: 1.13
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.4%
• Average Damage Round: 80.0
• Kills Per Round: 0.72

Player To Watch

When 3 of your players are among the top 5 highest rated players at the tournament, you know you’ve been doing something right. This is a tough call to make, but we’ll go with sh1ro.

MOUZ

The German organization escaped from the brink of doom yesterday against in-form Brazilian side paiN Gaming, turning around to make themselves look convincing near the tail end of the series. Now the relatively young squad will be up against much stiffer competition, and will have to step up to justify ranking about the boys in blue with a performance akin to what they pulled off in Rio. This one’s not just about moving forward in the tournament, but also to establish dominance over another team.

Players

David ”frozen” Čerňanský 

• HLTV Rating: 1.13
• Impact Rating: 1.18
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 73.0%
• Average Damage Round: 82.9
• Kills Per Round:0.76

Christopher “dexter” Nong

• HLTV Rating: 1.07
• Impact Rating: 1.17
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.0%
• Average Damage Round: 80.2
• Kills Per Round: 0.73

Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás

• HLTV Rating: 1.16
• Impact Rating: 1.18
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.2%
• Average Damage Round: 76.5
• Kills Per Round: 0.76

Jon “JDC” de Castro

• HLTV Rating:1.05
• Impact Rating: 1.04
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.8%
• Average Damage Round: 75.3
• Kills Per Round: 0.68

Dorian “xertioN” Berman 

• HLTV Rating: 1.11
• Impact Rating: 1.16
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.8%
• Average Damage Round: 79.5
• Kills Per Round: 0.70

Player to Watch

For this ESL Pro League Quarterfinal, we’re going with the man on the Big Green for MOUZ, torzsi.

ESL Pro League Season 17 Playoffs: Cloud9 vs  MOUZ Predictions

MOUZ are brilliant, but we believe C9 players are in really great form right now and should be able to get their revenge. However, it won’t be without a fight.

Maps 

We’re probably going to get Ancient for sure, with the second map likely being Nuke and the decider being Vertigo.

Score 

Map 1: Cloud9 to win with MOUZ >11.

Map 2: MOUZ to win with Cloud9 <12.

Map 3: Cloud9 to win with MOUZ <11.

Top Fragger

Once again, we’re going to go with sh1ro considering his insane form right now not just with the AWP, but also with rifles. 

ESL Pro League Season 17 MOUZ Cloud9 vs MOUZ Match Links

Keep an eye on ESL’s Twitch or YouTube channels, with coverage set to begin at 10:30 ET/09:30 CST/07:30 PT.

Make sure to check in on us for more previews, analyses, and overviews on all things CSGO.