Putting on a convincing show against Evil Geniuses, MOUZ have made it through to the semi-finals at EPICENTER after coming out on top of Group B.

Once again playing with Igor "⁠crush⁠" Shevchenko instead of Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte, whose visa situation still appears unresolved, Evil Geniuses could not repeat their success from the opening match as they went up against a strong-looking MOUZ.

The European side managed to shake off a tough opening matchup against Virtus.pro earlier that day, securing a berth in the semi-finals with a dominant victory, leaving EG to play for quarter-final seeding on Thursday.

The series began on Train with MOUZ looking in cruise control on the Terrorist side at first, mounting a 5-0 lead, but Evil Geniuses put together a decent defensive half despite the early deficit, winning seven out of the last ten rounds thanks to some great AWPing from Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov.

mousesports warmed up after a shaky start against VP

The North American team got their first lead at the beginning of the second half with a pistol round victory, courtesy of Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz's triple, but a dominant defense saw MOUZ turn things back in their favor and close out the map comfortably at 16-11.

Starting on the defensive side on Inferno, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's team put on another one-sided performance despite losing the pistol round to CeRq's ace, as Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker replied with two kills and three assists with the Scout in the second-round forcebuy before MOUZ started setting the pace with timely aggression.

Evil Geniuses could only find two more rounds in the first half with a couple of consecutive B attacks and, once the sides switched, they couldn't convert another pistol round win, with the European squad rallying to a quick 16-4, 2-0 victory.

EPICENTER 2019Best of 3 Evil GeniusesMatchpage 0 2 18th December 2019 MOUZ 11Train 16 4Inferno 16

Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq	34 - 34	0	76.3	0.98
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	25 - 41	-16	67.5	0.79
Ethan 'Ethan' ArnoldEthan	26 - 35	-9	69.0	0.79
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	21 - 37	-16	60.0	0.70
Igor 'crush' Shevchenkocrush	19 - 37	-18	42.7	0.59

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
David 'frozen' Čerňanskýfrozen	47 - 22	+25	94.6	1.57
Özgür 'woxic' Ekerwoxic	39 - 25	+14	79.4	1.33
Robin 'ropz' Koolropz	34 - 26	+8	84.4	1.27
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	32 - 24	+8	74.3	1.23
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	32 - 28	+4	85.6	1.20

Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte Age: 21 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 852 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.67 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Age: 20 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 884 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.62 Igor 'crush' Shevchenko Age: 24 Team: HellRaisers Rating 1.0: 0.91 Maps played: 594 KPR: 0.62 DPR: 0.69 Evil Geniuses #5 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov MOUZ #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongÖzgür 'woxic' EkerDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' Kool Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz Age: 25 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 1033 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.66 Virtus.pro #15 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevSanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Age: 29 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 1586 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.68 Özgür 'woxic' Eker Age: 21 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 774 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.62