MOUZ 13-0 paiN on map three: BLAST Rivals day one recap

BLAST Rivals is now underway and day one provided us with four banger games.

Spirit and Vitality looked to be in top form, while MOUZ also silenced doubters with a 13-0 drubbing of paiN on Dust2. Falcons and FaZe also put on a show, and although FaZe made Ancient close, it was Falcons who continued their strong recent form to advance to the Group B final.

Let's go over the action.

Spirit make light work of FlyQuest

FlyQuest may have enjoyed a positive result at IEM Melbourne, but it's hard to ever get any positives out of a game against Spirit.

The reigning Major champions were immovable on map one, putting up ten rounds in a formidable Mirage CT side.

As they so often do, donk and sh1ro found themselves at the top of the scoreboard. The deadly duo combined for 35 kills on the CT side alone to put the hurt to FlyQuest. They kept fragging in the second half, too, picking up a further six kills apiece to wrap up Mirage 13-2.

The Aussies put up a much better fight on Nuke, holding Spirit's devastating T side to just six rounds thanks to 14 CT side kills from IGL, INS.

However, Spirit's CT side remained stronger, and they won seven CT rounds in order to take the map 13-9 with magixx sitting pretty at the top of the scoreboard.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

MOUZ body paiN on map three

Now playing with a full lineup for the first time since ESL Pro League Season 21, paiN put up a solid fight against MOUZ in the second game of the day.

That said, it was MOUZ who came out the gates fastest, they picked up a 7-5 lead on their CT side of Nuke thanks to four of their players recording ten kills or more.

MOUZ then extended their lead to 11-5 at the start of the second half, although paiN did try to close the gap by winning four of the next five rounds.

Sadly for the South Americans, it just wasn't enough, and they conceded the advantage in the series to MOUZ with a 13-9 scoreline.

Not content to lie down and accept defeat so easily, paiN answered back in a big way on MOUZ' map pick, Inferno.

New paiN man dgt was fragging throughout the map, he picked up 22 kills to send us to a deciding map of Dust2 after a 13-11 scoreline.

Unfortunately, Inferno was where paiN's steam ran out. MOUZ came into Dust2 with a point to prove, and there was nothing that paiN could do to stop them as they succumbed to a 12-0 MOUZ T side.

Obviously still thinking about their drubbing at the hands of Falcons in the IEM Melbourne semi-finals, torzsi wasn't messing around on map three, he mopped up four to add another round to MOUZ' tally without them even needing to plant the bomb.

13-0 when all was said and done, the AWPer topped the scoreeboard thanks to his 2.08 rating and sent his team through to the Group A final.

Vitality see off Wildcard with ease

Game three saw recently crowned ESL Grand Slam champions Vitality take on NA wildcard invite, Wildcard.

Wildcard have been in good form of late but there was little they could do to trouble Vitality, mezii carried Inferno with 24 kills to give Vitality a 13-7 win off the back of a 9-3 CT side.

Dust2 was much of the same, Vitality went into the break with another 9-3 lead, this time from a very strong T side.

But then again, what chance did Wildcard have if ZywOo is doing things like this off spawn...

Eventually it was NA prodigy JBa who got Wildcard on the board, he clutched up in impressive fashion on round eight to make it 7-1 in favour of Vitality.

Too little, too late for Wildcard, Vitality barely allowed them to fight back, closing out map two with a 13-6 scoreline. mezii topped the scoreboard once more, adding 19 more kills to round off an impressive series for him.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

Falcons advance to group final with 2-0 over FaZe

Falcons are on a hot streak recently, and it's not hard to see why as they pushed past FaZe with a 2-0 scoreline.

The game of the day, new signing m0NESY continued his excellent start to life with Falcons on map one, the young GOAT went 21-10 to limit FaZe to just six rounds as Falcons blitzed Dust2.

That didn't stop FaZe from having their moments though, EliGE and rain came up big on a force buy to secure FaZe a fourth round on their CT side.

Ancient was all about NiKo. The former FaZe and G2 man wasn't willing to let FaZe push the series to a third, he was everywhere as he went 24-14 in the 13-10 win.

He even shut down broky when it mattered most, preventing the Latvian from pulling off what would have been a miraculous 1v4.

And he didn't stop there, either, he added another four frags in the second half pistol round to give Falcons the lead.

Despite those four frags for NiKo giving Falcons the advantage, FaZe still managed to find themselves leading the map 10-9. However, a 2v5 from TeSeS and m0NESY soon swung the tide, and Falcons secured the series with a 13-10 scoreline.