The European combine came out on top in a two-map series with overtimes on either map to claim the title.
MOUZ rallied after a three-map semi-final against fnatic to defeat ex-Winstrike in the Snow Sweet Snow 3 grand final in a two-map series with overtimes on both of the maps to claim the $40,000 grand prize.
The tournament win comes as a breath of fresh air for the squad led by Christopher "dexter" Nong, as they stumbled at ESL Pro League, finishing in 21-24th place with a 1-4 record in Group B, and were eliminated from Fantasy Expo Spring Cup after two best-of-one losses to PACT and DBL PONEY, and will now have a boost of confidence after a rough patch as they set their sights on DreamHack Masters Spring at the end of the month.
ex-Winstrike, who made their European rivals suffer for the victory, won’t have much time to dwell on their close grand final loss, which no doubt will be a tough pill to swallow after taking Evil Geniuses out in the semi-finals, as the CIS squad now has European Development Season 3 and Funspark ULTI Europe Regional Series 1 to put their focus on, as well as their ESEA Premier quarter-final match against AGO also on the horizon.
ropz topped the scoreboard in the final with a 1.36 rating and 100 ADR
The first half of Nuke, MOUZ’ map pick, was a close affair as the two teams stayed neck-and-neck since the early rounds with ex-Winstrike winning the first three rounds on the defense before dexter and company brought it to a 4-4 tie by the eighth round. The half ended with the European mixture ahead by one on the attack, but their CIS counterpart tied it right back up on their first round on the offensive.
An ace by Robin "ropz" Kool when down 10-12 got MOUZ back on track as the two teams remained close all the way to the end, ultimately sending the map to overtime. It then took the European combine not one or two, but three overtimes to overcome Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov's men and secure their pick and take the lead in the series, 25-22.
MOUZ were first out of the gate on Dust2, taking a 4-0 lead on the CT side, but ex-Winstrike didn’t take long to bring it back to a tie and even take the lead, 5-4, in another exciting half that saw the two teams battle to get ahead before switching sides, with mouz taking the half by one round.
The European squad managed to extend their lead in the second pistol round, but were quickly equalized as the two teams continued the nail-biter all the way to the final round, prompting another overtime. This time around MOUZ took the lead in the first half and converted after all six extra rounds, 19-17, to secure the series and the title.
Snow Sweet Snow 3Best of 3 ex-WinstrikeMatchpage 0 2 7th April 2021 MOUZ 22Nuke 25 17Dust2 19
ex-Winstrike
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
Aleksei 'El1an' GusevEl1an
59 - 57
+2
78.9
1.12
Vladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoKrad
61 - 58
+3
79.9
1.07
Igor 'Forester' BezotecheskiyForester
57 - 55
+2
67.0
0.97
Viktor 'Lack1' BoldyrevLack1
48 - 54
-6
65.9
0.96
Aleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovNickelBack
47 - 61
-14
70.5
0.94
MOUZ
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
Robin 'ropz' Koolropz
73 - 58
+15
100.7
1.36
David 'frozen' Čerňanskýfrozen
62 - 60
+2
92.5
1.17
Aurimas 'Bymas' PipirasBymas
48 - 44
+4
62.3
0.95
Frederik 'acoR' GyldstrandacoR
51 - 57
-6
57.3
0.89
Christopher 'dexter' Nongdexter
51 - 55
-4
62.1
0.86
The Snow Sweet Snow 3 standings, including Regionals are: