MOUZ have taken an important step in their ESL Pro League title defense after dispatching Natus Vincere in just two maps to take the lead in Stage 2.

The current ESL Pro League champions remain undefeated in the second stage of the tournament after bringing the world No.1 back down to earth with a convincing victory. This time around, there would be no epic comeback for NAVI, who spent the majority of the series trailing their opponents despite winning three of the four pistol rounds. The CIS giants never really got into their stride, defensively or in attack, and will need to show improvements as they enter the final stretch of this stage, with FaZe and fnatic the next opponents on the schedule.

NAVI opened up the action on Nuke with a successful pistol round, but they immediately lost their grip on the game as MOUZ hit back on a force-buy. Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's troops used that momentum to establish a solid lead as they continued to punch holes in the shaky NAVI defense, going into the break up 10-5 after keeping their opponents' economy in check.

mousesports are three out of three in EPL Stage 2

Now playing on the CT side, MOUZ came out the livelier of the two sides and added to their lead after winning the opening two rounds of the half. Natus Vincere then responded on a full-buy, with Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy pulling off an ace in the following round to prevent a painful economic reset. That round revitalised the CIS giants, who brought the deficit to just three rounds, but then MOUZ tightened up and secured the game.

NAVI jumped out to a 3-0 start on Dust2, but they ran out of steam once the game hit the gun rounds. It was a one-way street affair afterwards as MOUZ kept their defense very compact and shut down any chances of NAVI stringing rounds together to once again take a commanding 10-5 lead.

The second half began at a frantic pace, with rounds going back and forth before Natus Vincere eventually took control of proceedings. The CIS side put together a string of rounds and brought the deficit to 9-11, but, just like on Nuke, a comeback was not on the cards. MOUZ upped the tempo and immediately started to dictate the action on the map, winning five rounds in a row to wrap up this one-sided series.

ESL Pro League Season 11 EuropeBest of 3 MOUZMatchpage 2 0 7th April 2020 Natus Vincere 16Nuke 11 16Dust2 9

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
David 'frozen' Čerňanskýfrozen	40 - 27	+13	82.0	1.27
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	37 - 35	+2	89.2	1.26
Robin 'ropz' Koolropz	39 - 34	+5	75.3	1.11
Özgür 'woxic' Ekerwoxic	35 - 32	+3	66.9	1.04
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	34 - 31	+3	66.0	1.00

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	33 - 35	-2	85.5	1.09
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	37 - 34	+3	65.8	1.08
Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto	37 - 38	-1	79.7	1.01
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	29 - 40	-11	63.9	0.88
Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4	23 - 38	-15	48.4	0.69

Group A TEAM M P MOUZ 3 9 fnatic 3 6 Natus Vincere 3 6 OG 3 3 Astralis 2 0 FaZe 2 0 fnatic #5 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonMaikil 'Golden' SelimLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Natus Vincere #1 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy fnatic #5 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonMaikil 'Golden' SelimLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Andreas 'Samuelsson' Samuelsson Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Age: 20 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 288 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.62 FaZe #9 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' NygaardMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidHelvijs 'broky' Saukants MOUZ #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongÖzgür 'woxic' EkerDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' Kool Allan 'Rejin' Petersen Astralis #2 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Danny 'zonic' Sørensen Natus Vincere #1 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy OG #14 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenIssa 'ISSAA' MuradMateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski Casper 'ruggah' Due MOUZ #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongÖzgür 'woxic' EkerDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' Kool FaZe #9 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' NygaardMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Janko 'YNk' Paunović Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Age: 29 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 1631 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.68