BetBoom Team and MOUZ are first qualifiers for IEM Sydney 2023 playoffs

IEM Sydney is in full swing, and the 16 participating teams are giving their all to have a good result in this first tournament in CS2. While we have witnessed the disappointing news that Team Vitality was eliminated from the tournament without winning a single game, we also have good and surprising news on the other hand.

In Group A, with strong teams like FaZe, Vitality, and NaVi, two were not in anyone’s plans and prevailed to seal their tickets to the playoffs. We are talking about MOUZ and BetBoom Team, who won their first two games of the IEM Sydney and, thanks to this, are the first two teams to qualify for the next phase.

It is no surprise on the part of MOUZ, as the team comes from winning the ESL Pro League S18 a few days ago. However, what the BetBoom Team did is somewhat surprising, as this Russian lineup has very little time to compete, and we observed a spectacular synergy in the two matches they played.

Let’s see what happened in Group A’s Upper Bracket semifinal matches.

MOUZ beat NaVi to seal their ticket to the playoffs of IEM Sydney 2023.

First, the current ESL Pro League S18 champions, MOUZ, got a good 2-1 victory over NaVi to advance to the tournament playoffs. Likewise, we must remind everyone that NaVi went to Australia without their most important player and CS:GO GO GOAT, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev. As a result, the Ukrainian squad is playing with their Head Coach, Andrij “B1ad3” Ghorodensjkyj, who had not played an official Counter-Strike match since mid-2018.

This series was full of intense moments, which started in Mirage, NaVi’s map pick, where MOUZ started on the right foot by winning the first half 8-4. However, Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy and Justinas “jL” Lekavicius were responsible for waking up their team to come back and even scoring 12-12. Finally, after 5 rounds in Overtime, MOUZ took the victory by 16-13.

Then, in the second map, Inferno, NaVi deployed all its potential commanded again by b1t and jL to even the series 1-1. In the first half, NaVi got a solid partial victory in their CT Side by 9-3. Then, at the change of sides, the performance of the Ukrainian squad remained on top to win 4 of the first 5 rounds to take the victory by 13-4.

THE COLDEST WAY TO END A MAP @b1tcs 🥶#IEM pic. twitter.com/qK2JVrZ1Sd

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 16, 2023

Finally, at Ancient, the MOUZ boys hit back by demonstrating consistency and a phenomenal performance to take the win 13-6. As a result, MOUZ qualified for the IEM Sydney 2023 playoffs.

THEY WON THE FINAL CS:GO LAN.

NOW THEY’RE IN THE PLAYOFFS OF THE FIRST CS2 LAN HERE IN SYDNEY👏@mousesports 🐭#IEM pic.twitter.com/rd7tUbHhNC

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 16, 2023

BetBoom Team crushes GamerLegion 2-0

The other match of these Upper Bracket semifinals in Group A left us with an excellent victory by the BetBoom Team against GamerLegion by 2-0. In addition, it is also worth mentioning that this Russian squad is playing at an incredible level despite having little time playing together.

It all started on Mirage, BetBoom’s map pick, where the Russian squad stepped up to take the win on this first map. In the first half, the Russians, with former VP player Aleksandr “KaiR0N-” Anashkin and former Cloud9 player Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov, managed to take a comfortable 8-4 partial victory. Then, at the change of sides, GamerLegion woke up and got dangerously close on the scoreboard. However, BetBoom stopped the comeback, and they took the victory by 13-11.

On the second map, Nuke, things changed completely, as this time, GamerLegion couldn’t do much to stay on the scoreboard. In the first half, like in the first map, BetBoom took a comfortable 8-4 victory, but this time on their CT Side. Finally, at the change of sides, the Russians won 5 out of 7 rounds to take the 13-6 victory and the qualification to the tournament playoffs.

The Upper Bracket dream continues for @BetBoomTeam, who secure the 2:0 over @GamerLegion, sending them to the Lower Bracket! 💪

Mirage 13:11
Nuke 13:6#IEM pic.twitter.com/8T5h2Cmvo7

— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) October 16, 2023

Header: ESL