The MongolZ Glorify Asian CS2 at YaLLa Compass

This was easily the greatest achievement of an Asian Counter-Strike team in the last decade. What The MongolZ did at YaLLa Compass will likely be studied by many other teams from the region and will serve as inspiration for them.

Asia is famous in esports for its League of Legends and Dota 2 teams. But in Counter-Strike, the region hasn’t had much success. The reason is not hard to grasp. Esports like LoL and Dota 2 are so big in the region that very few people decide to specialize in CS2.

On top of that, the Europeans have a two-decade advantage in terms of experience. Their understanding of the game is far better than anyone else’s, and that kind of competitive edge cannot be undone in weeks or months.

The MongolZ have been training hard and competing in S-tier CS2 tournaments since the start of 2023. They’ve also won numerous A-tier and B-tier events. So their success did not come overnight.

But it was still impressive to see an underdog competing against the likes of Astralis, HEROIC, NiP, and ENCE and winning match after match.

To be fair, winning YaLLa Compass was not the ultimate test for The MongolZ and Asian Counter-Strike. Let’s not forget that the top five teams in the world did not compete in the tournament.

This was more of a top 7-25 event. But even under these circumstances, the fact that bLitz and his crew won the trophy is very impressive.

‘Dark Horse’ jersey available on https://t.co/UAorIapqu8. Back up your boys ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ri5q7Q0bs7

— The MongolZ (@1mongolz) June 10, 2024

The MongolZ’s Matches

The MongolZ started in group A, where their main rivals were NiP, Astralis, ENCE, and HEROIC. Most of these teams were, at least on paper, stronger than them. But we soon found out that The MongolZ went to Abu Dhabi to win.

In the group stage, only Astralis managed to beat them, so their record was 4 W – 1 L. Because they defeated NiP, The MongolZ won the group with 12 points, even though both of these teams had 12 points. Thanks to this, they advanced to the semifinals and were just two steps away from lifting the trophy.

In the semifinals, The MongolZ had to play against Astralis for the second time in this tournament. But this time, they were much better prepared. The match was decided on the third map, Ancient, where it looked like the Danish team would win. But, because they made some mistakes, The MongolZ ended up winning 22 – 19.

In the Grand Final, NiP won the first map 12 – 16 but then lost the next two maps 13 – 7 and 13 – 6.

Header: The MongolZ