ropz leads mousesports to CS Summit 5 win with two stand-ins

Mousesports took home the win at CS Summit 5, defeating G2 Esports 2-1 in spite Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s mid-series departure and the absence of another key player.

CS Summit 5 was another great addition to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s most relaxed tournament series, and its conclusion gave fans an impressive look at a mousesports team that performed remarkably well despite missing two of their main players. On the flipside, G2 Esports put up a serious fight in the series that didn’t end well for the French squad.

The grand final of CS Summit 5 was an odd affair. In a strange turn of events, mousesport’s karrigan was forced to leave the grand final after the first map in order to get his visa for the upcoming Epicenter 2019. Visas often require two blank passport pages, and due to Counter-Strike’s international nature, karrigan only had one left in his passport.

The team was already playing with a handicap. The team’s AWPer Özgür “woxic” Eker was forced to miss Summit entirely due to his own visa issues. In his place, mouz turned to Niels Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen to pick up the sniper position.

To his credit, NaToSaphiX made a serious case for himself over the tournament as a solid AWPer and overall player. The stand-in wasn’t always flashy, but he provided solid support for the mouz core of Chris “chrisJ” de Jong, Robin “ropz” Kool, and David “frozen” Čerňanský.

NaToSaphiX posted a pedestrian .95 rating over the course of the tournament, but the AWPer provided the plays when needed.

ropz leads mousesports to CS Summit 5 win, Reijin and w0xic stand in

Mouz took map one, Mirage, after G2’s CT side allowed them to overcome a 10-5 deficit in overtime to win 19-17. As karrigan headed for his flight, mouz head coach Allan “Rejin” Petersen stepped in for Vertigo and Train. Karrigan didn’t seem concerned as he took his time to say goodbye to CS Summit 5 on his way out the door.

It didn’t start off well for mouz. G2 decimated them on Vertigo 16-1 and looked unstoppable in doing do. With Rejin in the lineup, it fell to ropz and the rest of the mousesports core to win Train.

After finishing their Train T side down five rounds and losing the following CT pistol, mousesports clamped down on the defense and took home the CS Summit 5 trophy with a close 16-14 win on the final map.

G2’s loss here looks bad on paper, but there are positives in the result. Kenny “kennyS” Schrub looked fantastic, and Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač performed well. G2 is perhaps one roster change away from having the potential to compete against the world top five for a spot at in the CS elite.

karrigan shows leadership and coaching ability in absence

The real story here is karrigan, whose absence ironically showed how his presence in the server is less important than his impact on his players. When mouz brought him in after his time with FaZe Clan, the hope was that karrigan’s personality and leadership would have an effect on the younger players on the team. It clearly has.

ropz and frozen looked as sharp without their IGL as they have with him, meaning that the IGL’s influence extends past strategies and shows that he has a knack for player development. 

It also speaks as to why karrigan was less successful on Astralis and FaZe; you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. After his professional playing career is over, he’ll be a sought coaching addition to almost every team in the scene.

Mousesports moves to number four in the world rankings with the win. G2 also climbed the rankings from 14th place to 11th after their Summit performance.

Next up for mousesports is Epicenter 2019 with an opening match against Virtus.pro and its whole new roster on December 12.

G2’s next challenge is the Champions Cup Finals starting on December 19, where to take the win against lesser competition.