MOUZ just say no to the odds against Spirit at BLAST Slam 4 Playoffs

The BLAST Slam 4 playoffs are already off to a hot start, with underdogs MOUZ beating Team Spirit in the first match of the LAN here in Singapore. Although Spirit were the favorites on paper, MOUZ showed just why teams shouldn’t be underestimating their brand new roster moving forward.

Game 1 — Turnabout is fair play

Neither team looked like they wanted to waste any time getting into the swing of things in game 1, giving the fans a total shock to the system to start the day off. Both squads were content to take early skirmishes very often in the laning phase, and there was even a teamfight at the 7-minute Radiant Wisdom Shrine that led to a rampage for Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng’s Nature’s Prophet. Yeah, that’s before the laning even concluded.

The game did eventually settle down somewhat in favor of Spirit, with Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk’s Kez getting up there in terms of farm and mid game impact. Spirit were winning teamfights for what seemed like the entirety of the midgame, and their gameplan of enabling Yatoro to just go do his thing was working extremely well. His 13 minute Battle Fury timing helped a ton in securing Spirit a huge lead in the midgame, which reached almost 17kat its peak.

By all rights, this should have been Spirit’s game, but apparently Remco “Crystallis” Arets woke up and chose violence today. His performance as Juggernaut this game was downright incredible. The teamfight at the Dire bottom lane at around 34 minutes in was all him, and suddenly the net worth lead was on the Radiant side thanks to some Spirit diebacks thrown in there.

Spirit didn’t just completely fold from this setback and they were able to equalize things once they respawned. In fact, they stole the net worth lead back at 45 minutes in, and it was at this point that I thought they would finally close things out. But once again, Crystallis was there to save the day for MOUZ. His positioning and judgment of the teamfights from this point on were immaculate.

And my word, those Omnislashes towards the end of the game were clutch as hell. Advantage MOUZ, and suddenly Team Spirit have their backs against the wall much sooner than they might have anticipated.

Game 2 — Yatoro puts the monkey down

Now this is the Team Spirit I know. Unfazed by the previous loss, they regrouped mentally for the second map in this series, with Yatoro in particular standing out. He got his hands on Templar Assassin this time around, and honestly, that’s like 90% of what you need to know.

But it wasn’t just the Yatoro show, despite what his insane 22-1 KDA would have you believe. Spirit played much more under control in game 2, positioning themselves really well throughout teamfights. This was especially important against Crystallis’ signature Monkey King. Wukong’s Command means practically nothing against a team that knows how to stay in proper formation during five-on-five engagements, and that’s exactly what Spirit did.

Hell, they were even regularly finding Crystallis perched on trees, and thanks to Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov getting to draft Beastmaster, it was trivial for Spirit to just cut Crystallis down to size. It’s true that Crystallis had a great start this game, but Spirit made the necessary adjustments to prevent him from really getting out of control.

From there, it was just a matter of unleashing Yatoro in the mid game. The damage he was dealing was honestly quite disgusting, Psi Blades ripping MOUZ apart without any resistance whatsoever. Who even needs the late game when you have an overfarmed TA on your side?

Game 3 — Last pick Venomancer magic

MidOne brought out his cheeky side to close out the series, by last picking Venomancer. It was a stroke of genius from MOUZ if I’m honest, as the pick answered four out of the five heroes on the side of Spirit. I say this even though MidOne got ganked early in his own lane, allowing Denis “Larl” Sigitov to get a head start in the laning phase against one of the worst matchups for his Dragon Knight.

But, well, it ended up not mattering much. MidOne still got more or less what he wanted out of his Veno pick, which allowed MOUZ to hit the midgame timings that their draft basically demanded out of them. It didn’t help Spirit’s case that they had no way of pushing towers outside of Yatoro’s Medusa, so MOUZ really got to dictate the tempo in the mid game.

Spirit really didn’t want to just roll over and die this game. Being the late game juggernauts that they are, they fought tooth and nail to keep themselves alive, with Yatoro dishing out the Split Shot damage and Collapse doing Collapse things with Axe. Seriously, Collapse is still one of the most clutch players in pro Dota, and it showed plenty here with some game-changing uses of Berserker’s Call.

Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough in the end. Though Spirit did their best to repel MOUZ’ onslaught, they just didn’t have enough gas left in the tank to turn things around in their favor. Crystallis’ Troll Warlord sealed the deal in just under 55 minutes, thus eliminating Spirit from the tournament.

Definitely not a bad first day for MOUZ in the playoffs of BLAST Slam 4. They now move on to the semifinal match, where they await the winner between Aurora Gaming and HEROIC.