mousesports wins ICE Challenge 2020

February 06, 2020

The young international side has carried on its momentum from the end of 2019 with a convincing run through the London-hosted event. Though they were the runaway favorites altogether, only dropping two maps throughout the entire competition and a convincing 3-1 grand final win over Na’Vi made this a notable showing from karrigan’s men.

The mouz and the lion

Though it was mousesports who dominated the event, it was their closest challengers who gained the most accolades. HUNDEN’s MAD Lions have already impressed at DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 with an unexpectedly deep run at the event, and their journey to the semi-finals here has confirmed them as the tier 2 team to watch going forward. Keeping in mind how they were the first team to take a map off of mouz (and how close they pushed them during the series as a whole), they are now a lock-in for the title of the second best Danish team on form.

As for mousesports, anything but a win here would have been a disappointment after their strong upturn in form at the tail end of 2019. That said, the individual performances from each and every player must be a good sign going forward and a source of joy for fans around the world, including a monstrous double Deagle entry by karrigan in the grand final on Inferno.

Of course, the most memorable moment of all was ChrisJ’s 1v5 after-plant ace on Train, even though they went on to lose the map to s1mple and co. before closing things out on Nuke.

Na’Vi: still in limbo

Though the CIS side lived up to expectations by finishing second at the event, it’s clear they still haven’t found their groove since their post-Berlin roster revamp. The GuardiaN experiment turned out to be a spectacular failure, and though Perfecto had a great debut all things considered, there’s not much to suggest that the team’s current cohesion and tactical potential will make them viable contenders against the top sides going forward. More has to be expected from Boombl4 on a leadership and an individual level as well, and one has to wonder how they will perform at BLAST Premier against the likes of Vitality and Astralis.

Photo credit: HLTV