MOUZ vs. Apeks Prediction on November 30, 2023

Match info

The Counter-Strike 2 season isn’t even close to an end. This time, the A-Tier tournament will bring the eSports back to gaming screens. The Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 event in Espoo, Finland, will have eight teams competing for a $200,000 prize pool.

The group stage, in which the teams are split into two quartets, is where the action begins. We’ll discuss the Group B match, which can be easily called the “death group“. MOUZ and Apeks are involved in one of these two quartets. At the Espoo Metro Arena, a bo1 match to kick off the Group B competition is scheduled on Thursday, November 30, and will commence at 1 p.m. local time.

Meeting statistics

Our goal here is to predict which of the two teams will be stronger to earn the inaugural triumph in the Group Stage and which one will drop to the Elimination Round.

So, let’s start

The current form of MOUZ

We’ll analyze MOUZ’s form first. They are the overwhelming favorites to win this game, with odds on every CS2 mobile betting app of slightly above 1.20.

This season, MOUZ’s greatest accomplishment was qualifying for the Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023 final. They faced off against ENCE there but lost 0-2. MOUZ made a big impression at the Elisa Invitational Spring 2023 before IEM Cologne. They were defeated by Apeks en route to the Grand Final, failing to advance past the top 4.

After finishing in the top 8 at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A earlier in the season, they managed to advance to the Major itself. They finished in the Top 24 there, so things obviously didn’t work out well for them.

The new “mice“ lineup had a real test at IEM Cologne 2023. Following Elisa Spring, a former young player from MOUZ Nxt, and then GamerLegion and Jimpphat, Kamil “siuhy“ Szkaradek joined the team. MongolZ was an opponent of the newly assembled MOUZ roster in the inaugural match. What was predicted as a straightforward performance on paper resulted in a tense Bo1 on the dopes and a 22-19 victory for MOUZ on Nuke. In a do-or-die match to advance to the group stage, the German team exuded much more confidence. They easily defeated NiP 2-0 (16-12 on Nuke and 16-7 on Inferno). MOUZ didn’t face much of a challenge in their opening group stage match, beating NaVi 2-0 (16-9 on Ancient and 16-12 on Overpass). MOUZ were unable to establish a greater presence and lost the following two series. They consequently placed in the top 12 at IEM Cologne 2023.

The German squad competed in the Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1, a local championship, prior to ESL Pro League Season 18. They won it, taking down BIG 2-0 in the championship match.

MOUZ took on MIBR in their ESL Pro League Season 18 debut. Despite being the favorite, MOUZ unexpectedly failed to beat the Brazilians and finished last in Group B. For MOUZ, the group stage was hit or miss, but still, it was more the former. Heroic was one of MOUZ’s opponents in the lower bracket which had no chance against Germans, who remained unbeaten in all of their games in the lower bracket. MOUZ appeared to be on fire during the first round of the ESL Pro League Season 18 playoffs. They celebrated an easy 2-0 victory against the Brazilians from FURIA, giving their opponents a total of nine rounds per game, literally stomping them. Let’s mention that the match before the one against FURIA pitted MOUZ versus FaZe Clan, another titan of the European scene. The “mice“ ended the series with a score of 2-0, dominating the game. Next up, MOUZ took on G2 Esports. At ESL Pro League S18, the fellow countrymen were the next trophy to be added to the MOUZ’s piggy bank. In the EPL S18 title route, MOUZ triumphed over ENCE (2-1) and NaVi with a commanding 3-0 score in the final. MOUZ performed at IEM Sydney 2023 before the Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where they once more faced FaZe. Retaliating for the shocking loss, FaZe eliminated MOUZ at the Top 4 stage this time.

For MOUZ, the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 came to an early conclusion. They were defeated by FaZe, who went on to win the competition, in the opening round of the playoffs.

MOUZ did well at the CS Asia Championship 2023, which was held later. They advanced to the grand finals, where they suffered a 0-2 defeat to FaZe Clan. MOUZ’s overall favorite map is still Inferno. They’ve played it three times in the past three months and have won every game.

The current form of Apeks

With the Apeks form, we carry out the match analysis. They are playing as nominal visitors in this match, having extremely high numbers in odds of winning. Apeks have had a very successful season in 2023, although their performance is still in doubt. They’ve participated in more than a dozen tournaments, but the list of their notable accomplishments can be counted on fingers on one hand.

They placed in the top 16 of CCT South Europe Season 2 to start the season. Next up was the terrifying Elisa Invitational Winter 2023, where they finished in top-20, followed by the top-4 at the CCT West Europe Series #1.

Apeks placed second in the CCT West Europe Series #2 and eighth in the Brazy Party midway through the year. But getting to BLAST and placing in the TOP-6 at European RMR A was far more crucial for participating at BLAST.tv Paris Major. The Paris Major turned into Apeks’ crowning achievement. Despite being the obvious underdog, Apeks shocked everyone by making it to the final four, where they were beaten by Vitality, the eventual champions.

The Norwegian team competed in three events prior to Gamers8: ThunderPick World Championship 2023: European Series #1 (Top 16), CCT Online Finals #2 (Top 12), and IEM Cologne 2023 (Top 20). In all honesty, the results were mediocre.

Apeks made lineup changes following the tremendously successful BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. Aleksandar “CacaNito“ Kjulukoski, a Macedonian, completed the roster of the 13th team in the world. He took Justinas “jL“ Lekavičius’s place as the headliner, who moved to NaVi.

Following the roster changes, Apeks kept up their performance at various competitions. They’ve appeared at CCT North Europe Series #7 (TOP-16), Gamers8 (TOP-16), the utterly disastrous EPL Season 18 (TOP-28), and CCT East Europe Series #2 (TOP-4).

Apeks participated in the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Winter 2023: Europe Qualifier and IEM Sydney 2023 shortly before the Roobet Cup 2023. They placed Top-18 in the first and made it to the top 12 in Australia.

Apeks were placed in Group C of the Roobet Cup 2023, where they faced off against BIG, 9INE, and Astralis. To be honest, the group line-up wasn’t the easiest. Despite this, Apeks finished in second place and advanced to the play-offs, losing only to BIG at the start of the group stage. Though they had a strong start, they had a terrible finish: while the TOP-8 ranking was a respectable result, they could’ve performed better.

There’s a large map pool in Apeks. Inferno is the most played map (12 times, 83% wins).

Head-to-head encounters

The teams’ most recent head-to-head meeting took place at the Elisa Invitational Spring 2023. Apeks emerged victorious, which was an unexpected outcome.

Match analytics

We don’t see any barriers for MOUZ to win this match. They’ll win the game with ease and without any trouble at all. We suggest wagering on Round Handicap, Map 1 of -5.5 on MOUZ at odds of 2.40 on Optibet.

Results of the forecast

Forecast failed. MOUZ vs. Apeks Prediction 0:1