Mouz wins The Arena

Mousesports triumphed over Counter Logic Gaming in the The Arena by The GD Studios in a back-and-forth series where both teams took turns dominating one another. Mouz secured $1000 in prize money with this win, as well as a bit of consolation for their disappointing Star Series campaign.

About five minutes into the first game, Mouz looked liable to be severely punished for fielding an incomplete roster. The HoN converts were without three of their regular squad, and chose to play with former teammate Twista and German Dota stars Kuroky and Fire.

CLG were rampant after getting first blood, freely diving towers for kills throughout -- relying on a roaming Sand King and global Sunstrike -- while Mouz could only find a foothold in middle lane, where Rhasta eked out a living against Invoker. By the 25th minute, Mouz were confined to their base with vastly underfarmed heroes. CLG's push forced a teamfight that they won and parlayed that into top and middle of barracks before retreating. CLG regrouped and pushed to victory shortly after.

The second game was a reversal of the first, with Mouz manhandling CLG using a midgame-oriented Riki lineup. CLG relied on lategame potential, centered around Dark Seer and Morphling, but were dominated all throughout early and midgame. Kuroky's Riki split his farm between creeps and Dire heroes, and built up a massive inventory by the 20 minute mark. CLG were forced into a hopeless teamfight in their own base before Morphling could farm his Linkens, and the Swedes conceded as soon as the fight was lost.

The final game was much closer than the games that preceded it, and could have gone either way by the end. CLG focused their efforts throughout the early game on controlling Mouz's Broodmother in order to buy time for their Outworld Destroyer and Slardar, but Mouz took control of the map with the strength of their other lanes, as Rhasta, Dark Seer, Viper and Tidehunter combined to push down CLG's outer towers and force them into teamfights. Better execution in the midgame allowed Mouz's heroes to keep up with CLG's carries as lategame approached.

Mouz managed to slowly chip away at CLG's tier 3 towers and barracks on the back of winning teamfights, but CLG remained very much in the game due to the strength of their carries and the threat of a perfect Black Hole. The final play of the game was a smoke gank by CLG, but the subsequent teamfight went terribly awry, and 'gg' was called immedately afterward.



Sources: Source, VoDs