MOUZ are in the CAC 2026 semi-finals — but only just. The European side took Overpass 13-8 in clean fashion, then nearly threw away a 9-3 Ancient lead before surviving three overtimes to close the series 2-0. The map-two scoreboard is the only thing that looks comfortable; everything else was chaos.
The Ancient collapse
B8 mounted the comeback behind Andrii ‘npl’ Kukharskyi. His 1v3 clutch late in the first half ignited the recovery; a pistol-round quad-kill stretched it into a defensive run that dragged the map to overtime. Across three OT periods, MOUZ struggled to break through B8’s setups on the T side — defaults stalled, late-round calls looked desperate.
jL’s four clutches saved it
Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius delivered the kind of single-player rescue act that wins playoff games. Four clutches across the map — matching the entire B8 roster’s count by himself. Several came on the T side at moments where MOUZ structure had broken down completely. After the match jL admitted the pressure was enormous and that losing the map after the 9-3 lead would have been painful.
xelex and xertioN as the through-line
xertioN continued his elite defensive form as the CT-side anchor. xelex’s visible improvement at this event has finally given MOUZ the secondary firepower the roster has been searching for since the rebuild. Combined with jL’s clutch impact, the team has the tools — but Ancient showed the structural questions still need answers before Falcons in the semi.
