Mousesports: The New Kids on the CS:GO Block

Bio

This lineup reminds me of Frankenstein’s monster. It feels like it was assembled in a lab, made of the best parts that could be found, and it’s as threatening and imposing as any lineup I’ve ever seen. The talent on this roster is astonishing, top to bottom. They have one of the most successful IGLs of the last three years, Karrigan, the number one prospect from a year or two ago, ropz, one of the most versatile players in the game, chrisJ, and two of the hottest prospects under 21 in CS right now, frozen and woxic.

But, just like Frankenstein’s monster, there’s no guarantees everything will work out right. The bonds holding this team together are strenuous at best. Only two of these players have any experience playing together, no one speaks English as their first language, and the generation gap, at least as CS players, is pretty big. This is a big chance for Karrigan to pull himself back into tier one, and his performance as IGL, and as an out of the game leader for these young players, will be a big challenge for him.

Map Pool

The biggest problem with evaluating this team is, they’ve only played 21 maps together. Luckily, due to their pedigree, about half of those are on LAN as a result of their direct invite to IEM Sydney.

While they were down under, Mouz played four maps, Mirage, Inferno, Train, and Overpass, all of which are pretty standard for a Karrigan led team. They went two for two on Train, two for three on Mirage and Inferno, and zero for one on Overpass.

Their Train looks to be their best map, which makes a lot of sense. They have multiple strong AWPers, good clutch players, and a smart IGL who understands the map better than most. Their Inferno could use some work, as that’s likely a map they’ll lean on frequently as they continue to play tier one competition.

One of the most exciting opportunities for this roster is their capability to play both kinds of maps. If Karrigan can institute the system he wants to run, they’ll be able to contend on the more tactical maps like Train and Nuke, which is going to be necessary to take on teams like Astralis. Mousesports also has the firepower to play maps like Mirage and Dust 2, as with woxic and frozen they’ll be able to contend even with the most firepower heavy teams in the scene.

Leaders

Mousesports haven’t really played enough games as a unit to get an informed opinion based on their number so far. The sample size just isn’t big enough. This means we’ll have to lean on numbers from their previous teams, which is fine.

K/D Ratio: Ropz 1.27

Ropz is incredible. I know that that word gets thrown around a lot, but he is just silly good. He’s 19 years old with a 1.27 K/D, he’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever seen, playing with an ensemble of different players while keeping his numbers high and playing for his team. He reminds me of Coldzera in his prime, and his importance to Mouz cannot be overstated.

His K/D reminds me a lot of device, in that he just doesn’t die. He averages .59 deaths pre round, which is one of the best numbers in the scene. He does this on a pretty high usage rate, with a mindblowing consistency. If you combine his 1 kill rounds and his 2 kill rounds, he almost has more than 0 kill rounds, which is a staggering statistic. His ability to consistently get a kill before he dies, especially on CT side, is a powerful tool for his team, and helps anchor their CT setups.

Clutches: Ropz

Surprise surprise, it’s Ropz again. This shouldn’t surprise you if you’ve seen him play. His consistency and intelligence are almost peerless in CS. He really does have the clutch gene, and he looks like a mini coldzera when he gets hot.

I really can’t gush enough about Ropz, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him be considered one of the best in the world by the end of the year, especially under Karrigan’s tutelage.

Ropz is only going to get smarter as he continues to play with this group, and will likely almost never be used as a player hunting aggressively for opening frags. He;’s not very good at it, and he’s more valuable in the late round anyway. This should serve to continue pumping up his clutch numbers, and will likely turn him into one of the most prolific clutch guys in the world. I look forward to seeing his highlight reel at the end of the year.

Flashes: chrisJ

With the way this team is constructed, chrisJ, Karrigan, and ropz are likely to be the players with the best flash stats. Karrigan will likely be playing a pretty aggressive style for an IGL, as he can’t frag nearly as well as the rest of the roster. He’s certainly not bad for an IGL, but his team has some of the best firepower in the world right now, which means he’ll likely spend most of his time enabling his teammates.

ChrisJ will likely be the player to see the biggest uptick in his flash stats with this new team. He will be one of the players that Mouz want to live into the late round, as he’s a solid clutch player and sneaky one of their better aimers.

Opening Kills: woxic

If you’ve been following along with these team profiles, you may have expected this. Often, a team’s main AWPer will be their most successful in opening duels, as the AWP has some natural advantages in taking opening duels. They’re often taken at range, there is usually little opportunity for the opposing team to refrag, or to deny the pick, both of which make it one of the highest percentage plays within the first 20 seconds of a round.

Even as far as AWPers go, woxic is especially effective. He has gotten the first kill in won rounds 20% of the time, which is high even for an AWPer. Granted, a lot of that is dependent on the AWPers teammates, and woxic was playing largely against tier two and tier three competition, but it’s still a scary number. Under Karrigan, woxic could get much, much better. I could see him, and the rest of their young core, turning into superstars during their tenure with this team.