On Day 3 of the BLAST.tv Austin Major Playoffs were yet again filled with Counter-Strike play that had the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, buzzing. Vitality opened up their BLAST.TV Austin Major Semi-Finals match with MOUZ in a significant way, the end score of 1-2 shows a hard-fought advancement to the Grand Final. Still, the Mongolz and paiN Gaming shook a crowd that was booing them the day before to their feet, celebrating a decisive victory.
Blast.tv Austin Major Semi-Finals Match 1: MOUZ vs Vitality
The first match-up of the Semifinals was MOUZ vs Vitality. A battle between two premiere teams both hoping for another trophy this season. This series ended up going the distance in a bizarre fashion of which the winning team dominated each game.
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The first game started out back and forth for about the first 7-8 rounds before Vitality turned it on and closed out the half with a 8-4 lead. Flamez dominated the first half going 15-5 and really for the entire match. Vitality held control for the most part in the second half and won 13-8. While there were moments felt MOUZ could get back into it, Vitality would just shut it down.
The second match-up was on Inferno, the Vitality map pick, hoping to complete the sweep. This had to be one of the most one-sided victories we had seen all weekend up to this point. MOUZ came out strong, and by that, they held an 11-1 lead at half. Torzsi had an amazing first half, going 16-2, with apEX having one of his worst showings on the other side for Vitality, finishing 1-12. MOUZ went up 12-1 before winning 13-4 in decisive fashion. Torszi finished 18-6, playing out of his mind. The crowd really jumped on this opportunity to be able to root against Vitality and bask in their defeat.
When we spoke with Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás in a post-match interview, he said, “Going into Inferno, we knew that we needed to step up, and we didn’t want to let this slip. We know that they always beat us on Inferno, I mean [Vitality] is just the best Inferno team in the world. I feel like we just played as confidently as we could. We did the moves, we punished them.”
This basking didn’t last for long, as Vitality turned it around immediately in the deciding game. Vitality ended the half up 10-2 and rolling. Torzii, who had just played an amazing game, struggled badly on Train, going 1-12 with apEX and ZywOo leading the charge for Vitality. Despite the heavy deficit, MOUZ attempted to make things interesting, closing the gap to 4. However, Vitality was just too much, winning 13-6.
This overall series was a wild rollercoaster and, in some ways, disappointing because despite going to game 3, none of the actual games were really competitive. Vitality dominated Games 1 and 3, with MOUZ putting on a show in Game 2.
Blast.tv Austin Major Semi-Finals Match 2: The Mongolz vs paiN Gaming
The Mongolz vs paiN Gaming match was a battle between two teams that most would argue didn’t expect to be in this position. This was a battle between the new fan favorite, FaZe losing yesterday, The Mongolz and one of the biggest tournament surprises paiN Gaming. The Mongolz swept this series in relatively easy fashion as paiN Gaming unfortunately had arguably it’s worst performance of the Major.
In the first game paiN Gaming came out on fire trying to prove they deserved to be in this spot winning the first 5 rounds. This included nqz pulling off a fantastic triple kill and then stood up hitting his chest to help get the crowd involved as well.
Unfortunately, that was really all the high moments for not only the match but really the series. The Mongolz went on to rip off 7 straight wins to end the half 7-5 and then finished off game 1 winning the first 6 matches out the half. This gave The Mongolz 13 straight wins and dominating game 1 victory.
Sadly, for PaiN Gaming, game 2 of this matchup went pretty much the same as the first map. The Mongolz went up 9-1 to start the half and never really looked back. The Mongolz finished off paiN Gaming 13-5 in pure domination. 910 played fantastically, but the real star of the match was Senzu, who finished 13-5 with plenty of huge plays, including a bomb defuse in a 2v1 situation just seconds before detonation.
It was exciting to see an Asian and South American team face off in the semi-finals on this large of a stage. The Mongolz put on a show and get to move on to face the frontrunners in Vitality. While it wasn’t the best of showings for paiN Gaming, still being able to make this far into the Major is such an achievement for this team.
A New Playoff Bracket Is Set For The Grand Final
As the Semi-finals wrapped, the excitement is clear. A true underdog story, The Mongolz have made history as the first Asian team to make it to the Grand Final. Not only that, they’re looking to take down Vitality, all while Vitality is looking like veterans in their third Major Grand Final, only this time, it’s not FaZe Clan standing between them and the trophy, it’s the young team that took down FaZe.
The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 is being held in Austin, TX at The Moody Center from June 19 to June 22, 2025.
