xertioN: Spirit’s aim and Dust II lapses cost MOUZ Porto

MOUZ fell 1-3 to Spirit in the BLAST Open Porto grand final on Sept. 7, 2026. The best-of-five series ended after four maps in Porto.

MOUZ won Mirage but failed to recover after a difficult Nuke game and recurring problems on Dust II. The team took one map while Spirit claimed the title with three wins.

xertioN attributed the loss to Spirit’s superior individual aim and to MOUZ not reaching peak form. He described Spirit’s players as ‘extremely sharp’ and said they won most of the aim duels, which decided a number of close rounds.

Dust II’s B-site was singled out as a key weakness. According to xertioN, the current meta makes CT-side defence of B ‘incredibly difficult for all teams.’ He pointed to MOUZ’s successful T-side executes in early buy rounds as examples of how easily B could be opened and said those rounds exposed defensive issues the team will review.

On map selection, MOUZ picked Mirage in their first rotation instead of Nuke. xertioN described playing Nuke as a ‘disaster’ and said the Mirage pick ‘completely justified itself’ by delivering their lone map win. He viewed the veto approach as a positive element despite the overall result.

xertioN called Spirit ‘the best team in the world’ and noted that without top form MOUZ had limited chances. He added the squad plans to adjust its Dust II setups and prepare for upcoming events.