MOUZ break the curse: BLAST Bounty champions after eight straight losses to Spirit
There was a running joke in the scene, and last night it stopped being funny for Spirit. MOUZ are the BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 champions after a 3-1 win in the grand final in Malta, capping in the most complete way possible a tournament that devoured nearly every favorite.
"Nobody beats MOUZ eight times in a row," Dorian "xertioN" Berman joked on the official broadcast after the match, savoring the end of the streak the Russians held over them. Because that's the perfect subtitle for this final: MOUZ had lost all eight previous meetings with Spirit, including three so far in 2026.
A final more dominant than the 3-1 suggests
The script went wrong for Spirit from the first map — and on their own turf, no less. MOUZ took Dust2 (13-8), the Russians' pick and one of their specialist maps, opening 4-0 on defense to set the tone. Then came the knockout blow: a crushing 13-4 on Mirage where Spirit barely found an opening against an impeccable defense.
Two maps down, Spirit responded where they had to. Ancient (13-9), a map they entered on a seven-match winning streak, saw donk finally rediscover his form as the team came back from 6-9 down to force a fourth map.
But Nuke was the epilogue. MOUZ opened 6-4 on the attack, Spirit leveled at 10 after a triple kill from Boris "magixx" Vorobiev with a Five-SeveN in a 3v5 that kept Russian hopes alive, and then the Germans shut the door: a round with four Spinx kills against pistols brought up match point, and the 13-10 sealed the title.
Spinx, MVP for the first time in his career
The night's standout name was Lotan "Spinx" Giladi. The Israeli rifler delivered a colossal final — 1.54 rating, 78 kills, 89.3 ADR, and 81.9% KAST — and claimed the first HLTV MVP of his career, an accolade that had eluded him despite his pedigree.
On the other side, the statistic that sums up Spirit's night is chilling: after Mirage, donk recorded his fifth consecutive map with a negative K/D, something that had never happened in his career. The world's best player picked the worst possible moment for his worst run — barely hours after breaking the all-time FACEIT Elo record.
First trophy in 17 months, with a brand-new project
Context multiplies the title's value. It's MOUZ's first trophy since PGL Cluj-Napoca, 17 months ago, and it arrives in the team's first event with Oldřich "PR" Nový, the former academy player brought back from GamerLegion to cover Jimpphat's departure to Aurora. Rarely does a rebuild validate itself this quickly.
The road wasn't handed to them either: a 2-1 comeback against 3DMAX in the quarters, a tight 2-1 over Astralis in the semis — salvaging a 12-2 lead they nearly threw away — and the 3-1 against the world's number one in the final.
Some will point out that Malta's bracket lost four of the world's top five after the online stage massacre. That's true, but it doesn't diminish last night: MOUZ beat Spirit, and did so convincingly. The next test comes soon, with the Esports World Cup starting on August 12.
Source: HLTV, Hotspawn, BLAST.