Six Aussies headed into the CSGO PGL Major in Stockholm, and one remains. Christopher ‘Dexter’ Nong, the in-game leader for Mousesports, is surviving in the competition after beating ENCE in two straight maps overnight.
Dexter’s Mousesports squad knocked out the only Australian team in the competition, Renegades, last Friday.
As for other high-profile Aussie CSGO players, Extremum benched its roster after losing a Major slot to Evil Geniuses, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with AZR, Liazz, and Gratisfaction (technically a New Zealander, but claiming them is what we do). Complexity is also absent from the Major, which means so is jks.
If you’re looking for who to support as an Aussie watching the Major, Dexter is it. Matches will be live pretty much every evening at this point, and lucky for you, Mousesports is actually a super exciting team to watch.
As an in-game leader, being given talented young fraggers like Ropz, Frozen, and Bymas is a dream come true. They know the game and can slot into just about any role, yet they’re young enough to be molded to your gameplan.
And of course, it’s wonderful to see the in-game leader with his fair share of highlights as well. Even with the above talent in the squad, this is one IGL you won’t often find at the bottom of the scoreboard:
You can’t just be an out-and-out caller anymore as an in-game leader in CSGO. The game has evolved too much. There are too many fragging in-game leaders who can use both sides of their brain in the moment. Dexter has been showing that he’s one of them.
It’s bittersweet though, as Dexter actually left Renegades to make the European CSGO dream come true.
Mouse announce the @dextersjourney swoop less than a week before they play Renegades at the Katowice Play-In. Would’ve been nice to see the top Aus team take on the world at full strength, but you can’t knock the hustle. Such is the path of star talent in a less developed region. https://t.co/IFCC503cFB
— Jeremy Ray (@TheJunglist) February 10, 2021
Mouz met Renegades a week after Dexter moved away. Renegades replaced him with star fragger Hatz, but Mouz still walked away with a 16-14 win.
Since then, Mousesports managed to take the trophy at Flashpoint 3, on a tournament path that saw them beating heavyweights like BIG, Astralis, G2, and NIP. Just a few months after moving to Europe, Dexter’s Lab was producing some sweet science.
We’re hoping for more of that at the PGL Major, which is not only the biggest tournament of the CSGO calendar, it’s been a long time coming – we didn’t get a Major last year due to the lockdown, and everyone is keen.
Perhaps a win will be enough to shake off the story, often retold, of Dexter leaving his crying kid at the airport. (Not to be taken seriously, this is just an obligatory meme and in-joke)
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