"Everyone has seen MOUZ crumble in this moment 20 times," Dennis "sycrone" Nielsen told HLTV after a barnburner of a third map decider against Spirit in Spodek.
As retake after retake went Spirit's way on Nuke, it would have been easy for MOUZ to fold. Dorian "xertioN" Berman could have lost faith in his calls, Lotan "Spinx" Giladi could have gone passive after making a mistake in a 1v1, or Oldřich "PR" Nový could have cooled off after his hot start.
But instead, none of that transpired. All of sycrone's players stood to attention as they secured a 13-11 victory and a spot in the final.
Understandably, sycrone is particularly proud of xertioN. "I'm very impressed with how Dori handled [Spirit's retakes]," he said. "He kept calling instantly when the spawn started with a simple direction and I think he propelled us forward a lot, to be honest."
Against Vitality — the team's nemesis from 2025 — the pressure will be back on MOUZ. But this team has matured right in front of our very eyes, and they are determined to ensure that this time will be different.
Listen to the interview here.
Congratulations. That decider was brilliant. How did you feel during that?
I felt for once, we get tested this tournament, also on the mental side, tactically and as a team, we've played great so far. And I'm very pleased that the third map ended the way it did. I think everyone has seen MOUZ crumble in this moment 20 times, and now this time we would win and we make it to the final. It's on us to make sure it was not wasted.
And tell me about that difference. What you just said, basically what the commentators were saying as well, we've seen MOUZ lose this game so many times. What was the difference? Was it in the timeouts, the new players? What made the difference?
One of the big things in my opinion is that xertioN called a great, great game. Sometimes tactically you can get somewhere with a good look and a round doesn't convert, but he always kept composure and he kept calling instantly when the spawn started with a simple direction and I think he propelled us forward a lot, to be honest.
Spinx also played brave. You saw him go for the ramp timings quite a lot. PR also had a masterclass. So it's a number of different factors there, but especially the leadership from xertioN when it got close, that Spinx went for the plays and didn't go passive, and that PR played a great game.
And tell me about that stretch where all those defusals, because as an in-game leader, when you're getting all those post plants, you're doing your job, right? And it's just about staying in it mentally, because you're making the right calls, you're getting the plants. How proud were you to see xertioN stay in it?
Very proud. We worked on it a lot online. I made this basketball reference as well. Sometimes you have a good look on the situation and you just missed an open three pointer, right? Let's get there again. And similar now, so he kept calling stuff from the book with slight variations depending on what we think Spirit saw and it was a good T side, and I'm very impressed with how Dori handled that.
Yeah. And donk had a quiet game again. I think I saw something where it's like seven maps this year below 1.00 and that doesn't happen against any other team really. So what is it about the game plan and your team style that you think makes that happen?
One thing we always try and achieve is we look at strengths and weaknesses, right? And if one of their strengths is donk, one of their strengths is playing great defaults and they have good timings on it, we need to take that away from them a bit. So we try and bully the space. We try and make him not so comfortable. We hit the timings that he usually likes to do, and then you force them to a game that isn't their comfort zone, right? And you want to achieve that while also looking at what's our strengths and it's a fine balance, but I think it's something we do well also in this matchup.
And I wanted to ask you to compare PR and Jimpphat, because I feel like in those anchor lurker roles, it's very different. PR feels much more like an X factor, he's explosive. What is the difference in how it affects the rest of the team having that more aggressive piece almost?
I think you said it well now. PR is more aggressive. He can also playmake, he can facilitate small things around him. Jimi was not as explosive, also in his communication. I think when we, especially in the first year and a half, Jimi was super solid and reliable, always really good numbers.
With PR, maybe you get a bit of both ends sometimes, right? But he's also young, so he could develop into a very stable player as well. That's the difference, a bit more playmaking, a bit more aggressiveness, but also you get some lows, you get some highs.
Yeah. Okay. And onto Vitality. It's a familiar sight, that final matchup. Are you going to look at it any differently with this new lineup to avoid that classic 2025 outcome?
We are at a very different place right now. It's going to be a new matchup tomorrow. Finally, we can play the full roster, and let's see how it goes.
Okay. And just on the performance as well, did you expect the team to click this fast with those two young players? Especially once xelex joined, it was new roles for him and everything, it feels like it's clicked quicker than maybe outsiders might think.
We always had a great system. What torzsi, Spinx and xertioN offer to the team is a lot of things that you don't even see on the server, right? It's a lot in the culture, it's a lot on how we work and operate. It's also with the communication, it's with the energy. Of course, we're going to land in an okay spot, but I think with the two young guys, it was a bit of a chance, how is it going to turn out? And maybe also we're in a position where we needed to take a bit of a risk to try and take a step forward.
Something that we talked about early on that I also told the two young guys is I gave xertioN, torzsi, the other guys maybe two, three years to get to this point. Some of them it's five years. I think for xelex and PR, they're not going to have that much time. So on one hand, the three core players and me, we need to step down our expectations for the moment, support them, take them under our wings, and at the same time, the two young guys, they have to come up to speed quite quickly. And I like to give people patience and trust and allow them to fail, but this time around it needs to happen a little bit better and faster than it did beforehand.
Vitality
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam
MOUZ
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Oldřich 'PR' Nový
Adrian 'xelex' Vincze
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen
Oldřich 'PR' NovýPast 3 months
Dorian 'xertioN' BermanPast 3 months
Lotan 'Spinx' GiladiPast 3 months
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev
Danil 'donk' KryshkovetsPast 3 months
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen