MOUZ punched their ticket to the New Legends stage on the very last day of play of the Challengers Stage after going 2-2. The team led by Christopher “dexter” Nong scored victories against Sharks and Renegades and tallied losses at the hands of Heroic and ENCE.
Finally, dexter and company managed to pull off a massive win against BIG on day four, bringing a 0-1 deficit in the deciding series after losing the German squad’s pick of Dust2 to a 2-1 victory after taking Inferno and Nuke.
mouz’s goal is to experience the crowd atmosphere at the Aviici Arena
MOUZ‘s in-game leader shared his thoughts on his team’s run of form at the Major, the issues that kept the team back and the adjustments they made to get themselves to the Legends Stage, as well as shedding some light on how he works with Torbjørn “mithR” Nyborg and how Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand helps move the team with his input.
Before the Major it seemed like MOUZ was in a bit of a rough shape looking at past events, but how did the team feel?
We felt really good, actually. We had a bootcamp and during practice we won like 75% of our scrims with 20 rounds or more, something like that, against good teams. So we felt really good, but some of our games showed we weren’t that great. [laughs]
Was the bootcamp really intensive?
It was pretty intensive, we had a couple of hell days in which we just played a lot and talked a lot. We just made sure that we were focusing on what we were missing on LAN at IEM Cologne and IEM Fall in high-pressure situations. So we tried to focus on that.
How do you focus on high-pressure LAN situations in practice?
Just reminding each other like if we’re in a 2vs1 and the AWPer is alive, to make sure that he’s creating space with the pistol and whatnot. And we did it in a couple of rounds here, at this event, which was good. We just have to keep reminding ourselves what we were doing right in practice.
Speaking of high pressure situations, you took the hard way to the Legends Stage, so how have you managed making it through these tough situations?
I’ve felt OK, personally, although my calling has been kind of average for a couple of games. I think I stepped up on this final BIG game, but I’m not really sure how we handled the pressure. We make sure to have a talk before every match and make sure we’re focused on our own game a lot and not too worried about anti-strats and all of that kind of junk.
Run me a bit through the Challengers Stage, give me your takeaway moments.
From the Heroic and ENCE games we took how we’re using this new meta smoke that we’re doing and making sure we click after losing really bad rounds. We lost a really bad round in the ENCE game and made sure we’re fixing mistakes in communication from both the dead and alive players. We should have definitely won the ENCE game but we were just too inexperienced to close it out.
The Renegades game was pretty crazy, we ended up losing the first map after having a massive lead which kind of sucked. I think the biggest takeaway from it is that we got back into it even after losing a huge map like that, so our mentality gradually improved as we were going.
You had to eliminate your old teammates. How was that for you?
I first played them in a best-of-one right when I joined MOUZ and that was like the worst game of my life. I’m pretty sure I was way too nervous and what not, but coming into this game I just didn’t really think about how they were my teammates or friends or whatever, just that I wanted to beat them. That was my new mentality to not feel that pressure and I guess I showed up in the last two maps, when it mattered.
Now that you’re through to the Legends Stage, what do you see for the team?
I see us reevaluating our mistakes and kind of finding more composure. It was an insane game to win against BIG, being a map down and what not. Getting back into it in tight games, it’s very good for us. Going into whoever we’re versing I hope we have a newfound confidence in what we do and how we communicate with each other.
Do you think having to play the Challengers Stage could have been a blessing in order to grow into the tournament?
Yeah, definitely. We’re a very inexperienced squad in some ways. Obviously ropz and frozen have their triumphs, but for the rest of us we were a bit slow to get into the tournament and by each loss we won a bit. Tor [mithR], our coach, made sure we’re focusing on what we’re doing right so we’re kind of focusing on the positives to get into the games a lot better. I definitely feel like we’ve improved going into the Legends Stage.
Can you tell me a bit about how you work with mithR?
We kind of have different aspects to how we work but they intertwine in some ways, he leaves me with all of the tactical decisions. He’ll support when he has ideas, but what he focuses on is our mid-round and how we react, so basically if we’re doing something a lot, how we talk to each other and communicate, the really small details so that I don’t have to look into it. What I think is my ideas of calling and then he just perfects all of the things leading up to that point, basically, and the mentality of the team.
It looks like acoR had some trouble finding his best form on the AWP. Are there any keys to unlock him and get him to play at his full potential?
He’s a very smart guy and even me and him can work together a bit more because he has a very good mind for the game. Finding consistency in every single situation is our goal and half of the time he’s helping with calling. If there’s a gap he’ll help with leading everyone, which is amazing. Sometimes I didn’t even have to do my job, so I guess it’s just all about us reaching that consistent level in terms of how we communicate with each other and what we want from each other.
What do you think will get you where you want to be in that sense?
During the bootcamp we were where we wanted to be, then to transfer that experience was like another day at LAN. Some of us are OK with it, some of us may not be, but we have to be on the same level because you’re a team, you can’t just have one player that’s weak and leave him there, you have to kind of support and talk to each other about what you want to do and how you want to approach situations so that everyone can be lifted up.
Do you think this all has anything to do with getting some Major jitters?
I think it’s more just LAN jitters, online we play a style focusing on individuals creating space and what not, but when we’re on LAN the reactions are like two or three seconds too slow and due to that I look like I’m not calling well because I’m used to us having instant reactions every time we communicate. It’s kind of a big focus on not being too in our heads or too hesitant on how we act, I guess.
Could you pinpoint what it is that causes that? Those little inconsistencies between playing online and on LAN?
It could be a lot of things. It could be the sound, you’re playing with in-ears and the sound of guns is louder and the communication may not be getting through to people or just inexperience regarding a lot of the situations.
Maybe something happens where in a scrim someone would always react, but right now they’re just too focused on not making a mistake when you should really be making a mistake to punish them, what I call ‘big ball CS.’ [laughs]
So basically making a mistake is better than not doing anything.
Yeah, that’s what the experienced teams do, they always act instantly and when they act they’re confident in themselves, whereas us, we’re sometimes too slow so we’re not confident going into the peek and that could just mean you lose the duel and therefore the round.
One goal down, making it out of the Challengers stage. What goals do you have for the rest of the event, be they regarding your placing or otherwise?
Definitely playoffs, we want to make it there and experience the crowd environment.
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