sycrone: "There's still a mental edge in their favor"

MOUZ have continued their excellent start to the season here at BLAST Open Porto, beating Vitality 2-0 for a grand finals berth.

What makes that win especially huge is shifting the narrative that MOUZ can't beat Vitality at events. This marks the second time now MOUZ have managed to it, with the last time being back in 2025 at IEM Chengdu. This time, though, was different, as both teams are no longer the units they were back then.

Still, MOUZ beat what was in front of them and earned themselves a spot in the finals, where they will be facing a Spirit team that’s no doubt after revenge for BLAST Bounty.

After the game, we spoke to sycrone about the Vitality narrative, their Dust II game plan, and facing an old friend.

Well, first of all, I wanna start off with, obviously, it's been a big narrative, beating Vitality. What changed about your approach? What felt different about this series that allowed you to win?

I mean, both teams are in different positions right now as well. Have a season ahead of them where there's a stand-in coming in, there's other players now and they were gonna swap a little bit. For us also, we now have two young guys. We got some fresh wind. Sort of a reset, I think, in that matchup for both teams.

I would say, I think there's still a mental edge in their favor when they're against us. It's probably gonna take us a handful of times to beat them before it really feels like that matchup is a bit equal. But what changed is that both teams are at different positions now. Would have liked to have beaten of back then, but rest of the season is also gonna look like this. And then for us, we can just be the Vitality that's in front of us and we did that today.

And on Dust II, your guys' T-side, it seemed like you were trying to condition them early that B could be an option, and then you started going A. How much of that was preplanned? How much was felt in the server, in how they were set up?

It was part of the game plan for sure. I would say we got a little bit static in some moments, especially throughout the half. And it was too easy to beat us. We are just giving them too much respect on the map.

For xertioN, it meant that he tried then to force things with some team rounds, make some one-four calls where he would lead in front of the group, create the space. We win a lot of these, but it's also easy to play against. If you understand that this is what we're going for now, it doesn't take a lot of adjustment to prevent a good setup or multi-kill against that style.

So we needed a few players to step up when the moment came for it. Spinx, for example, walking for the mid smoke, getting two kills there. Also, torzsi on that last round took the AWP and knew that ZywOo would reset after the shot, moved down middle, and we made a B split behind it.

I think those two coming alive in the end pushed us over the line, but I think it's all xertioN's effort. He found the right answers for us in that game. He called for the team. He played for the team, and he propelled us a bit forward, especially when we're struggling. I think if not for that, probably we would lose those two. Who knows what the mental would look like going into Mirage.

And then, speaking about the mental, there were a couple of moments where the mental could make or break a map, where there were clutches that Vitality won or it got really close, especially that flameZ retake on B. As a coach, when you're standing there, how nervous, how frustrating is it to stand behind and watch those mistakes?

We work a lot on staying in the moment and thinking about the next round. You know, in the moment you played that round and it's over, it's in the past. The next round now is what we'll decide. It's the most important. Focus on what's in front of you with the next round. If you're linking too much in the past, you think about that situation also as a coach, you're not able to do your best for the next round.

And difficult task to manage. I think for me and some of the guys we've developed a lot tools and the ability to move on and focus on what's next. Maybe for some of the younger guys, it's still gonna take some time.

Of course, everyone would be upset if they f**ked up that one versus three or the two versus four situation we had or you got an entry and you threw it away and lost to bad money. It's part of the game also. It shows that it means something. Right? But you need to be able to as an athlete say, okay, it's just one round like any other round. The next round will get it.

And then, final question for you. Playing against jL, is it a bit of a weird experience? Has it changed the dynamic of a series, playing against someone you spent so much time with?

laughs I can smile at the question because I think he's such a lovely guy. And when we played with him for a moment, he was Dust II long. It's a position that he really struggled with, and we had xelex on B. And back then, we already said, okay, we ever make this permanent, we're probably gonna swap around so that xelex would be long and he would be B.

And we didn't do it then, because we're just constantly on tournaments. But it was just so funny in the moment of the game to see that xelex played such a great long situation. They tried to hit him a couple of times, but he held his ground. And maybe jL was thinking about it in that moment. Right?

And yeah. I don't think it changes anything that he knows us, but it makes me go into the game maybe with a bit more of a smile because you know him personally. He's also such a warming, lovely guy.