XertioN: "The team feels the most fresh it's ever felt"

MOUZ have been one of the biggest winners of the offseason so far.

Their change instantly netted them a Tier 1 event win at BLAST Bounty, and while EWC wasn’t quite that good, they still showed the level we’d come to expect from MOUZ. Now, during BLAST Open Porto, the German organization has been on fire, beating Falcons to make the semifinals straight from groups.

So, when we spoke to xertioN during BLAST Open Porto’s media day, we asked about their run, what PR added to the team, and their roadmap for improvement.

This is what we found out:

Well, first of all, how are you feeling?

Feeling good. Feeling prepared for the playoffs. We have an extra day now of practice over other teams, and, yeah, just feeling confident that with the right work, we can make it happen.

How much does that actually impact your team, having an extra day? Does it really matter that much?

I think it changes a lot, actually. It changes the dynamic of how torn down you have to be. We had to ramp it down a bit so we can ramp it up coming into playoffs, but at the same time, you don't want to turn off the engine completely. So maybe we're in a lower gear at the moment, but it's really key that for semifinals, we are going to be ready, because the team that we're gonna face have played in the stage before, and they will be a little bit more ready for us on that term.

At least I haven't heard about it recently, but there was a long time of discussion about whether it's actually better to start in the quarterfinals because you're warmed up. Has that forced you to change your approach over time? You did say you had to change something about ramping up. What have you changed to try to counteract that?

Well, I wouldn't say that we changed much. It's just more that we are more aware that it's really key that if you make the semifinals directly from group stage, you maintain a kind of some fire level in you still. Of course, it's impossible to keep it throughout the five days we are not playing official, but especially during the last two days before it, coming up the semifinals, you really need to ramp it up a notch and make sure that when the day comes, you are more prepared.

And, yeah, I mean, I still would say starting in semifinals is better. You face one less good team. You have one less chance of losing. But at the same time, you also lose the chance to play in front of a crowd, to gain that experience, to enjoy it, and I think that's also a big blessing. So I'm happy we're in the semifinals, of course, because we beat Falcons and we deserve to be here. But at the same time, it could have also been nice to play one more game in front of the crowd.

And about the group stages, I thought you guys looked really good this event so far. What about this performance do you have to make sure to take into the playoffs, and what is something you guys wanna address before you head in?

Yeah. I mean, I think we did look pretty good, definitely for a new team. I think that we are doing a lot of the right things. Everyone is putting in a lot of work, from the staff to the players. Everyone is doing their own job super well.

So what we should keep is definitely our team play and how good we play, especially against Falcons. We had basically six maps where we were totally dominating the opponent and one bad map against Falcons, which can happen. They are a really good team. But overall, I think we were super ferocious, and we had a lot of fire in us when we played. And that's something that, coming off the loss to FUT in EWC, we said that we must step up a little bit there. And so far, I think we did it.

What we could still use some work on, I think, is definitely a little bit of playbook, making sure everyone is still comfortable. And mostly mental, that we don't let one bad half affect us. And even though against Falcons we bounced back the last two maps, I think that the start of the game was a lot of mental, which is why we lost the Nuke map.

It's still great that you guys came back from that, because it's very hard to go down mentally and recover. You see a lot of teams struggle with that. It was obviously a lot of the storyline last season on the playoffs and what went wrong there. What has PR added in terms of mentality, if anything at all? He's a new player. Has he brought a different perspective?

I think definitely when you bring a new player, you're bringing some new fire in him and also in the other guys. I think that the team feels the most fresh it's ever felt for me to play.

I think me changing into an IGL role changed a lot of our dynamic as a team. I think I'm a very confident person, and I think that helps players around me feel better. And now that I'm the IGL, I'm actually able to control the mood of the team. I'm actually able to control a little bit more the philosophy and how we play. So I think we are doing a pretty good job mentally.

Of course, we still have two young players. We are not sure how it will be now in the semifinals, or how they will feel. But at the same time, we know that core members, the four, Sycrone, me, Spinx, and torzsi must step up for these games and make sure that we are showing a good example for them of how it should be done. And, yeah, that is our focus point coming into playoffs.

Then the final question I have for you is, for this season, is there something that will take maybe several events for you guys to work towards, that you have as a goal? Not necessarily that you wanna win something, but something that you wanna be able to say you guys improved on.

Well, would definitely say that we are improving very fast, but at the same time, I think we are still a group of people. We are not a team yet. I think to get to the point where you're a team, you need a lot of work.

And I think definitely sometimes you can see that we are not aligned 100% on some rounds or some situations, and maybe there is a bit of a gap between understanding from players. And I think that what we should work on the most is making sure that mentally and also in the game, we are super aligned in the future, so that we can actually be felt like a consistent team.

And I think in MOUZ it's always been like that during the years. We have always been a very consistent team. And yeah, I think we need a bit more time to become a team that you can actually see on the server and outside of it, it's like 100% committed to the same cause at all times.