A team made up of former MOUZ NXT prospects, MOUZ surprised everyone when they made it to the semi-finals of the last Major, IEM Rio 2022.
Despite that success and the experience gained from it, the Major still brings with it a different kind of pressure, but even still, it’s an incredible feeling and one that’s not lost on MOUZ star, frozen.
“I think every Major I've come to, I get the same feeling. Maybe some butterflies in the stomach but it feels like coming to my first Major again, I feel great,” frozen told BLAST.tv ahead of the opening game.
Fine margins
Photo: Michal KonkolMOUZ cut it close in the RMR for the BLAST.tv Paris Major, playing up until the final day in which they would have a nightmare 2-2 matchup against the titans of FaZe Clan. MOUZ, a team that has often been given the moniker of ‘baby FaZe’ overcame the former Major champions in that bout, securing their spot in the Challengers Stage.
“It's a great confident boost, we know we can win these matches. I don't even think it's about beating FaZe but it's more about how it was an actual qualification match; if you lose, you go to the last-chance qualifier. I think playing under those circumstances and being able to win is a great boost for our confidence; now we know that we can do it against anyone,” frozen said.
With FaZe being one of the elite teams in the world, a win against them is a statement of intent from this MOUZ roster.
frozen admitted that “at Katowice we had a rough tournament and at Rio we had a rough tournament” but after a bootcamp and practice time between events, there’s a cheeky smile on his face as he finishes his answer on whether they are about to become one of the elite teams themselves.
“I honestly don't want to say where I would put us, but I would say wait and see how we perform,” he said.
The year to date
Photo: Michal KonkolThe issues MOUZ have faced at the previous events of the year are, however, hard to overlook.
Disappointing early exits from IEM Katowice and IEM Rio are all MOUZ have to show from 2023 thus far, and the Major is potentially the last chance for their young stars to shine in CS:GO.
“I think we kind of didn't show up at the start of the year, Katowice was the first tournament of the year for us and if you don't show up it can be rough," frozen told BLAST.tv.
He said that the team were "missing small details" that cost them games and that they didn't show up from the start of the games.
"It's something that we've been working on for the future, that's one of the main things,” he said.
frozen may have been a member of the MOUZ team since 2019, but it's easy to forget how young he was when he joined them. One of the most experienced players on the team, he’s become the main star since ropz departed for FaZe a year ago.
“It doesn’t change much, I am the same guy putting in the same amount of work into the game. It feels weird that people see me as a star, but I'm just here doing my thing and enjoying playing Counter-Strike,” he said.
Rising stars
Photo: Michal KonkolMOUZ is a team now made up almost exclusively of young stars. Three of those, JDC, xertioN, and torzsi, all came up from their academy where they achieved vast success in the WePlay Academy League.
Some may have expected their transition to tier one to be slow and feature many struggles, but frozen wasn’t surprised when that wasn’t the case and says “it’s very easy to work with them.”
The first of the three to go up to the main team, torzsi, perhaps has the most pressure of all on his shoulders. An AWPer playing in a meta where the elite teams are almost all defined by their star AWPers, frozen says that he thinks torzsi “still has a lot to prove for himself” but is quick to remind everyone that he is an “insane player”.
“I think for him it was more of a mental thing. He's getting back into it, finding more confidence. I'm looking forward to what he can show this year because when he joined, I thought he was going to make it into the top 20. He's still young and he still has time,” frozen said.
Not everyone on the team is young. While dexter might still be relatively inexperienced compared to other tier-one IGLs, at 28, he is by far the elder statesmen of the MOUZ roster.
“I think since Dexter is a little older than us he's adding a lot of balance, like a sort of adultness He still has fun with us though, but sometimes he is more adult which is always good to have that guy to tell everyone to calm down", he told BLAST.tv.
The Challengers Stage
Photo: Michal KonkolMOUZ first game is set to be played versus NIP, a team that come into Paris with a point to prove following a strong showing at IEM Rio. One of the tougher matchups of the Challengers Stage swiss round one, frozen says: “We are feeling pretty confident about it.”
“We have a similar map pool as well as the fact we’re both international teams. I think it's going to be a great match honestly. It will be about who wants to win more and who shows up instantly, that's especially important in a BO1 which can be tricky. The best team will win," frozen said.