torzsi: "We're getting closer to beating Vitality"
Despite the controversial benching of siuhy after BLAST Bounty, MOUZ have been on fire this year.
Five events into their year they've played in three finals, and after losing the previous two to Vitality, torzsi says that they're closing the gap on Vitality.
Ahead of their return to action at IEM Melbourne, we spoke to torzsi about the team's form, his own individual growth, and the gaps between teams at the top of the CS world.
"Falcons can be the best team after their signings"
This year has been pretty good for you guys so far, how are you feeling about it?
It's been a pretty good year, we've played five events and made three grand finals, we're feeling pretty good about the results.
But we really want to catch up with Vitality, they're the best team in the world right now and we need to close that gap, but I think that we are getting closer to doing that and beating them.
So yeah, the results are good, and the start may have been rough, but we're happy with how we have ended up and the tournaments. We're looking forward to the next push with the Major and travelling to America.
As you said, your main focus is closing that gap on Vitality. If you look at the two finals against them, the gap is undoubtedly getting closer, how much of a gap do you think is still there and how do you close it?
I think there is not too much of a gap after the last final against them, I think we're close now.
Obviously, on Inferno, we didn't show up at all. But I think that what caught our eye is that we beat them on Dust2, which was their punish pick for a long time, we knew that we had to improve on that map and we did, which was a great improvement for us.
Actually, we were winning 2-1 and we got to Nuke and we had a great chance to win it, but we just didn't play our best Nuke. It was a rough game for us.
As for Train, it was a 50/50 because neither team had practiced it a lot. It was random and they came out on top, so they deserve the win.
I wouldn't say it's too much of a gap, it also now just comes down to how sharp the teams are on the day and the communication and chemistry between the players. I still think they're better on some small details that they can individually shine through, and we need to step up on that side.
If we do that, then we'll be better.
Photo: Diana DuarteWhat about a gap between yourselves and the teams below you? Do you feel that much better than them? We're sure you'd include Spirit in a top three with yourselves and Vitality, but you do have a good record against them.
Spirit are maybe ahead of us, we may have beaten them the last two teams, but they're also really good. I can't pinpoint a second best team right now, it could be either of us and it depends on the day.
I do think that there is definitely a gap with the teams below us, there's definitely a gap in my opinion. NAVI and FaZe aren't having great results, neither are G2 or The MongolZ, Aurora, are pretty good, too, but they're just not the best in playoffs.
There's a little bit of a gap because everyone is sloppy or can't find the right chemistry, I'm not sure, but I'd definitely say that Vitality, Spirit, and MOUZ are top three right now.
Is there a team that you think is most likely to make it a top four instead of top three?
I'm really curious for if Falcons can sign both m0NESY and kyousuke, I think if that happens then they look like a really strong team. NiKo and m0NESY together are always dangerous, and maybe they can even be the best team with zonic behind them. They will have a great team.
But I also think that NAVI has the pieces, this team has won a Major, but they just need to fix some mistakes. I don't know what the problem is, I think it's just some chemistry issues because they're not having the best results and they don't know how to deal with it. Last year they were insane.
Also FaZe, all of these teams, they're really good and have really good players but they just need to step up and they could all be there.
Going back to your year so far, you wouldn't have made the roster move you made if you weren't confident in it, but are you surprised with just how quickly it's all clicked? Did you think there would be a slump before the form you're showing now?
I don't think we expected these results, but we knew that we have a really good core with four good players even if siuhy left the team. We knew that if we brought in a really good calibre of plyer then we'd still be good, we'd just need to build the basics again.
We knew we'd be making playoffs, and we just thought we needed to play well in those and improve daily. We tried to not focus on the results, even though we were making finals, because our goal was to just improve, and that's what happened against Vitality. We might not have beaten them yet, but we're getting closer.
To answer your question, we didn't expect it, but we expected to still play good CS and make playoffs.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenLet's talk about yourself, a couple of years ago you were promoted to the main team and maybe adapting to tier one wasn't that easy, maybe it just wasn't the right lineup, but now you're one of the best AWPers in the world - what's been the biggest things to contribute towards that development in the last few years?
As you said, the first months to year wasn't the best and there were some really some really tough moments for me personally. But every player has those moments, so it's all good.
I have really good staff around me. We have the best coach in sycrone, he helps me not just as a player but also outside the server as person. Also Xyp9x, he helps me in the small details as a player, the angles I hold and the timings I take, it's small detail's but that's what CS is about. Of course, I also had really good teammates that trusted me, and our sports psychologist helped me with mental stuff.
Right now, I'm really consistent, and our sports psychologist helped me in finding consistency by helping me set up routines with how to warm up before games. I feel like I'm really consistent now, and I need to keep that up, but I also need to keep improving.
I would say that one of my strengths is that I might not be the best player, but I'm always improving. It's step by step, but I'm always doing it, and maybe next year I can be even better and make it into the top three AWPers, or even the top two.
Your next event is IEM Melbourne, how are you feeling about that and the amount of travel you have coming up?
Personally, I'm really glad about Melbourne. I've been there for holidays and it was some of my best times, so I'm really excited to be there again and see Melbourne again.
I'm also excited to play games again, we had a long stretch of tournaments and now we've had a long break, we took a week off to not play CS at all and refresh, so now we want to grind again.
After that you'll be heading to Copenhagen for BLAST Rivals, how are you feeling about that?
I'm also looking forward to it because it's in a nice location, it'll be nice to go to back to Europe and to Denmark, which is a really nice country. We know the environment well.
We're looking forward to it, there'll be some good teams there including the top three teams, so it'll be really competitive.
The format is also something I'm looking forward to, it's two groups and you don't know who will make it to the playoffs. I always enjoy these teams with smaller amounts of teams, it makes it more exciting and more competitive in my opinion.
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