Jon JDC de Castro talked with Players just after Mouz reached the final.
It’s been an incredible journey for Mouz in IEM Dallas 2023 so far. What are your emotions about getting to the final?
I’m very emotional and happy with everything. It’s a bit unbelievable after tough losses in Paris. Right now we are all excited and happy to be here. We are very blessed but the job is not finished yet. We have to stay focused and take every game that comes our way, slowly and happily.
You have two tough but quite identical games on Vertigo and Overpass. Every team won their pick. But you didn’t have an easy time in Ancient. What can you tell me about winning the decider map? Taking into account that the win rate of Heroic on Ancient was 100% and your win rate was 60%.
Yeah, we were the first team to beat Heroic on Ancient in this tournament. I think it’s one of the stronger maps. The Overpass is obviously Heroic’s best map as far as I know and one of our weaker maps, it’s not our strength, it’s obvious. We were very good at Vertigo, we believed in ourselves, and we had a good system and good approach, so we knew that we will win our pick. Losing an Overpass wasn’t really hard for us. We were fighting and trying but it’s Heroic. It’s a good team and you have to respect it.
On Ancient though, it’s a map we were both very good at. It’s one of our strongest maps, and theirs with a 100% win rate. But, today we were a bit stronger and better. Maybe a bit more calm, they had a bit more pressure than us. We were playing without pressure, just playing our game, while they had a lot on the line. I would say Ancient was a good game but we won as we were a bit better and not that much pressure, I think.
Were you expecting that the decider map will be Ancient?
We were expecting Ancient. We were expecting exactly the maps that came out. We were preparing for Vertigo, Overpass and Ancient and we were happy to beat them.
Heroic we were close to the comeback at the end of Ancient. Were you ready for additional rounds?
When we were 15:10, I was like “We have to close it out now”. Of course, they have a fighting spirit. Heroic is an amazing team, they have amazing chemistry so when they started winning rounds I was like “Oh, is it actually going to overtime?”. That will be tough but thankfully it didn’t. Even if it would be overtime, we had a lot of energy, we were pushing and screaming.
Who do you want to meet in the final?
Actually, I don’t mind meeting with ENCE or FaZe Clan. I’m fine with both. We have won against ENCE but it’s been a long time. I think it was Pro League two seasons ago. We beat FaZe recently in the RMR. I’m confident about facing both teams. I think it’s more about how we play the game, not what they do. We just need to focus on ourselves, don’t do any mistakes and take it from there.
Will it be three maps at the final or two?
That’s a really good question. That depends completely on how the first map goes and who has the best momentum. I think it will be 2:0, but it’s open for everything. Even if it’s a three-map row, we lose, whatever happens happens. But it will be a great final!
How do you find the audience in IEM Dallas 2023?
The crowd has been awesome. The people here are so lovely, very outgoing, supporting us and everyone, cheering. It’s been an amazing experience. This is what we live for, we do this for a living because of these moments and I’m very happy and grateful to be here.
