MOUZ player Jimi Jimpphat Salo gave a short interview to Players correspondent Alex Kharchenko after the victory over M80 at the BLAST Open London 2025.
M80 was close to winning the first map, but you took their pick. Was it because you have more experience, including on-stage experience or you were just better in clutch moments?
I think first of all we had a really good start. On the CT side we started 8-4, which was pretty decent. But at the same time the T side is always really hard to play. And also when we went to T side I think they got the momentum a little bit. They won the pistol round and a couple of rounds and after that it became a tight game. But I think in the end, to be honest, I think they played well. They had some gamble stacks and they pushed for info in that map. Which we kind of slept on in a way. We always got caught. But in the end I think we managed to come back mentally. Also I guess the stage experience helps us in a way that we can still come back mentally. But maybe for them, I'm not sure how it is. It's the first time for them on the big stage I think. So it's a bit different. But for us it's always in our favour in a way.
How would you assess M80’s performance?
I mean I think they are playing really well at the moment. They have a lot of individual skills and also I think they are good in CS. It's not always so easy to reach them. They are not a Tier 1 team of course, yet. But they are also not an easy team to beat. Kind of like a dark horse in a way at the moment I would say. But yeah I think they are playing well. And at the moment it's also really nice to see that some NA team is doing good. You know it's good for the scene as well. So a lot of respect for them.
Tomorrow you’re facing Vitality. How are you preparing for that match?
Yeah I mean I think Vitality is a really tough team. We play tomorrow against them. And I think we need to step it up a little bit from today. Especially if we want to beat them. I think they will come sharp to the match. And they have some time to prepare for the game as well. But I think overall if we can step it up from today. We can put up a little bit of a closer fight. I think then the game will be more interesting. But if we go like we played today against M80 maybe it will not be so close. And they will beat us. But of course we want to aim for the best..
How important is today's result for proving that MOUZ Esports is a team capable of winning titles right now? I mean, do you talk about this tournament?
Yes. Yes. Let's start from the beginning. I think we have been so close winning these trophies. This year especially. We started from Cologne. We made it to the final. And then we fell short against Spirit. It sucks a lot. And then after that we had some other tournaments as well. We did pretty well. Every tournament we have been doing pretty well. But we always lack the last one. You know the last one to lift the trophy. We just need it to happen I think one time. So we can get a lot of boost for it. A lot of confidence boost especially. Of course, like we know that we are Tier 1 team. And we are capable of winning the trophies. Sadly we just couldn't have done it yet. But we all know that we can beat any team in the world. Currently at least there is no team we haven't beat besides spirit in this season. They have played well. But yeah I think winning this tournament of course. As I said it would give us a lot of confidence boost. The only thing is that if we win this tournament, then we will have like three weeks off I think until the next tournament. So it kind of sucks in that way. But anyway we still aim for the trophy. It means a lot. We really want to do it. So we do a lot of work for it.
And I have a final question about the crowd. They were booing against you and they are supporting M80. What do you think was the reason for supporting your opponent in this case? They don't like mousesports?
We have been in the same situation so many times. Where we get booed or where the opposing team is getting cheered on. For us of course it's whatever we have used to the situation. But it's always nice to hear some Mouz fans. I think M80 has at least their coach from the UK and they have NA players. Maybe the UK people support NA or something like this. I'm not sure. But whatever it is. We don't really care. I think it will be the same against Vitality as well. Because they have mezii, he's from the UK. We expect the same if not worse. We will just try to be cold headed and do our job.
