MOUZ have reached the grand final of ESL Pro League Season 24 after defeating Spirit in the semifinal. Following the victory, we spoke with MOUZ player Oldřich “PR” Nový, who delivered a phenomenal performance on Nuke and helped his team secure the important win.
In an exclusive interview with Players, PR explained how MOUZ managed to defeat Spirit, currently ranked as the world’s No. 1 team, for the second time at the tournament. He also discussed the reasons behind their loss on Mirage, the team’s packed schedule, and the upcoming grand final against Vitality.
The full interview with PR after the victory over Spirit is now available on YouTube!
Hello, PR. Congrats on the winning, on the securing the grand finals of ESL Pro League. First question is, you've beaten Spirit twice during this tournament. They are currently the number one team in the world. How do you manage to counter their style of play so efficiently?
That's a good question. First of all, thank you for that. And yeah, I think our coaches are doing a very good job on the prep. So we always have some kind of, we know what we want to do. And I would say we are pretty smart about how we want to play against donk, how to counter him. So I would say mainly this.
Today could have been your 10th Mirage win, but the streak suddenly ended. So what do you think about that? Why did you lose on Mirage like that?
I would say on Mirage we were a little bit, like not synchronized. We were very hectic out of spawn. Yeah, it was, we were missing people as well. It was just an unlucky game I would say, and we were not on the same page.
The last few months have been very busy for your team: EWC, BLAST, ESL Pro League now. How are you managing your schedule and do you have time to recover between tournaments?
I mean, we always have a few days at home. Not gonna lie, we are all tired at this point. We can feel it, but even though we still have a good team vibe and good mentality.
Tomorrow you'll be facing Vitality again. You played them many times. Do you think the fact that they've been playing with different lineups in satellite tournaments gives you an advantage?
Yes.
After defeating Spirit, MOUZ have another opportunity to prove their status as one of the strongest teams in the world. In the ESL Pro League Season 24 grand final, they will face Vitality, who have also shown excellent form throughout the tournament.
PR’s performance on Nuke deserves particular attention, as he was one of the main factors behind MOUZ’s success. Even his teammates emphasized in the post-match interview that the Czech player was the one who carried the team into the grand final. Now, MOUZ have one final battle ahead of them for the ESL Pro League trophy, as well as an opportunity to strengthen their position against another team from the global elite.
As a reminder, flameZ after defeating Aurora: “We want revenge against both Spirit and MOUZ.”