ropz: I had an offer from Liquid

In their offline debut at DreamHack Open Tours, MOUZ have defeated both of their opponents, HEROIC and Natus Vincere, on their way to playoffs.

During their day off, Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool stopped by the venue and gave us an interview about various topics, such as transitioning from an FPL environment to MOUZ, other offers he received, and his showing in Tours so far.

I'd like to start this with your journey to international notoriety through FPL, how was that period for you, especially with all the cheating accusations going on?

It was a long journey to that, but when I joined FPL, I already knew I was going to be accused because I've been accused before I joined FPL, so I knew it was going to happen. It wasn't good, it was the people that I looked up to and they started accusing me, and that wasn't a good feeling when people like that do that. It was a really bad feeling.

I know that throughout this period you had trouble convincing your parents that this was a viable option, how did you get through to them in the end?

Before mouz I had an offer from Liquid and the management contacted my relatives and they talked to my parents about it. They just solved the problem and explained the whole world of esports, it's much more clear to them now and they just gave me the chance to take my own decisions now, I can do what I want kinda.

Why did that offer not come through in the end, why didn't you join Liquid after all?

It wasn't guaranteed that I got a spot in Liquid and I wanted to stay in Europe. mouz is like the best international team, or one of the best, FaZe is better right now. So that's why I wanted to join them, and I wanted to stay in Europe as well.

From what I saw, you're adamant about staying in school, how does being part of mousesports affect your education now? What stage are you at currently?

I have no problems in school, because I'm a really good student, one part of the day is school and in another I practice. I don't have to focus on school that much, because I'm just a good student. I'm finishing my first year in high school, so I have two more years, but it's not that big of a problem.

Talk to me about the transition from FPL, 5on5 pugs basically, to a real team, how were the beginnings?

In FPL, you can pretty much do anything you want, you can do random stuff to just have fun, I guess, but when I joined mouz, I had to adapt to a new playstyle and play with the team, not play for myself. I'm getting used to that now, but it's not as easy as it is in FPL, because I have to focus on teamplay a lot.

What were the toughest challenges, was communication a problem? How much more comfortable have you got since then?

Yeah, the communication, but also knowing your teammates. At first I wasn't really comfortable because I didn't really know them that much, I didn't know much about how they play. As time went on, I just got used to it much more, and I'm feeling a bit better now.

Going back to those accusations, how pressured did you feel to show up at your first LAN and do well due to that?

I just said to myself that I don't really care how this goes, if I play bad, I don't care, it's normal, everyone has been through this. In FPL, there were some points I didn't even want to play because of the accusations, so it was really bad.

Now that you've played your first two matches, are you content with how you've played so far?

I guess I played pretty average, I didn't play as well as I have before, but I guess it's good enough for my first time. I'll get better as time goes on.

What kind of goals have you set for yourself, personally, and what goals has the team set for themselves?

I mean, we definitely want to be in the finals, if not win it, but looking into the future we definitely want to get into the playoffs of a Major. I personally want my own stickers, so getting into a Major is like a must. That's like the biggest thing for me.

To close things out, who would you like to meet in the semis between EnVyUs, G2, and Tricked?

Preferably not G2, because they already beat us in EPL, but I think we will face them. I think EnVyUs would be a good match-up, so I would hope for that.

Do you have any final message?

There have been some people who, out of all the accusations, have been supporting me, so thank you for those. There were also people in FPL who helped me out, so a thank you for them as well.