mopoz on ENCE match: "We are going to face an all-time friend"

The Spanish squad has qualified for the ESL Pro League S18 final eight after a win against 9z.

Movistar Riders came into Group A of EPL with uncertain expectations, but the Spanish squad made light work of their group-stage opponents. 2-0 victories against FURIA and GamerLegion secured them a playoff spot before a loss to Vitality meant they entered the playoffs in round two.

That loss lit a fire under the Movistar Riders team, according to Alejandro "⁠mopoz⁠" Fernández-Quejo Cano, and helped the Spaniards win a high-stakes match against 9z to qualify for the quarter-final. Their opponents in the next stage will be ENCE, who are represented by their ex-teammate Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García.

After their victory against 9z, mopoz sat down for a quick chat with HLTV to discuss their EPL campaign, their preparation for the ENCE match, and the upcoming release of CS2.

Congratulations on your victory, you made the top eight at EPL. What are your feelings about your achievement?

The feeling that we have is really good. We are energetic and we are just super excited about facing ENCE right now. Reaching the quarter-final in Pro League is something that we did only for the second time. But right now, we are going to face an all-time friend, so we are feeling really good about it.

Talk me through the series. All maps were pretty close, but you had three very good T-sides. Was that down to preparation?

We just did the preparation that we always do. We spent one hour just talking about how we were going to play. We don't usually focus on what they are going to do, but it was a really good series. 9z is a team that surprised us a lot. They also have a really good T-side and it was really difficult to close the maps or just do something against them.

Your last match here in Malta was more than 20 days ago. Do you think you had a bit of trouble getting back into the rhythm of playing on LAN?

I don't think that we just had any issue to get the rhythm. We faced Vitality 20 days ago, who are the strongest team that we can face. I think that it's super fortunate for us because at the last Pro League, we faced G2 in the first playoff match, and we just lost without having any chance to win. That's the same feeling that we had playing against Vitality.

It's like when you are sleepy and things are not working, you just need someone to slap you, and Vitality did it. That's why we are coming here to the playoffs with even more preparation and feeling confident for the next match.

I heard quite a bit of shouting between the teams. Is this a special match for you because you speak the same language?

We can call it a derby. For us, the main derby is against SAW, but just coming here and playing against them, because as you said, they speak Spanish as well, it is something that is special for us. We always want to show the world that we want to win against those kinds of teams. But they are a team that are really good.

You are a lot more experienced than 9z, especially at events like this. And I feel like you had the edge in mid-round situations. Do you think your experience helped you in this series?

Talking about the experience, it will be for our coach, Alex, and me. JUST is an experienced player as well, but for example, adamS and Martinez are not. So for us, I don't think that experience is something that helps us a lot because, from my point of view, we are close with 9z in terms of that. But maybe we can calm down to the others, and help them to be more active inside the game. I don't think that it's something that helped us in this match especially.

Your next match is against ENCE. How will you prepare for the game?

Tomorrow, on our day off, we are going to just focus on our individual performance. We are going to play some FACEIT, we are going to warm up and play almost every hour. And maybe we are going to spend like one hour, as I said before, just talking about them and watching individual things about them. On Friday morning, we are going to prepare as a team with everything that we saw about them individually. We are going to put it on the table, and we are going to create a game plan against them.

CS2 is probably coming out today, and everyone is talking about it. What are your general feelings about the game?

Almost every player said it's a game that is not ready to go out right now. But I don't really think that Valve gives a fuck about it because CS:GO wasn't ready for the first two years as well, but they just released it anyway.

My expectations about the game are positive. I played it and I think that potentially it's going to be a really good game, but they have to improve the stupid things. The sprays are bad, the movement, and those kinds of things. I think that they are going to fix them in a few months. Maybe it's not that difficult or maybe it is super difficult, I don't know. But I think the potential of the game is huge.