Brollan: "I was pretty nervous going into the tournament"

The Swedish rifler discussed his return to form and MOUZ's path to the playoffs.

MOUZ didn't have an easy start to their year. The hole left by superstar David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský's departure to FaZe was evident, and there is still time needed to integrate Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin into MOUZ's system and his new roles, showcased by the team's somewhat shaky run through the PGL Major Copenhagen Europe RMR closed qualifier.

Their arrival in Poland for IEM Katowice's top-16 stage was a chance to change that conversation, and in that, Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek's side succeeded. A dismal opening map against Cloud9, where Brollan posted a 4-16 K-D and explained to HLTV he wasn't "using [his] brain quickly," gave way to a reverse-sweep in the series and redemption in performance by the Swedish rifler, with MOUZ going on to beat GamerLegion and ENCE to secure a bye to the semi-finals in the Spodek Arena.

Brollan was a key factor in making that run a reality, mustering 1.26+ ratings in all six of the maps that followed his team's opening Overpass loss to Cloud9, and he now sits as the sixth-highest rated player of the tournament heading into the playoffs: One of his best overall performances at a Big Event to date.

Integrating into frozen's roles and carving out a new style for himself has helped in that, but Brollan admits there's still much to learn if he wants to be a proficient lurker in the long-term and fill the gap left by the Slovakian rifler, whom he could play on Saturday as MOUZ await the winner of FaZe vs. G2 in the semi-finals.

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2024
09/02/2024	FaZe 16:15 G2	Match
10/02/2024	MOUZ 16:15 FaZe	Match

You can watch the full interview above or read the transcript below:

I wanted to talk about Katowice first. It's been a very successful group stage for you, you went straight to the semis. Not the easiest games, but in the end you looked pretty convincing. Just tell me about your run and how comfortable you felt throughout it.

We had a really good run. I would say maybe we didn't have the strongest opponents, but we managed to beat them kinda comfortably, like against GamerLegion and ENCE in the end. Obviously the Cloud9 game was pretty tough, the third map was really intense, but we played really consistently for the whole of the group stage. It feels really nice.

You started off the Cloud9 series pretty rough, but on the Ancient decider you had some really big rounds toward the end. Tell me about your individual recovery, not just in that series but in the whole tournament because you've looked pretty on point from that first map on.

I was pretty nervous going into the tournament. I was just playing really bad, I was not using my full potential, maybe not using my brain quickly in the first map. It was basically like a warmup game if I say so, I was starting really cold and from there I went uphill and felt really good, especially against Cloud9 in the end. I had a really good game overall after that.

Tell me about you playing your roles. I saw the interview that MOUZ did with you about it, that they are new positions for you and frozen is a very different player to you. Quite significantly more passive, especially compared to what you were showing in previous teams, so tell me about how you're adapting to that role and maybe putting your own flair on it.

I feel like I'm adapting very well to it. I've been the space-creator guy at least in fnatic and some part of NIP, so it's a new role for me. frozen was very passive, but my position as a lurker feels like it's in the middle right now, I want to be a little more passive but I think many know I'm a really aggressive player sometimes. I try to adapt to it and be more passive in a way.

Now it feels really good, obviously I'll try more to adapt to it. My stats have been good since I joined of course, but I think I can do way better maybe not in the stats part, but just in-game. I need to learn how to get the timings right and these things as a lurker to be annoying. If you play against a really good lurker, it's really annoying to play against him, so I will need to adapt on these things.

I don't know if you've talked about FaZe or G2, one of whom you'll play in the semi-finals. FaZe have been a pretty tough matchup for MOUZ historically, you weren't there for most of that, but would G2 be the preference in that case or how are you looking at it?

I haven't really looked into it yet, but obviously the guys want to play frozen, I think everyone knows that. I think it might be a 60-40 game that's more favored to FaZe, but G2 can make it, they can win versus FaZe so I haven't really been thinking about it too much.

I'd play both teams, but maybe I'd like to play FaZe more because I really look up to karrigan and these things, so it'd be more fun to play them.