frozen: "I would have considered Vitality if FaZe's offer wasn't on the table"

The Slovakian lurker touched on offers, becoming more selfish in MOUZ, and the appeal of the FaZe organization.

David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský was the latest guest on HLTV Confirmed, taking us through his journey from the Czech-Slovak scene into a near five-year stint MOUZ before departing for FaZe in December 2023.

"I've been pretty loyal to teams, even in the Czechoslovakian teams. I swapped orgs but rarely players," he said when asked about having such a long stint in MOUZ.

'The hardest part [after karrigan and ropz both departed MOUZ] was to accept that this was the team I'm going with. It was hard to lower the standards. We were close to No. 1, so it felt like a step back."

But as MOUZ entered a transition period, the opportunity arose for frozen to take over from Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool as the star man, both in roles and in attitude. "Consistency was something I was struggling with before. But they gave me a lot of space. It was required for me to be the star, to be selfish, that was something I had to learn over time."

The gang also touched on the early struggles when the team became mostly NXT graduates, which culminated in bombing out of IEM Dallas 2022 in the group stage. "This was when I was told to be more selfish, to be more of a star player. Back when I had karrigan as an IGL, I was the entry, I was following Finn, there was no place to be selfish."

Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong remained as the side's in-game leader for playoff runs at Cologne later that year, but was eventually replaced by Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek to restore the in-game leader-coach duo of the MOUZ NXT days.

"siuhy and sycrone, coming from NXT, prepared all these game plans with what rounds we can start with. dexter was more of a feeling guy, coming up with the solution on the spot. That was the biggest difference."

On Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen himself, frozen praised him as a true all-rounder. "One unique thing is that he was playing the most recently out of all the coaches, he is really in the meta as a coach. He used to be a school teacher in Denmark, where they teach CS, he has the know-how to talk to people, especially with the academy players."

The Danish coach also earned a reputation for some brutal roster changes, such as removing Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt after just 25 maps. "Some of the moves looked weird from the outside but we were always looking for that extra 5-10%. I'm not going to say that some of them were made the right way, but sycrone was always looking for improvement."

After siuhy's arrival, a breakthrough was made as MOUZ won ESL Pro League Season 18 in Malta — but with a CS2-fuelled rostermania ahead, offers started to come frozen's way.

"I got the first message [from FaZe] before Sydney, not crazy big talks, just a little update. I was always good friends with karrigan, talking life, talking CS, so in a way I was always informed."

But with Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif out of Vitality, there was also an option to link up with Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut that the Slovakian did not explore. "Vitality was something I would have considered if FaZe offer wasn't on the table. It was either FaZe or staying with MOUZ."

He expanded, "when I was 15 I remember saying it would be a dream for me to play in MOUZ and FaZe. In a way it was a dream come true to join the organization. [Playing with karrigan and ropz again] played a part as well, definitely. But the other guys too, rain and broky, NEO as coach, RobbaN being around, these are people I've looked up to in my life so it adds an extra layer of confidence to my tool box. There were many reasons I went to FaZe."

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, a "more demanding IGL" than others frozen has played with, knew he was signing a different frozen than the teenager he had nurtured in MOUZ in 2019, and that came with a discussion around roles.

Some, frozen would have to give up, like on Nuke: "Yard was one of the spots I wanted to keep, but slightly before I joined I spoke with Finn and we ended up agreeing rain should keep it. Even me, when I was the Outside player, I was watching rain demos. He's one of the best, if not the best, players in the world there."

But frozen was allowed much of his other preferences, like Toilets on Overpass, B on Inferno, and the swap he is "most grateful for", returning to B Short on Mirage after playing A in MOUZ.

"I had to demand more in my positions over time," frozen continued. "Everything I learned in MOUZ I tried to transfer to FaZe, I try to demand a lot here as well. In that sense, I changed personally. When I was 16 in MOUZ you could not call me a star player, I wasn't demanding."

Playing with ropz again also meant giving up the heavy lurk roles but this was not an issue for frozen, who said that if he could choose again he would have chosen his current second lurker roles in FaZe over the heavy lurking ones he picked in MOUZ when given a carte blanche at the start of 2022.

So far, in FaZe, frozen has made consecutive finals but fallen short in both, first to ZywOo and Vitality at the BLAST World Final in Abu Dhabi and then to Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets and Spirit in Katowice.

frozen was full of praise for the youngster's rapid ascent: "Everyone tried to downplay [donk] before Katowice. He proved everyone wrong. I don't think he's outsmarting anyone, he's just really very very sharp. We triple-peeked him on Overpass and he killed us all, Maybe we should have brought four people."

Attention now turns to the PGL Major in Copenhagen, where FaZe enter as the number one team in the world after making five successive grand finals. frozen will join his teammates at bootcamp — the first time they have had time to sit down and practice since he joined —, with a little over two weeks to go before the Elimination stage of the Major kicks off.

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You can watch the whole HLTV Confirmed episode with frozen on YouTube, or listen in audio form via popular podcast apps.