torzsi: "Taking a break before the tournament wasn't smart"

MOUZ's Hungarian AWPer was matter of fact about the team's lack of preparation ahead of IEM Dallas.

MOUZ's streak of group stage success has come to an end. With a 9-12th placed finish at IEM Dallas, Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás and company will miss playoffs for the first time since December 1 2023 at Elisa Masters.

In that time the squad rose to No. 1 in the world rankings and won successive studio LANs at ESL Pro League and BB Dacha Belgrade.

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IEM Dallas was set to be their final event of the season, but across the pond they struggled, losing to 9z in their opener before being eliminated by a Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen-less G2.

torzsi spoke to HLTV after elimination, and was frank about not having time to practice for Dallas, and how "proud" he is of MOUZ's uptick this season.

Date	Matches
IEM Dallas 2024
27/05/2024	MOUZ Finished 9:13 9z	Match
28/05/2024	Complexity Finished 1:2 MOUZ	Match
29/05/2024	G2 Finished 2:1 MOUZ	Match

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First of all torzsi, I just want to say commiserations on the loss. I don't think is a result that anyone really expected from MOUZ coming into this event. Let's just start with the G2 game first; what do you think went wrong in this series?

Yeah, thank you first of all. This tournament didn't really go how we wanted. Versus G2 I felt like, on the first map we didn't really show up and we made a lot of mistakes on Inferno. Obviously, I think they played really good, I think Inferno is one of their best maps, they're like 11-1 on it right now. They played amazing even though they had a stand-in, so props to them.

I think on the second and third map if I'll be honest I think we were under control. I think we played good, even on Ancient I think we played good, we had really good situations, we just lose the clutches. I lost a 1-on-1, Stewie had this 4k or 3k on B site. They won all the close rounds and we were just not calm enough and not collected enough to win the end rounds, and this will cost you the game. But, I feel like we were under control to be honest.

How about the loss to 9z at the start of the tournament? That also caught a lot of people off-guard. Was that an unfortunate BO1 or was there something specific about that matchup that caused problems?

No, I think they deserved to win that game. We took a break after the two tournaments we had, and we had a slow start to be honest because we didn't practice. Thinking back now, it would have been smarter to practice than not, obviously. But we were really, after the two tournaments, we were like, we need some time off, and we decided to go with that, but it's good that we learned from it.

We were just really sloppy in the first game, and also they played good. I don't think there's anything special to that game, it's just us being sloppy and not too much prepared, not as a team, but individually.

So as far as Dust2 and the new Vertigo go, you played a little bit of the former at BetBoom, but did you guys get really any practice in on these before the event?

No. It dropped out on Saturday, so I think the only teams that could practice were the NA teams, maybe they could have practiced on Vertigo. But no, we didn't practice the new Vertigo at all. Dust2 as well, our map pool looked a little bit shaky because two maps changed, and it was not in the best shape for this tournament, and we could see it in the result.

Do you think coming into this event with the two trophies under your belt added extra pressure for you guys here?

No, I don't think that was an issue at all to be honest, we didn't think about it. We were really happy with the two trophies. We wanted to go for the third one, yes. We all wanted to win and we were hungry for one more. We are really proud of what we achieved this season, making all the tournament playoffs, winning two trophies.

This tournament it didn't go our way, I think one tournament out of the season can happen, and it's okay, we will learn from it. As I said, taking a break off before the tournament was not smart even if it's needed, maybe just get one or two days prac. I think it's good in the long-run, we are learning from it. I'm just proud of this season, to be honest.

Have you guys given any thought to how you're going to approach the off-season? Surely you're going to get some rest, but how are you looking at the second half of the season?

Now is just a break for us, and then we will prepare for the World Cup in Riyadh, and then obviously Cologne and we will practice before the player break ends. We have the player break earlier than the other teams, so we will start early. So yeah, probably bootcamp, travel to the first tournament, and go like that.