siuhy: "We're trying a little bit of a different style"

The Polish captain reflected on MOUZ's mixed results of late after they made the playoffs in Rio.

MOUZ captain Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek is hopeful that the qualification for the IEM Rio playoffs can be the start of "something big" after his team decided to change "a lot of stuff," including the way it approaches the game.

The international team traveled to Rio hoping to bounce back from a woeful group-stage exit in ESL Pro League 20. They didn't get off to the best of starts in Brazil, narrowly beating paiN and then losing to FURIA, but still made it through the group stage following close wins over Complexity and FaZe.

Wednesday's victory finally snapped a losing streak against Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's troops that went as far back as IEM Sydney 2023. "I guess no one beats MOUZ eight times in a row, right?" siuhy told HLTV after the match, laughing.

The Polish captain explained that the team has been working hard to avoid going stale. That means going for a different approach, one that is "more focused on team effort" than individual plays. "So far with this tournament and especially winning against FaZe now, it feels good and it seems to be working," siuhy said.

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2024
11/10/2024	Vitality 20:15 MOUZ	Match

MOUZ will have only one day to prepare for the upcoming quarter-final clash with Vitality. After playing in front of a small crowd in Rio during the Challengers Stage of the 2022 Major, siuhy thinks this will be a completely different experience. "I'm very curious to see what it is going to feel like," he said.

If you cannot see the SoundCloud embed above, you can listen to the interview here.

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Congratulations, you've broken the curse over FaZe. 0-7 coming into this game and finally you've managed to take them down. Can you tell me about that?

Was it 0-7?

I believe so, yeah.

Okay, then I guess no one beats MOUZ eight times in a row, right? No, it feels amazing to win finally. We've been struggling the last couple of weeks and months, and we are on the right path to regain that confidence and that MOUZ Counter-Strike that we were looking for. I'm really happy about the win.

The last time you played them was in Chengdu. You've had a bit of a down period recently, they've had a bit of a down period, can you tell me about some of the differences you felt on the server this time around?

I'm not sure about the differences on the server. I know we as a team progressed a lot, especially me. I've been working behind the scenes with my sports psychologist and my coach, trying to make me a better leader in the team, so I'm focusing on a lot of things right now. The approach that we have in-game is a little bit different, at least we're trying out new stuff, so this is a good start to something big.

Can you tell me more about what you're doing to make yourself a better leader with these conversations?

There is a lot to get into, or a lot that a leader needs to learn. I'm still very young and I still need to experience a lot. My coach, the sports psychologist, and my team are helping me out with a lot of stuff right now. Not to go into detail with a lot of stuff, but a lot of basics, but also advanced stuff in terms of making me a better teammate to my teams on and off the server.

When I was talking to torzsi on the first day, he mentioned that you guys had changed some stuff, your coaches were trying to take more control, and you had brought a lot of stuff and were changing the way MOUZ play a little bit. Can you expand on that?

Yeah, we almost changed the whole playbook not long ago. We needed to start fresh, it's a new process for us, we're taking it step by step and the playbook was one of them. We changed some things outside of the server, we changed a lot of stuff, and we're trying a little bit of a different style. For now, it's going really well and practice has been going really well, and so far with this tournament and especially winning against FaZe now, it feels good and it seems to be working.

There was some yelling going back and forth throughout this series. After map two karrigan got up and said, 'That's the MOUZ we know' after you lost in OT, did you hear those comments, or does it ever get in your head? Tell me about the dynamic of playing them so many times and that rivalry.

We know that they feel comfortable playing against us, so we knew coming into this game that we needed to be very passionate about the win. For us it was just a process of being a little bit better than yesterday, which we were. Coming into this game we knew that there was going to be a lot of energy in the sky because we hadn't won against them yet and they'd been winning against us. A little bit of mixed energy.

They were trying to hype each other up, maybe after winning against a team seven times in a row you're going to start getting bored of it, so I'm sure they tried to stay hyped and stay focused on the game. karrigan obviously shouted after the second map, I believe, and it's understandable, he's very passionate and we were also shouting. I told the guys after the second map that the third map is going to be about passion and to show the will to win, and that's what we did and we came out on top.

I did want to ask about xertioN, he changed his CT role on Dust2 to Long, and in general it seems like he is not going for quite as many openers. We noticed he's going a little bit more into the late rounds, and comparing the stats between here and EPL, he's alive more into the late round, doing more clutching or in those positions. Is that a change more on his end, or is that a part of the philosophy change?

It's a little bit of both. We as a team, and especially the coach, are always trying to see how he can get the best out of all players. We cannot just focus on one player, focusing only on the entries, we cannot rely only on that. We need to rely on the whole team and if one person gets into one position, how can the second or third person bounce off of that info and that positioning? That is what we are focused on right now. His playstyle may have changed a little bit, our Counter-Strike or our style is maybe more focused on the team effort right now, but when the individuals shine it's also amazing to see.

Going into the playoffs, you haven't played in front of an arena crowd here. You personally did play in the Challengers Stage of Rio 2022 but it wasn't a full stadium crowd, and then you weren't here in 2023. Tell me about going into that.

Last time I was here, I was playing in Challengers. Apparently it was a small crowd, but when we played against 9z I remember it was still crazy to see how much noise a small amount of people can make. It was crazy to see there. Now that I think about that crowd and compare it to a much bigger arena and many more people, I'm very curious to see what it is going to feel like. I really like playing under adrenaline and that's what the crowd gives me, so I'm going to enjoy every bit of it.

And touching on the Vitality matchup and potential rematch vs. FURIA?

The last time we played Vitality was maybe Pro League [Editor's note: It was IEM Cologne 2024] and they are always a tough opponent to play. They play very loose Counter-Strike a little bit different to others. It's again going to be a bit of a process for us to play a little better than yesterday. We're going to go do our homework, prepare as best as we can, and make sure we're ready for the game. WIth FURIA, playing on stage against these guys is going to be an experience and a half, so I'm also excited for that, but also we're going to need to prepare for it, for sure.