xertioN on Spinx: "For us the decision was right all along, it's not about the result"

xertioN is confident about MOUZ moving forwards with Spinx after a trophy-winning run at PGL Cluj-Napoca.

MOUZ made a bold decision mere weeks into the season, dropping Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek, the IGL many of the roster had grown up with on the organization's academy squad, in favour of Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi.

It seemed a bizarre call to make on paper, but in their first tournament featuring the new constellation MOUZ have silenced the haters by making a run all the way to the trophy, and doing so on stage no less, an environment where the team previously struggled.

"It could be a honeymoon, it could not be, time will tell," says Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman, reflecting on his team's Cluj-Napoca campaign. "Right now we're all super happy and confident about our future."

Fresh from his highly impactful grand finals performance, xertioN sat down with HLTV to talk about his feelings about MOUZ's run in Romania and his thoughts on the recent roster change.

Listen to the interview here.

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You've just lifted a trophy after quite a while without one. How do you feel holding the trophy?

It feels amazing. We have not won a tournament in a long time now, I think it's almost about a year, and we have been close many times. It's the first time we did it on stage, and as much as it's maybe not the biggest capacity in terms of people, I think the support and cheering was amazing for both teams. I really liked how they were cheering for NiKo, he is obviously a legend in our scene, and they had their moments. I am just really happy currently and super excited for the future with this team.

Like you said, it's been quite a while, 10 months I think since your last trophy at ESL Pro League. Yesterday you told me it's nice to be in a final, and I guess it feels even better to lift the trophy?

We had no doubt today that we were coming in to win it. Before this tournament we didn't really know what to expect, but today we said we were going to win it no matter what, and we did it. I think we showed up really well.

Mirage was really tough, I think on T side I ran into their shot Mid a lot, I think we maybe didn't have the best game plan and they did. I didn't really take my duels well there, so I think that Mirage was on me. Overall on the rest of the three maps, I think we played super well.

You played Falcons in the group stage and lost there. You got revenge today, so did maybe the stage make the difference?

I mean it could be, I'm not sure. I think we were just really fired up to play, and I'm sure they were as well. For me it's always a pleasure to play against NiKo, I really like to play against him as he challenges me a lot, so I'm just really happy that I came out on top this time.

Overall I think as a team we played really well, we showed on stage that we are able to have mental resilience that we didn't have in the past, so I'm just super proud of our performance and looking forward to the future.

It's your first event with the full roster and first title, so does that make you feel that you made the right decision with the roster change?

For us the decision was right all along, it's not about the result. I think that the result doesn't change much for us in that way. Of course it's nice to win to prove a lot of haters wrong, to prove maybe to ourselves a bit that we did make the right decision in some way. It's still early, but nonetheless I am really happy to have Spinx by our side, I think he's an amazing player, and everything is going well right now, so I'm just happy.

Are you maybe worried that this is a honeymoon phase?

It could always be, I think every team has that moment but we have a really good foundation in this team. We have the best staff in the world in my opinion, I think sycrone is super underrated, obviously having Xyp9x by our side, a four time Major champ, is a big thing. I think also our sports psychologist is always doing the right things for us, he taught me a lot about mental, because when I joined tier-one I was not such a smart guy maybe in terms of mental. He taught me a lot, so I'm really grateful for that.

For me, it could be a honeymoon, it could not be, time will tell. Right now we're all super happy and confident about our future, and for now we will take it step by step and see how we do in the next tournaments.

Many top teams skipped this event, which I guess you are happy about considering that you lifted the trophy, but do you think this will give you confidence to go into the rest of the season, and the Major at the end?

Of course the top, top teams maybe didn't play this tournament, but I think there were still a lot of good teams here who showed a lot of character. I think it's tough to underestimate anyone in the current meta of CS, everyone is able to win tournaments and trophies. I'm just really happy we did it, of course we didn't play against the top dogs yet, but for me it's a big step forward right now, and we're just going to enjoy the moment.