sycrone on bouncing back from EPL final: "It can be difficult to raise yourself after such a defeat"

The MOUZ coach believes that the loss to Vitality will help Brollan become a better IGL.

MOUZ got their BLAST Open Lisbon campaign off to a good start as they beat Falcons 2-0 in their opening group match — a much-needed result after being dismantled by Vitality in the ESL Pro League 21 final a few days earlier.

Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen believes that the 0-3 loss in Stockholm was a valuable lesson for Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin, who is still learning the ropes as an IGL. "The more times he gets that experience, the more he will know what tools he can develop and have ready for such a moment," the MOUZ coach told HLTV after the match.

In the pre-match interview, Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo had admitted that he felt a bit off in Pro League and did not perform to the best of his abilities. He gave a much better account of himself today with a series-high 1.17 rating, and sycrone hopes the Finnish anchor can turn this into a good run of form.

"He is still a guy who relies a lot on talent, and part of his development is about trying to find more consistency," he explained.

If you can't see the embed above, you can listen to the audio recording of this interview on Spotify.

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A 2-0 victory to begin your campaign here at BLAST Open Lisbon. Is this the sort of response you wanted to see from the team after the EPL final?

I  think it can be difficult to raise yourself after such a defeat. I've also got to give it to Vitality. I think they played a great game that day. We're still a few levels behind, it felt like. Something we talked about going into today's game is that Falcons had a few days to look at us and study us. They were definitely going to be prepared and also probably seeking a little bit of vengeance from the last few times we had played them.

And we knew that, even though we had just played a tournament, we could not get complacent.  We need to keep the fire and the energy. It's a new tournament, and I think the moment you get a little bit lazy or think, 'Oh, it's just Falcons again,' or, 'Oh, we've beat them before', that's the moment they capitalize.  I think what we did was just enough for today.

Were you surprised that they picked Train again against you? This was the third time that a team picked Train against you, and you seem to be prepared every time.  Is this becoming sort of a secret weapon, where, even though you're not picking the map, you're very well drilled on it?

 I think that, from Falcons' perspective, it can be difficult to choose what map you want to go for, but usually what we do is we try and be prepared for a little bit of everything. I think Mirage today seemed like a more likely pick from them, to be honest. And I'm happy that Brollan really enjoys Train. The key to winning Train for us has been our T sides in all of the games we've played. I think we still have to iron some things out, especially on the CT side. And now that there's more material on us, we need to also look at some variations of our T sides.

Did you expect Ancient to be this close in the end? Because you had an amazing T side, but then it felt like you lost control of the game in the second half. Or was it also a reflection of the current meta, where everything is so T-sided across the board?

Maybe a bit. I think they also did a good job of surprising us on B and what they did worked for them. For example, they boosted degster and there was one round where it caught Spinx on Long. There's also one round where kyxsan almost sprays down two on B. And sometimes this just turns the tides in the crucial rounds. I think you have a fair point that the game now looks very T-sided.  I didn't expect them to have that much fight in them today. Also because of what I saw on Train and observed on our CT side…

They lost so many 5v3s…

Exactly. They didn't have it in the mid-rounds today. They were a little bit sloppy. On Ancient, to play well on the T side you also need good mid-rounds. I think Falcons are a team you cannot write off. We've played them many times and they always make it a close fight.

I wanted to ask about the EPL final. As you said, it was a one-sided game. You have a new IGL, someone who is still very new to the role. What kind of lessons do you think he learned from that series?

I think there are a lot of lessons from such a series.  One of the big things we spoke about is that, sometimes when you're really hitting a wall, and maybe Jimi is not the most confident, doesn't have many ideas, maybe it's the same with torzsi, maybe it's even the same with Spinx or xertioN, it can be difficult to call. If feels like there are no solutions that are going to win and turn the tide.

 And I think there's a lot of experience in terms of how you can try and be a good ambassador. How you can objectively look at things and try to propel the team forward, especially when things are not really clicking or you feel as if the team right now you're calling for is maybe not as confident in their things. The tone of voice goes down a little bit, and I think the more times he gets that experience, the better he will know what tools he can develop and have ready for such a moment.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
21/03/2025	Spirit 16:15 MOUZ	Match

In a pre-match interview, Jimi said that he felt a bit off during Pro League. Today, he seemed to be performing much better. Would you say that he's starting to get his form back and will we see Jimi at his best, maybe not in this tournament but in the near future?

I think Jimi usually has some ups and downs. I think his consistency is also a lot in the way he works.  He's still a young guy and has to find his way and what professionalism and consistency look like. He's very much an enjoyer of things. He does what he enjoys.  Something he and I often talk about is that maybe he is still a guy who relies a lot on talent, and part of his development is about trying to find more consistency.

I feel that, mentally, he is right now in a good spot, he feels very motivated.  And usually in periods where he is motivated, he's super good. And then maybe in periods where he's not as motivated or things are not as enjoyable, it could be stress or whatever else that is going on, maybe some distractions outside the game, he performs a little bit worse. And I think that to become a true athlete, there are a lot of things you still need to develop. I hope Jimi can find some form during this tournament and he can bring it further with him throughout the season.

You came to Copenhagen straight from Stockholm, so I guess it's fair to say you're using most of what you had prepared for EPL. With that in mind, what sort of goals and expectations have you set for this tournament?

Usually we always try and set a few goals for any tournament. It's something we want to get going a little bit more, specifically the CT sides, I think the ping-pong on CT sides and the flow of the game between players be a bit better across the maps, that we use each other's names a bit more. I think sometimes we make the game more individualistic than we have to. That's part of our focus for this tournament.

That said, also since we're playing similar opponents now as we did last event, like Falcons and Spirit, it's also mentally a challenge to be, like, 'Okay, we need to show that we've made more improvements. We need to show that we are not going to get complacent then.' Mentally on this topic, and especially also the CT sides.