xertioN: "I don't care if we're No. 2, 3 or 4"

xertioN talks NAVI comebacks, getting off to a strong start in the new season and the goal to finally challenge Vitality for trophies.

MOUZ have kicked off the season with a run straight to the IEM Cologne playoffs, beating Liquid and Natus Vincere on the way to the winners' match against Spirit in Group B.

If they were rusty following their return from the break, it was not apparent outside of slow starts into both first halves against NAVI.

Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman spoke to HLTV following the team's qualification for the LANXESS Arena, admitting NAVI surprised MOUZ with their new addition, Drin "⁠makazze⁠" Shaqiri.

"They caught us off-guard, especially on the Mirage T side. They brought a lot of fire and momentum we didn't expect from the beginning, so we had to claw back twice," the Israeli said.

"They changed quite a lot, actually. makazze is a good raw individual, and I think they're using him a bit aggressively. It's very different from jL in their lineup before, and we can see they changed some positions."

The Israeli went on to talk about taking the fight to Vitality this season, and the rest of the scene changing around the top two teams of the first half of the year.

Congratulations, you're straight through to the playoffs at IEM Cologne. Two maps against NAVI, but both tough ones, I would imagine. Tell me about it and how it was from your side - second halves you had to pull off some comebacks.

I think we've been pretty good this year already at comebacks. I think they caught us off-guard, especially on the Mirage T side they played, I think they played really well. They brought a lot of fire and momentum we didn't expect from the beginning, so we had to claw back twice. I'm happy we did, but they really put up a fight for us today.

Was it difficult to prep for them? Obviously, they come into this tournament with a new lineup, a new setup with some changes.

Yeah, that's one of the pros you have as a new team with a new player. I think they changed quite a lot, actually. That guy, makazze, I think he's a good raw individual, so I think they're using him a bit aggressively.

I think it's very different from jL in their lineup before, and also Nuke we can see they changed some positions. Obviously they will play a bit different, and, yeah, it was hard to expect how they were playing.

The first tournament of the season is never easy, especially when it's a big one like IEM Cologne. How did you approach this preparation heading into this tournament?

At the bootcamp, at the beginning we were trolling a bit, whiffing a lot and the communication was terrible after the player break. But towards the end of the bootcamp we regained our form, and I think that we improved in a lot of our ways in terms of communication especially.

We came really prepared for this tournament. We knew that we're still one of the top teams, of course, and I'm happy we proved it once again.

I think we'll have a really good challenge tomorrow to see what our level is for the playoffs in the moment. It will be the best test we've had so far, no matter if it's gonna be Aurora or Spirit, in my opinion. We feel ready, we feel confident, and I'm happy we are qualified for the playoffs once again.

Heading into this off-season, obviously most of the teams changed around you, but you and Vitality remained as one of the few that didn't. Do you see that as an advantage heading into the new season, having all this work behind and a head start going into Cologne?

Of course, I think it is an advantage. We were also decently close to beating Vitality in some matchups we had last season. We know that they're gonna keep improving, we need to improve even more because they're obviously better than us at the moment. Not starting from the bottom like we did last season with Lotan, it's really nice because the last season we came with a new player, we had to change the system up a lot.

Coming into this season we don't need to do that, and now we can work a lot more on our communication and mini details in the game that I think we lack compared to Vitality. We're just working on things round by round and thing by thing, and hopefully there will be enough power for us to beat Vitality at least once this season.

What about the rest of the teams, though? Falcons is a big one that everyone's looking at and take the next step, you just played NAVI, Spirit is another one that tried to upgrade in the new season. Do you feel like it's gonna come as a bigger challenge for that second spot behind Vitality and for trophies?

Yeah, of course. We also thought that before when m0NESY joined Falcons suddenly in the middle of the season, but I think you never know what they will show.

I think Falcons need time with kyousuke. I think he's an incredible talent, you can already see it, also in practice he was shooting really well. They need some time, but I'm always going to be a bit worried about these teams. They can always bring really, really good games to the table. Falcons maybe gave Vitality the biggest fight in the games between them.

We're never gonna underestimate anyone - I don't care if we're No. 2, 3 or 4 in people's opinion. The most important thing is to be No. 1. We're a bit far from it right now and we just have to keep working.