Brollan: "It was really nice that we could win a T side for once"

MOUZ are enjoying a day without a match before they're set to compete in the semi-finals against a team to be decided in BLAST Bounty's next draft.

Another tournament, another top-four finish secured for the ever-consistent MOUZ at BLAST Bounty Season 2, as they recover quickly from the disappointment of their second-place finish at IEM Cologne to cruise into the semi-finals of BLAST Bounty Season 2.

For MOUZ, one of the main positives to come out of their quarter-final win over Astralis was the success of their offensive efforts, something that has often eluded them in recent months.

"We just need to talk more about how to approach things and how to react more on the map," Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin said of how MOUZ can improve their lacklustre T sides. "It will come, but we need some time, and it was really nice that we could win a T side for once, especially on Nuke."

In this interview with HLTV, Brollan also spoke about the BLAST Bounty format, Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's recent comments after MOUZ's win over Vitality in the IEM Cologne semi-finals, and more.

Listen to the interview here.

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You went 2-0 against Astralis, a good result. Let's talk about Nuke. It was pretty tight up to 8-8. Astralis was on the CT side, but you played a very clean T side, which doesn't always happen. What was working there?

Especially on Nuke, on the T side, it's very difficult if the CTs are destroying your defaults. Of course we basically knew how they were playing, but it's just a lot of time outside of the plays that we're talking about how to fix, and especially the T side, as you mentioned.

We've been struggling a lot on it, and we had been really good on it in the middle of last season, but yeah, we just need to talk more about how to approach things and how to react more on the map. It will come, but we need some time, and it was really nice that we could win a T side for once, especially on Nuke.

This is a particular event because you don't know what's going to happen. There's another set of games tomorrow, then the draw, so how do you face that? What do you do now? You go back and stay sharp doing individual practice, do you go to the beach a bit and wait to see what happens?

We don't know who we're playing yet, but we can look at what vetos can maybe happen against some teams, but yeah, it's mostly focusing on ourselves and trying to improve things. We have a day off now, which we usually don't have in tournaments, but we always have to try to have our foot on the gas and do as much as we can.

Maybe we'll have a practice day, but yeah. We don't have that much practice because we've been traveling a lot, we came straight from Hamburg to here, and we've been away (from home) for almost 25 days now, so it's not a lot of practice, but we try to do it as much as we can to try and improve our playbook. Of course, we can enjoy and go to the beach here in Malta, but we need to mix it up a bit, enjoyment and work.

It's been a while since MOUZ has been the studio team, but it does seem like a MOUZcore event. Malta kings, studio kings, even if you've gone past that now... Are you confident and comfortable and feeling good here?

Yeah, of course, we're always comfortable. It's mixed feelings to come back to Malta, we've been here many times, especially for ESL Pro League, so it's another event in Malta. It's a studio LAN with some crowd, not many, but there's some, but yeah, we're always confident to win a tournament as we can.

Are there any wishes for the next round, and match-ups you would hope for?

I don't really know how it works, to be honest, who is able to pick, but I feel like there's only good teams left. I would say that Vitality are the number one and favorite to win. Spirit, we don't really know how they'll play because of the rumors and these things, but they'll of course be there. But yeah, we'll play them in the end if we make it to the final.

How did you feel getting picked by Astralis? A good outcome in yesterday's draft?

I think they're looking better than before, especially after importing HooXi, and I think they've been playing better. I thought maybe VP would pick us, but they chose to pick Spirit. There were some scenarios where we felt like they would maybe pick Spirit, so yeah. Either we were going to play Astralis or VP, but we thought we'd play VP more than Astralis.

Did you have a preference?

I would say that not really. They have a pretty different style, they're not the same at all, and we, of course, we will play VP now in the EWC, so I don't know. I don't care. Maybe it would be boring to play a team twice in a row.

After you beat Vitality, apEX said that you weren't that sharp, that you had been sharper in previous games against them, and he said that if you didn't turn it around, you wouldn't beat Spirit. Do you think he was correct?

No, I mean, I think apEX is just talking, if I say so. I don't really know how he feels about how we're playing, basically. I don't know if we were sharp or not sharp, I felt like maybe we were a little bit off, and we wanted revenge for the semi-final against Vitality, and we just basically gave it our all.

There were just some scenarios where we beat Vitality in the semis, and we were really hyped up, it was hard to sleep and these things. We woke up the next day and tried to give everything. We wanted to win the trophy, and Spirit was just more ready than we were. They shoot very, very hard, and we didn't play as we usually do, as well, so it was pretty hard to go into the final with that much energy. But, of course, we wanted to win. It was our only goal to be there, but going into the final was pretty hard.

But you don't agree with what he was saying, that you were maybe not as sharp as in the past? Because he said you were punishing a lot of their mistakes, but it was a lot on their mistakes, you know?

I don't really know. It was a long time ago, I feel like. I felt like we can be better, we can always be better, but we can easily say that we wanted it more, and it showed in the results, as well.