sycrone: Jimi is very consistent but lacks explosiveness; PR is more aggressive.

In the early hours of this morning, MOUZ beat Spirit 2-1 once again in the EPL S24 semifinal to reach the final. After the match, head coach sycrone spoke to the media about the series and the upcoming final against Vitality.

Q: Congratulations. That decider was an incredible game. How did it feel in the moment?

sycrone: I feel like this event has finally tested us—mentally, tactically, and as a team. So far, we’ve played well. I’m really happy that the third map ended the way it did. I think everyone has seen MOUZ collapse in moments like that 20 times before, but this time we won and made the final. Now we have to make sure it doesn’t all go to waste.

Q: Tell me about what was different. What you just mentioned is basically what the commentators were saying too—we've seen MOUZ lose this kind of match many times. What was the difference? Was it the timeouts, the new players? What brought about the change?

sycrone: For me, one of the most important things was that xertioN called a really, really good game. Sometimes tactically, you can get to a certain position off a good setup, but the round still doesn't convert. He stayed calm throughout, though, and as soon as the round started, he kept calling with simple instructions. Honestly, I think he pushed us forward a lot.

Spinx played very bravely as well. You could see how often he looked to contest ramp. PR also put in a masterclass. There were a lot of different factors, but especially when the score was close, it came down to xertioN's leadership, Spinx being willing to make plays instead of staying passive, and PR having a great game.

Q: Talk to me about all those defuses, because as the in-game leader, when you get into those post-plant situations, you’re doing your job, right? The key is staying mentally composed, because you made the right call and got the bomb down. How proud are you to see xertioN hold his ground?

sycrone: I'm very proud. We practiced a lot online. I also used a basketball analogy. Sometimes you have a great view of the situation, but you still miss an open three-pointer, right? Then you come back and run it again. It was similar here, so he kept calling things from the playbook based on what we thought Spirit had seen, making small adjustments. It was a really good T side, and I was very impressed with how Dori handled it.

Q: Yeah. donk had another quiet game. I think I saw that he has had seven maps below a 1.00 rating this year, and that basically never happens against anyone else. So in terms of your game plan and the team’s style, what do you think made that happen?

sycrone: One thing we've always tried to do is look at their strengths and weaknesses, right? If one of their strengths is donk, and another is their strong, well-timed default map control, then we need to take some of that away from them. So we tried to squeeze the space. We tried to make him less comfortable. We hit the timings he usually likes to play, and that forces them into an uncomfortable game, right? At the same time, you want to look at what our strengths are. It's a very delicate balance, but I think we handled it well in this matchup too.

Q: I want to compare PR and Jimpphat, because I think there’s a big difference between them as anchor/lurker players. PR feels more like an X-factor—he has a lot of explosiveness. How does having that more aggressive piece affect the rest of the team differently?

sycrone: I think you put it well. PR is more aggressive. He can create opportunities and make small plays happen around him. Jimi is less explosive, including in communication. I think Jimi was incredibly stable and reliable for us, especially over the first year and a half, and his numbers were always good.

With PR, maybe you sometimes get both ends of the spectrum, right? But he’s also very young, so he can develop into a very consistent player. That’s the difference: he creates more opportunities and plays more aggressively, but there will be lows as well as highs.

Q: Yeah. Alright. Next up is Vitality. This final is a familiar matchup. With this new lineup, will you approach it differently to avoid that classic 2025-style ending?

sycrone: We're in a very different place now. Tomorrow is a completely new matchup. Finally, we can field our full lineup, so we'll see how it goes.

Q: Alright. Let’s talk about the performance as well. Did you expect the team to gel with those two young players this quickly? Especially after xelex joined, since it was a new role for him and all. It feels like the adjustment has been faster than people on the outside might have expected.

sycrone: We've always had a strong system. torzsi, Spinx, and xertioN bring so much to the team, even things you can't see on the server, right? A lot of it is in the culture, in the way we work and operate. It's also in the communication and the energy. Of course, we would've ended up in a decent spot, but I think with the two young guys, it was kind of an opportunity—what could happen? Maybe we were also at a point where we needed to take a bit of a risk to try to move forward.

We talked about it early on, and I told the two young guys that I gave xertioN, torzsi, and others maybe two or three years to reach this point. Some took five years. I don’t think xelex and PR will have that much time. So, on the one hand, the three core players and I need to lower our expectations for a while, support them, and keep them under our wing. At the same time, the two young guys have to get up to speed quickly. I like to give people patience and trust and allow them to fail, but this time it needs to work out better and faster than before.