motm: "In Marsborne the young guys run the team"

Ian "motm" Hardy took the time to speak with our very own Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore about his team's performance at FRAG x Block 2025 following their crushing defeat to BLUEJAYS in the final. The North American veteran spoke candidly of the team's downfall and how they will try and improve going forward especially with the BLAST.tv Austin Major NA MRQ right around the corner.

Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

The official IGL of this squad is WolfY. I think you were probably the most-experienced person on that stage. You have a career dating back to 2017 or 2016 with teams like Cloud9 and ATK. You've seen a lot in your long career, but you also have young guys on your team, especially Minus and Grizz. Do you try to be a leader of men alongside WolfY? Do you think you're making the best use of your experience and trying to bring it to the new guys?

In Marsborne, the young guys run the team. What I mean by that is the young guys are set up to succeed. I think a lot of teams make an error in which they put their experienced players in positions where the inexperienced players would thrive. I try my absolute best to show up every day and do my best in my position, and that's to make players like Minus and Grizz shine. I have to be mentally strong, I have to be a strong player. My goal as a player is to always be solid and to not have my teammates worry about me.

How do you think the youngest player on the team, Minus, did? It's his first LAN outing, his first big team. It's a lot of firsts for a guy who's only recently come back into playing, especially with him having changed his primary role from AWPer to rifler.

I'm very proud of Minus, I think he started the LAN very anxious. When I was young and went to my first LAN I was the same way. I completely understand his emotion. To not be too cliche, Minus got better every game. You saw in the final he clutched multiple rounds. His aim was getting crisper as he went, as he got more comfortable with the environment, he flowed with the team better. As the team crumbled in the last three maps, he crumbled, too. We crumbled as a squad. Overall, I think he should be very happy with himself because I'm very happy with him.

Heading out of this LAN, I'm sure you've learned a lot, you've done a lot, especially the new guys have seen a lot. What are the next priorities for the team to keep improving?

The priorities for the team to keep improving is definitely: handle our emotions, expand our knowledge on the last three maps that we played today - Train, Dust2, and Nuke - and believe in each other more.

Marsborne will be looking to finish the ECL regular season strong in the coming weeks. They currently sit at 10-8 and are fifth in the league table.