torzsi: "There's no special preparation versus donk or sh1ro. We just treat them as any other team"

MOUZ and Spirit arrive at the Major playoffs in quite a contrast of form. While the former were nearly knocked out on Stage Three, the latter reached the playoffs without a scratch.

However, MOUZ have won the two games they played versus Spirit this year, and Ádám "torzsi" Torzsás is confident they can do it again. He's also not impressed with the fact that Danil "donk" Kryshkovets, Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov, and Boris "magixx" Vorobyev are some of the top-rated players of the event.

"[chuckles] I don't think the stats matter too much at the moment. I think it's just [the fact] they won three games. Of course, they're the highest-rated players, but we are not really looking to get scared or have any counter, especially versus donk or sh1ro, or whatever," torzsi told Dust2.us on June 18th ahead of the Spirit vs. MOUZ match tomorrow.

You can watch his entire interview with Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore below on YouTube, or read the full transcription underneath. All questions and answers were slightly edited for clarity.

We already had the chance to talk to xertioN, and he admitted that things were pretty scrappy on the run to playoffs, but how are you feeling about the road to playoffs?

Yeah, I agree with xertioN, it was pretty scrappy, but I'm happy we made it. I think we gave our everything, a lot of strength to believe, a lot of tenacity we showed in the games, and I think it's a good point that we are struggling a little bit, because then it shows that there's room to improve. I think maybe the last Majors, we were always going 3-0 and then the playoffs didn't go too well, but maybe now it's good that we struggled, and maybe we can elevate our gameplay now in the playoffs.

In terms of looking for a silver lining to the fact that you had to play five matches, you ended up playing three BO3s. Do you think that helped in a way to sort of get you guys ready for competition, unlike a team from Stage Two, who had to play these early matches? Spirit, for example, only played one BO3 so far.

Yeah, it definitely helped us that we played three BO3s already, also a lot of overtime. We had a lot of rounds to play, and we had a lot of evaluation, you know, what can we do better already as a team. I think it will help us a lot going into the playoffs, just the preparation, and also the games we played. It's just good that we tried different maps, and we see where we need to improve and what we need to do better. It definitely helped that we played a lot of games.

Talking again about xertioN, he was pretty blunt in the fact that the team had been playing "awful CS," and that the goal was to sort of find your way out of that and play the CS that you played previously in the year. How do you feel the progress has been and what's the way to escape playing "awful CS"?

I think we just had a lot of evaluation, as I mentioned, and we also saw what we did wrong. We also watched back games before the Major, and how did we play, and we just tried to see what we did differently. We reminded ourselves what we are good at and what we will have to do at the playoffs, to have the gameplay we want, and to play the CS we would like to. We just reminded ourselves what we're good at, and we also played a lot of practices, and tried out the stuff we had before.

I don't think we need to change a lot of things going into the playoffs, I think we just had to remind ourselves what we are good at, and that's easy.

You've had a great year so far with the AWP, unfortunately, in Stage Three was something of a low point so far, I think you finished with a 0.96 rating. This was your lowest rating in the year. Do you think that's an aberration, or is there something you can point to as to why you underperformed in Stage Three, and how you're looking to recover from that?

I think, obviously, a big part of me underperforming on Stage Three is also that I don't think we played good as a team. Of course, I will have a hard time to play the game if we are getting a lot of entries. Let's see the Legacy game or any other game, they had 43 entries out of the 60 rounds and we had 17 entries, like, the game is unplayable on T-sides. I think I did pretty good on CT-side, I think I played pretty decent on the BO3s, so to be honest, I'm happy with what I gave.

I think I had really good energy throughout the games, and I was there when it was needed. But I still agree that, obviously, statistics-wise isn't the best event I've had so far. I feel that if we step up as a team, I will play better, but I also need to step up individually. I think I just need to do that.

Looking forward to the Spirit match, MOUZ have a 2-0 record against them in 2025, but obviously, things change. They've been on an absolute tear in the Major, whereas you've maybe struggled a bit. How is the team feeling coming into that series versus Spirit?

We feel pretty comfortable. As you said, we are 2-0 up this season versus Spirit, and we want to take it to 3-0. Obviously, the bracket is pretty tough, we will face Spirit first, and if we win that game, we'll face Vitality most likely. So, it's a stacked bracket, but I think we feel comfortable and we feel ready for it. We knew that if you want to win a Major, you need to beat everybody.

I think we feel prepared now to do that, and I also feel that, as you said, maybe we struggled a little bit on the group stage, but I feel like we can shine in the playoffs.

I think they currently have three players from Stage Three who are in the top 10 rated players. donk, sh1ro, and magixx are all top 10 players at this event. Do you think you have a counter for the level of firepower Spirit are bringing to the table?

[chuckles] I don't think the stats matter too much at the moment. I think it's just [the fact] they won three games. Of course, they're the highest-rated players, but we are not really looking to get scared or have any counter, especially versus donk or sh1ro, or whatever. We know how to beat them as a team, we beat them twice already this season, and I think we'll just prepare versus them like they're a normal team, as they are. There's no special preparation versus donk or sh1ro, or whatever is the case. We just treat them as any other team.