With xertioN taking over in-game leading duties and young players xelex and PR joining, MOUZ are still adjusting to their new system. However, results are already starting to show: heading into StarLadder StarSeries Fall, they have reached the final in two of their last three tournaments, winning one title, and were eliminated in the quarter-finals in the other.
As the team's main AWPer, torzsi believes that as the new players settle in and the system continues to improve, this MOUZ lineup has the potential to become a consistent title contender. Meanwhile, his own recent form has also been quite good, posting a 1.16 average Rating over the past three months. In torzsi's view, this is inseparable from xertioN and sycrone working to unlock his full potential.
Q: You've been in great form with the AWP lately. Over the past few years, we've also seen many players go through ups and downs with this weapon. How did you gradually find your rhythm and become more and more comfortable with it?
torzsi: It is indeed somewhat different compared to CS:GO. In CS:GO, it is easier to make aggressive plays with the AWP.
But in CS2, the peeker's advantage is very pronounced, so it will be slightly more difficult for snipers.
Meanwhile, I think a sniper's performance largely depends on the team's system. What exactly does the team need the sniper to do? If you're a more supportive type of sniper who needs to help riflers create opportunities, then your stats naturally won't look that great, and sometimes you'll even use the rifle more.
On many maps, rifles are actually better than the AWP, such as T side on Inferno and T side on Ancient. On these maps, five rifles may be more efficient than bringing an AWP.
If you really want to use the AWP, then I think you should create opportunities around the sniper and let him get the opening kill. Otherwise, honestly, the AWP's role will be quite limited.
Recently, there have been some changes in MOUZ's system, and I feel that both xertioN and sycrone want to bring out the best in me and fully utilize what I can offer the team.
I think I've been doing pretty well lately. The last competition might not have been my best performance, but I hope to bounce back this time.
Q: Two young players have now joined the team. You've been high on xelex for a while and have been helping him grow. What's your relationship like?
torzsi: My relationship with xelex is very good.
For me, it's great to see another Hungarian player truly break into the tier-one scene. There was sl3nd before, and now xelex has even become my teammate, which is really nice.
I really enjoy watching him grow, because he has really put a lot of effort into his matches. I think his partnership with xertioN is also very good, and xertioN has helped him a lot.
They will watch demos together, gradually shaping his playstyle and role in this way.
sycrone also gave them a lot of help, watching demos with them and studying how he handled different situations.
They did a lot of great work, and I mainly just tried to support xelex on and off the court.
Overall, he is truly excellent. I think his talent is extraordinary, and his individual ability is definitely top-class.
Q: Let's talk about PR. He was previously ranked highly on HLTV's rising stars list and showed the ability to carry games at GamerLegion, but since joining MOUZ he seems to be playing more of a role player. What do you think of his integration?
torzsi: We're actually still trying to figure out what this system should ultimately look like, but I think we're gradually finding our direction now.
When PR first joined, we sometimes wanted him to play entry or trade behind xelex, but later we realized this might not be the best choice.
Although we won the first tournament after he joined us, through training and the EWC we still found some issues in our system, so we felt that some things needed to be adjusted.
We are still looking for the playstyle that best fits PR. But he really enjoys clutch situations, such as 2v3s, post-plant scenarios, and so on.
So he may now take on more of a supporting role, playing a part in the endgame and late rounds.
This way, xertioN can lead the entry in front in some rounds, while in others he can stay back as the IGL to provide support.
xertioN was already an outstanding entry fragger in his original role, I even thought he was the best entry fragger at the time. And now, even as the IGL, he can still take on this work.
So I think this current role distribution benefits everyone. xertioN can handle entrying on some rounds, while PR can focus on support and get into more of the clutches he likes.
Q: You've recently competed in two BLAST events, winning the first one outright, but lost to FUT at the EWC in between. How do you view that loss, and what level is the current MOUZ at compared to before?
torzsi: After winning BLAST, when we arrived at EWC we did find that the team still had some flaws.
Sometimes getting slapped right in the face and realizing you still have a lot to improve is actually a good thing.
Participating in BLAST again afterwards helped us a lot, and reaching the final again made it a very good tournament for us.
So in the last three tournaments, we reached the final twice, winning once, and reached the quarter-finals in the other one.
For a young team like ours, I think this result is already very good. It also means that the two newcomers will get a lot of playing time in official matches and gain a great deal of experience.
These experiences have been very helpful to us.
As you said, in 2025 we were ranked second and third in the world for a long time, constantly reaching finals and semifinals. I think it's actually quite similar now, but this time we still have a chance to truly go one step further.
We already proved our potential in the Bounty tournament. At the last BLAST we reached the grand final again, but ultimately couldn't hold on against Spirit.
But I think we are now proving more and more consistently that we have the ability to stay in title contention and truly lift the championship trophy.