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CS:GO ESL Pro League Season 18 is officially underway, with Group A's conclusion seeing Team Vitality, Movistar Riders, Astralis, and FURIA Esports emerge as the first four teams to qualify for the playoffs stage. Group B is set to kick off on September 6, 2023, featuring prominent teams such as ENCE and MOUZ. The latter has made some exciting changes to the roster and is looking to make a big impact to close out 2023.
One of the most talked about players in the scene is the young in-game leader for MOUZ, Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek. The Polish player led GamerLegion on a fairytale run at the Blast.tv Paris Major earlier this year and has continued to show promises of being a future star in the making.
siuhy shares his thoughts on CS:GO ESL Pro League Season 18, new features added to CS2, and his second run with MOUZ
In an interview with N Siddarth from Sportskeeda Esports ahead of the CS:GO ESL Pro League Season 18, MOUZ's IGL siuhy explained how the new MOUZ roster has been functioning and the team's goals at ESL Pro League Season 18. He also shared his opinions on the transition of CS:GO to CS2, among other topics.
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Q: How have you been doing, and how has the preparation for the event been so far?
siuhy: Nice to meet you. I am doing good, and the team has also been doing good. We had some good preparation before ESL Pro League, and we had a bootcamp where we focused on a few things to make sure we were sharpened up before the tournament, and it has been good so far.
Q: You were part of MOUZ NXT for quite a long time and had a great stint with GamerLegion. How does it feel to return to your roots and be reunited with xertioN and torszi in particular?
siuhy: It feels really good, and my joining was very smooth. The moment I joined, the chemistry and connections that we had previously in MOUZ NXT instantly came back, so I am really happy about how that went, and it was just a smooth operation. It feels really good to be back with them. I know what they are capable of, and they know what I am capable of, so it feels good to be working again together.
Q: Speaking of working together again, now you also have a very young talent in Jimpphat. How has it been working with him so far?
siuhy: It has been very interesting. It is something that I have also done before in MOUZ NXT, where I worked with younger players. I also worked with Jimpphat a little bit in MOUZ NXT, so I am happy that we are back together. I think he is a very talented player and just needs some sort of guidance in the scene and for his career moving forward.
I feel like he has found these with us, and he has a lot of potential. But it is all about how he approaches things, and we are here not to show him exactly how it is done. We just guide him so he does his things his own way in order to learn and get new experiences, and we are here to just help him out.
Q: You have had quite a successful year with a great run at the Blast.tv Paris Major with GamerLegion. Do you have any personal goals to achieve for the second half of the year, or are you satisfied with what you have achieved so far?
siuhy: I am satisfied with where I am right now, but I would also like to look back at the end of the year and see these last three to four months as a time to make improvements in myself. That is something I always say to myself. I always want to improve, and that's my goal whether that is one week, half a year, a year, or even more. I don't want to see myself stay in one position and always try to improve and look for ways to be better and find new ways around things. My goal would be to just further improve the person I am today as an individual and a team player.
Q: The new MOUZ roster has not had a lot of events under their belt, with the only two being IEM Cologne and the Thunderpick World Championship. Did participating and winning in the latter tournament help in building some much-needed team chemistry after a disappointing finish to IEM Cologne?
siuhy: Yes. I think for every new team, it's very important that you don't set too high of an expectation at the beginning. We are a new team and a lot has changed for the players who were here before. We are just looking to find our groove again as the core that we are. These first couple of tournaments are always a good reflection on what you can expect from each other and look at the team to learn what each player likes to do and the type of player that they are.
You learn the most about these aspects in such tournaments, which you can't get enough in just practice. These tournaments give you a lot more than what you would see in practice since it's a daily thing. So, I think we used this as a really good experience. IEM Cologne was obviously a little bit shaky since we didn't spend too much time practicing for it as we were a completely new team. However, it was nice to play such a tournament to see where we are.
We went back home to practice and had a tournament like Thunderpick where we showed some good CS, and it is also a good tournament to play as a new team since you can build a little bit more confidence inside yourself and the players. Now that I feel like we have those steps behind us, we can just move forward and focus on the next step which is ESL Pro League.
Q: On the topic of ESL Pro League Season 18, your initial opponents will be MIBR, who have also made some changes. They recently added the ex-FURIA duo of saffee and drop. What are your thoughts on MIBR, and what can we expect from MOUZ heading into the initial matchup?
siuhy: It's just another game for us that we will focus on and make sure to show up. There isn't too much secrecy going on in terms of preparation or anything. We are just gonna make sure that we are prepared for ourselves coming into this game and feel comfortable. There is not much to say as we are taking it each game at a time.
Q: A lot of people are really excited to see how this new MOUZ roster plays out. Do you think ESL Pro League Season 18 could be the tournament where MOUZ can establish itself as a legitimate top-10 team in tier-1 CS:GO?
siuhy: I think it's hard to say. We are not looking at it like we need to perform this tournament or anything. We know the situation we are in and we just want to make the most out of this tournament. We have set some team goals that we would like to meet, but obviously, the main idea is to come here and gain experience and see how it goes by taking it each game at a time. We don't have to stress ourselves out too much and are looking to simply perform as a team.
Q: You mentioned the team takes each game at a time. Despite this, do you have any particular opponents you would like to face in this tournament?
siuhy: I would like to face everyone, to be honest. I know that if we make the game good, then it will be a lot of fun, and every game can be exciting to play as long as we are performing and bringing the fun to the server and enjoying the game. I don't think there is a specific team, and I think it's just how we come into the game and whether we are having fun in it or not.
Q: One of the biggest talks in the scene right now has been CS2. What are your general thoughts on CS2 and the transition of the pro scene from CS:GO to CS2?
siuhy: I think CS2 is a good game. I think there are a lot of nice things added and changed in the game. The one thing that kind of disturbs me is the textures that have been added. There is so much going on with the textures and a lot of small details that were never really the biggest issue, especially in the core maps. I know that since Ancient and Anubis came in, you could see that the textures on those maps are a lot more detailed than the other maps. This is the first thing that I recognized in CS2.
For example, on Inferno, you leave T-Spawn and there are just hundreds of flowers under you, which is just funny. Maybe it gets changed or maybe not, but it is something that we probably have to get used to.
Q: Any final thoughts that you have that you would like to share with the CS:GO fans supporting you and MOUZ?
siuhy: I would really like to thank you all for supporting us. It means a lot to the team. Even when we don't see or respond to the support online every day, it does really mean a lot to the team and the players as well.
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