The Swedish rifler thinks their deep run at IEM Cologne is enough to dismiss the stage-chokers thesis.
Although MOUZ and Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin won their fair share of CS2 tournaments on LAN thus far and are one of the best teams in the world, they've earned themselves a reputation as stage-chokers.
This is mainly because all CS2 tournaments MOUZ and Brollan won since the game's release in late 2023 were tournaments with no live crowd or just small ones like the ESL Pro League events. However, according to Brollan, MOUZ got rid of the stage-chokers stigma at IEM Cologne earlier this month.
Lanxess Arena, also known as the "Cathedral of Counter-Strike," was packed with fans, and though MOUZ didn't win, they made a deep run and fell in the semifinals to Natus Vincere.
"I think we proved it in Cologne that we're not stage-chokers," Brollan told esports.gg at BetBoom Dacha CS2 2024 in Belgrade, Serbia. "I think we just need to improve in-game wise and obviously I think we can go deeper in tournaments. We have tried to take things step-by-step in Cologne, and we managed to win on a really big stage."
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What about BetBoom Dacha?
MOUZ were one of the last teams to come to BetBoom Dacha in Belgrade as they skipped the play-in stage like Team Spirit, HEROIC, and Virtus.pro. The international players are the reigning champions of the tournament, having won the first edition in May against Spirit.
MOUZ are feeling confident they can do it again this time around, according to Brollan.
"Yes, of course," Brollan said. "I think we are in good shape and there are not many of the good teams here. I think we have a lot to prove here and we can win it back-to-back."
Brollan and MOUZ will kick off their campaign at BetBoom Dacha on Aug. 28 in the upper quarterfinals.
That's all for now. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more BetBoom Dacha content directly from Belgrade, Serbia.
