oskar: "I'm here to do some damage"

MOUZ have been likely the biggest surprise of groups so far, as they managed to upset Natus Vincere in the initial round before taking down FaZe on day two, with Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný powering the team through to playoffs.

We talked to the Czech about the group stage and found out whether MOUZ feel more freedom knowing this is their last tournament with this lineup. We naturally also asked him about the departure of NiKo and what the future of mouz looks like:

Considering NiKo is on his way out of the team to join FaZe, what did mousesports expect from this tournament?

Even though he's leaving, we wanted to prepare and play our best, we didn't slack away, the training wasn't any smaller than usual. NiKo said as well that especially because it's his last tournament, he wanted to give his all, so we had a normal preparation. We went into it knowing it would be hard, but we wanted to make our best effort to finish as high as possible.

What does doing well at DreamHack mean for you personally, considering how your only previous event with mousesports, Gfinity, went from your perspective, and seeing as you've only recently rejoined the team?

For me it means more experience on LAN. How I played at Gfinity was more because of personal issues, my head wasn't in the game at all. I'm here to clear my name, gain some confidence, and do some damage.

Did you feel you had a little bit more freedom than you'd maybe normally have as a team? Could you do more or less whatever you wanted?

Maybe about 50/50, I could and I couldn't, it depended on the situation.

Is there anyone in the playoffs who you do or don't want to meet?

I don't want to face SK, but I'd like to play against Virtus.pro.

How does mousesports' future look like without NiKo? What will you have to do when he leaves?

Well, mainly we will have to remake our entire game, because our game was based on NiKo. Him leaving will hurt us, but maybe not as much as people think. We will try to prepare as much as we can, change everything and we'll see how it goes.

How quickly do you think you'll be able to do that, considering how important NiKo was in the system?

I hope it won't be too long, surely it will take some time before we get into it, but of course I'm hoping we'll do well from the start, and that we'll be ready for the next Major.

What do you make of FaZe with NiKo?

Well, a team full of stars doesn't necessarily have to work as well as it looks on paper, it was never really confirmed and when it was, it was only for a short time. But I definitely don't have any hard feelings towards NiKo, I wish him the best of luck in FaZe.

In case you missed some of our previous interviews at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, here is a list of the players we have talked to thus far:

Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth: "I think fnatic will do well"

Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers: "Inferno still plays kinda the same"

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen: "It would be fun to play NiKo"

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: "felps has a special skillset"

Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev: "We're confident on Inferno"

Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin: "I've never played this much"