MOUZ Brollan shares the IGL perspective on underdogs, Team Vitality, and entry frags at BLAST Open Fall London
MOUZ Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin discusses the IGL perspective on Counter-Strike underdog rosters, tackling Team Vitality, and coordinating entry ahead of the BLAST Open Fall London 2025 tournament.
Hannah Marie ZT reports:
“If you can get past Vitality, MOUZ are a favourite” – MOUZ have had a pretty consistent season with a lot of Playoffs, but often come up against Vitality.
Do you think this is the main challenge to MOUZ winning in London? Or, do you think that the so-called Vitality era is under threat?
Brollan: I think Team Vitality have been stumbling a little more than they were before. They have dropped more maps and rounds against other teams, and they are struggling a little bit in places.
However, I do know that they are still, of course, a very good team. Maybe going into a best-of-five is a bit harder, because then we have to win three maps. Of course, I think we are capable of winning a best-of-five against them, but I also know winning a best-of-three against them is easier.
If we do beat Vitality, I believe we will be one of the favourites to win, but we also have to watch for FURIA.
I think FURIA is a really good contender to win this tournament; they have been showing good results lately. We played them in the Group Stage (Closed Qualifier) and they beat us. But, we will have to see how it goes against M80 in the Quarters first, really.
Do you feel like the door is opening for other teams like MOUZ to step into the spotlight after Vitality’s dominance in early 2025?
Does that mean there are more teams fighting for the chance to win now? Other rosters, such as The MongolZ, have won tournaments and, as a result, become increasingly popular on Counter-Strike betting sites in recent months.
Brollan: I’ll say we are one of many teams who, of course, all want to be the best.
The MongolZ won the Esports World Cup. Team Spirit have also won recently, but they are making roster changes soon. So, I am confident that we can also win some tournaments. But, we just need to focus on developing our play a little more.
With the schedule, it’s really tough. However, when we get a break as a team, we can really get the chance to study our playbook and focus more on these things.
I believe we can overcome these challenges and be the best in the world. I also think there are many teams that want this too.
When it comes to IGL dynamics, entry seems to be increasingly important. Players like Donk, for example, often make a bold entry.
How does MOUZ deal with maintaining momentum from the early rounds, even when you don’t get that early entry?
Brollan: I’m seeing the progress in the team and working it out. There’s not always going to be games where my players are feeling like straight away going out and killing people, basically. But, I am really thinking more about it.
There are a lot of games where you know you didn’t play as well as you should, and people don’t get the kills. Therefore, they don’t get those entries.
So, I’ve tried to figure out how to make my team as comfortable as possible if we are not feeling this style.
It’s always nice to play with those good entries, of course, and I think we do have a really good team to have a run and search for duels. Searching is really impactful in these situations.
Mostly, it is on T-side that we find it harder to find those entries that we want. It’s more tough now to play as terrorists.
How do you balance communication within the team when it comes to these strategies?
Obviously, as an IGL, you have that shot-calling position. Nevertheless, you have to balance that with the input of players like xertioN, who are doing a lot of that movement early-game.
Brollan: XertioN (Dorian ‘xertioN’ Berman) and I have really good chemistry, both inside and outside of the server. He is often helping me with our calling.
If I don’t have many ideas for a round, Spinx (Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi) also tries to help me as much as possible. I will start the calls, he will often adapt to them and help manage the other players in the team. It’s mostly me, but there’s input from him as well. On CT-side especially, he’s played a lot of communication roles on CT-side, so he’s usually taking part in that.
For T-side, we just need to figure out more about how to try to make our own space, and for all of the team to speak. Maybe not all the time, but we need the space for others.
We touched on this at the start, MOUZ went up against FURIA before arriving in London. They seem to be a wildcard now, pulling out some good wins.
Of course, they are in a different bracket to you – if you face them again, it will be in the finals. Are you thinking that far ahead?
Brollan: Taking things one step at a time is the most consistent way to get through these tournaments, I would say. We find ourselves making a lot of mistakes when we are thinking ahead of where we are, instead of thinking about what is happening now. Often, we get punished for it.
Of course, FURIA are a good team at the moment. They have proved a lot.
But right now, M80 have been improving in the BLAST Open Group Stage. Maybe they are not the toughest of our opponents, but they have played good online.
It is the first time their roster is on stage for this sort of event, so it will be pretty tough for them. Although I think it’s always kind of nice to be the underdogs. So, we will just have to see.
If you do win against M80, it is Vitality that you come up against next.
Even though you are taking things one step at a time, what do you think it might be like if you play that Semifinal?
Brollan: Maybe in the last season it would be more intimidating. We need to keep it in the back of our mind that the last time we played against them in Cologne, we won.
So yeah, I think there is of course the fact that they probably want revenge for that. But, we were really good at Cologne. We know the number of things we need to prepare for.
MOUZ has also been working on mental resilience.
Since you joined MOUZ, how have you worked long-term with the team to build this?
Brollan: Well, we try to come up with ways to improve all the time. We are really close to each other, and try hard to be open-minded, to develop together as a team. I think that is the most important thing we have as a unit.
We are really friendly, we’re in a friendly group of people.
Of course, we are having fun both inside and outside of the game.
Most of all, everyone on the team wants to improve all the time. Together, we try to improve with our methods and work on how to develop our playbook. I think it’s really good that we work as much as we do, always trying to push ourselves forward and take each one of us to the next level.
That’s more of a consistent way that we approach things and that management try and help us with as much as possible. They try not to drain us out, too.
How is the overall approach of MOUZ going into BLAST Open Fall, given all of the things we have talked about?
Brollan: We are ready to win. Also, we want to simply prove ourselves. There is always talk of us choking in finals. So, it is important for us to prove that we can lift the trophy; that’s the most important thing.
Of course, Vitality is there, FURIA, the talent that has been proving themselves lately, but we want to prove to ourselves that we can win it.
These things happen. We are not giving up.
Follow Esports News UK’s on-site Counter-Strike coverage for BLAST Open Fall London 2025 to keep up-to-date with player interviews and tournament content. BLAST Open Fall London runs from September 5th to 7th, 2025. The Grand Final on Sunday, September 7th, will crown a new BLAST Open champion for this season.
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