“It was nice to send FaZe home” – xertioN

Dorian ‘xertioN’ Berman’s Mouz roster has frequently been so close yet so far, not least after a bitter defeat to FaZe in Budapest.

The Counter-Strike community has been awaiting the roster’s breakthrough prestige trophy for some time.

Esports News UK spoke to xertioN to ask him what Mouz need to get over the line, with the entry rifler describing the concrete steps the roster is taking with that goal in mind.

playoOFSsss lets gooo, GGWP Aurora, Faze and falcons!
Good run from the lower bracket and good job teammmm

— Dorian Berman (@xertioNCS) February 3, 2026

Congratulations on getting to the playoffs. How are you feeling after this tournament?

Feeling good. I feel like we have grown with each game. We’re playing better and better.

And last game was a good statement from us, closing out the close game against Falcons 2-0.

So, yeah, feeling confident for the playoffs.

It was a crazy game. You won so many disadvantaged rounds. How did you keep composed in those moments and come up with ways to win?

Well, I think it was a bit of a weird game because it was really close.

At the same time, I feel like there were rounds where they smashed us, and there were rounds where we smashed them, or they gambled correctly, and then we gambled correctly.

So it was a very, very intense game.

I feel like the situations that we had a disadvantage in, we managed to turn over based on the momentum we had. So we made the right plays, and I think they maybe didn’t make it.

Sometimes you’re going to win those, sometimes you’re going to lose those situations. I’m happy we won this time, the game overall as well.

Going back to last year, it was a sad exit in Budapest. How were you guys feeling after the major?

Devastated after the major, for sure. We were really disappointed in the result.

I think we were super shocked. It took me maybe a couple of days to realise we lost.

It was the last tournament of the year. It was the major in Budapest. It was really important for us. It was really important for torzsi as well.

So, yeah, we had a big shock after this. The feeling was crazy that we are out of the major, and we expected much more.

“I think that our inconsistency comes more based off personalities. We just have a team with a bit more quiet people than usual compared to maybe other teams, and it causes people to maybe sometimes wake up on the wrong side of the bed.” – xertioN on Mouz’s inconsistency

Obviously, you beat FaZe, who knocked you out of the Major. Was it nice to get that win over them?

Yeah, of course. It was nice to send FaZe home.

They sent us home in the past many times in 2024. They have also sent us home in the Major, so it felt nice to send them home for once. Get back to the drawing board, as they say, and we also did it in a convincing fashion.

So we showed that maybe for this year, we are also more prepared than they are, but FaZe is FaZe. They always have the FaZe magic, as people call it.

But I think in the Major, it was just due to us not showing up.

Weewooo Weewooo 🚑 Mirage is ours. pic.twitter.com/973LWqcZMX

— MOUZ (@mousesports) February 3, 2026

The real question that fans want to know with Mouz is, when it comes to these big stages, are you going to come out in the same way? In Budapest FaZe had a lot of momentum and kept rolling. How are you going to achieve that in this tournament?

Well, I think that our inconsistency comes more based off personalities.

We just have a team with a bit more quiet people than usual compared to maybe other teams, and it causes people to maybe sometimes wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and we don’t have great communication on the server. So I think it’s a lot about the day.

I don’t think it’s necessarily about the stage. Obviously, it’s easier to fall under pressure when you play in front of big crowds. There is no other truth to that.

But at the same time, I think we have proven again and again that we are able to play on the stage. It’s not such a big issue as it was.

Now it’s just about being consistent and also doing it against the very, very best top two teams in the world. We have always struggled on stage against those teams.

[We] just have to figure out how to use the experience to our advantage.

“I’ve been taking a bit of a step back sometimes to allow people to practise their own moves. So we are definitely trying to figure it out.” – xertioN on his teammates taking more responsibility to be aggressive

Who do you think is going to step up and be the one to bring clarity to those moments?

I definitely want to be the person. I think that communication-wise, I’m really similar from studio games to stage games, but I think my gameplay differs.

I’m not the best at maintaining the same level. I think I get a bit flustered from having to worry about the whole team at times on stage.

This year, definitely, my goal is to perform better individually to help the team win finals.

It was a big problem we had last year. So, I take full responsibility of that, and I also want to be the player to help take us over the line.

Talking about responsibility, I sometimes feel that there’s been too much responsibility on your shoulders at times. What I mean by that is that sometimes you’re the player that’s going in, being aggressive, and if your play doesn’t work, then it feels like maybe the rounds kind of fall flat.

What kind of adaptations are going to help you not just be the only guy going in?

Well, it’s obvious in our team that we have a lot of passive players compared to others.

But I think everyone is trying their best to improve on that, to have more of a playmaking feeling to the game. We have definitely been working on it.

At the same time, also in practise, I’ve been taking a bit of a step back sometimes to allow people to practise their own moves. So we are definitely trying to figure it out.

But naturally, we have a bit more of passive players by chance. But I think on the given day, for example, against FaZe, also against Falcons, it felt like we all activated at different times.

We got a lot of entries out of torzsi, which was really nice to have.

So we’re trying to find the balance. I definitely don’t want to be the only guy that is doing that, and I think that it’s not an issue we have at the moment.

But, yeah, definitely to also learn sometimes to hold W less.

“We are working extremely hard for the last few months, more than we have ever done in this team.” – xertioN on Mouz’s practice

Beating Falcons on Dust 2, that’s coming back into your map pool, instead of Anubis. Can you kind of elaborate on why that decision was made?

Well, I think we’re still open to having seven maps, of course. No one will know if we’ll ever start practising or if we’re already practising Anubis, right?

So for us, it’s just a nice feeling to have a Dust 2 come back. We struggled on it at the beginning of 2025, but towards the end, we were actually beating a lot of good teams on it.

So it’s something we need to get back into the rhythm of it a bit, but this win over Falcons definitely helps us.

I think they also played a good Dust 2. So it’s not like they had a bad game, and you can just say, ‘Yeah, it was just easy,’ or something.

But I think we actually had to make really hard moves, and good mid-round calls from Brollan helped us take over the line on T side. So we definitely need more experience on it.

But Dust 2 has always been a map that’s a bit inconsistent for us, but we’re still confident.

Is there anything else you think that has really changed you and made you, as torzsi said, a “different Mouz” this year?

Well, this year we are obviously growing up also as players.

We are still very young, and every match we lose, every match we win, we are growing with it always. So for us, it’s always going to be about growth.

We are working extremely hard for the last few months, more than we have ever done in this team.

Just hoping that it keeps paying off for us. We’re going to keep making the playoffs and eventually also the trophies.

It’s always going to be the main goal for us.