dexter embraces the criticism: “I would go into Twitch chat and say 'bench dexter'”

Times have been tough for MOUZ in the past few months, as after missing out on a spot at the Major they have struggled to compete against the world’s best teams, going out early at IEM Dallas and the Roobet Cup and placing second at the GET Dubai to a Hampus “⁠hampus⁠” Poser-less NIP.

In Cologne, they advanced through the Play-in only to meet Natus Vincere in the opening round of the group stage and fall to the lower bracket after a competitive series. Now, however, they have gotten a big break in their first top-10 scalp since April, from before they made the switch from Nathan “⁠NBK-⁠” Schmitt to Jon “⁠JDC⁠” de Castro, beating Heroic in a rematch from the Play-in stage to stay alive.

After the match, we had the chance to catch up with dexter to learn about the key victory and find out what he thinks the team has struggled with the most to compete against the best teams more consistently.

First of all, you’ve just beaten Heroic in the rematch, what were the learnings from that first series? Let’s start with the veto, you went another way after a rough loss on Ancient in that first match in the Play-in.

Yeah, they had a really good gameplan, our gameplan was not so great, I didn’t think I called that great on Ancient, I should have just slowed it down a lot. They just got in our face and destroyed us every time, all of them were just hitting shots, so this time we just changed it to Vertigo. I wanted to play something a little bit different and have more control of the game, but in the end we only got three T side rounds, my bad (chuckles), but it was good in the end.

It certainly didn’t seem to matter. What was the key to that CT side comeback?

I don’t think they’ve played a Vertigo yet with their new lineup, so I think we just had to focus on ourselves that game. All of us were just insanely calm and being very direct with what we needed, hyped in the hype moments, and from there we just took it round by round. There’s nothing you can really do but take it round by round from a 12-3 half.

You lost Nuke in that previous matchup and this time had an easier time with another convincing CT side. Any particular changes from that first encounter that allowed you to take the win this time?

We kind of just played a little bit different. Against NAVI we were playing a little bit too aggressive versus them and we gave up a lot of picks, so we changed up our playstyle to play a little bit more default and be more reactive. I think it just worked great, everyone was blocking them with good utility, we were rotating well. We kind of had a good idea of where they were going most of the time, so it just felt comfortable.

You seem to be good when you’re coming up against those teams around the top 20, but when you face off against the bigger names you struggle a lot more. This is the first time that you managed to take a big scalp in a while, so how important is it?

Super important. It’s great for the young guys to get the confidence going, they know what they can do and what’s needed in the high-pressure situations. It’s up to me and frozen, who’s super young but experienced anyway, to just keep everyone calm and focused. It’s good signs now, I’m glad we can actually win versus a top 10 team, finally, so we just gotta take it step by step.

In an interview with Snowball you said that you were going in an okay direction now despite the shit-talk online. What makes you say that? What do you see in terms of improvement from the team?

After the Dallas loss we kind of had a reset. I wanted to make sure we are all talking to each other and be on the same page with our system. When JDC first joined we didn’t have time, we just had to go in straight away because the Major was in two weeks, so we had to prepare for that, but in the long run it kind of cost us. Teams like Vitality reset their system and it worked for them, and they did it much earlier than us. We just had to do that and then be on the same page with each other. We had deep talks and everyone was very emotional in a good way, we kinda let it out, and we know what we want from each other and what we want to do more.

How come you’ve been able to do that when you’ve still been pretty busy through the last few weeks?

We got knocked out in the first day at IEM Dallas, we were all there, played two games and got knocked out by Vitality. Things weren’t working, so I suggested it to my sports psychologist and sycrone that we needed to reset everything and be on the same page a little bit better, because it’s not so great right now, everyone is doing different things, so we just needed to talk and evaluate a little bit better.

How are you dealing with the community perception? I’m sure you see some of the comments when you have result after result that is quite disappointing. Has it been hard to deal with?

Yeah, I guess so, because when I first started everyone was super positive and it’s been a change from the community. It’s a bit tough. I just embraced it a little bit. I would go into Twitch chat and say “bench dexter,” and then my name on Steam was “dogster” (laughs), so I’m using all the names, talking shit to myself, and it kinda helped. It is what it is, just be a little toxic to yourself and you’ll understand where it’s all coming from. It’s chill.