MOUZ, a team so brutally auraless that they somehow cried themselves into submission.

In a different era, MOUZ might have had a number of trophies under their belts by now. Big ones, too. Their choking problem may have still kept them from a Kato, a Cologne, or a Major, but your average IEM Atlanta? Yeah, they’d have had some of those on lock.

Unfortunately, though, they do have a choking problem, and it’s one that is exacerbated by the sheer magnitude of how Vitality exceeds them. The poor b-stards just couldn’t escape apEX and his demons, and it kept MOUZ firmly in the category of being good, but just not quite good enough.

Well, Vitality and donk.

The thing is, top four was never really something to complain about. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. Especially for a team like MOUZ. But not complaining about it, not berating a team with no clear superstar for being incredibly consistent in an era of superstars, is impossible for the type of brainlets in this community who fail to understand that teams like this will always be a byproduct of only having knockout formats.

Hell, even league formats create them. Thanks, Arsenal!

That isn’t to say MOUZ weren’t worthy of criticism, because they were. Brollan should never have been calling, and xertioN and Jimpphat both dropped off cliffs. Of course, one of those can be blamed on the introduction of the most egregious lurker in CS, but they were both still contributing factors in the creation of the feeling that MOUZ could just do so much more.

A feeling that eventually seemed to fester within MOUZ themselves, and worse, got the better of them, as this year we’ve seen them lose to teams they never previously did, or not even make the playoffs at all.

That downturn is what forced them into changes and effectively throwing away the IEM Cologne Major, but will those changes be enough to turn around their fortunes in the second half of the year?

For me, it’s a resounding no.

The curse of the puppet master

I’m starting to really hate puppet master coaches.

It’s not even like I think they’re inherently bad, either, because I don’t. History has proven they can have value. Look at B1ad3 with Boombl4, or more recently, coolio with Krabeni. These are strong coaches who are (or were) building solid tactical bases for their IGLs, trusting them to execute it, and helping where needed.

But that doesn’t happen every time.

Maybe it’s an IGL thing. Maybe Krabeni, Boombl4, and even siuhy, when he was on GamerLegion or indeed with MOUZ, just do have more ability when it comes to calling than the likes of chopper, magixx, or Brollan.

But maybe it’s also hubris. Maybe it’s this false sense of confidence that is acquired from having it work once, which effectively dooms that coach to over-reliance upon their own brain, rather than the brain of an IGL that they could form a true coach/IGL partnership with.

To me, that’s what we’re now seeing from sycrone. He had success with siuhy, and success with Brollan, too, and despite their being obvious issues with the actual in-game part of Brollan’s calling, he’s now going to make the same mistake with xertioN.

That is, as long as the general assumption is correct, and xertioN will be continuing as the IGL post-Cologne.

xertioN has been calling CT sides for a while, and probably also makes some mid-round calls on T side (not that those are ever that strong on MOUZ), but secondary calling, like secondary AWPing, doesn’t just translate to being able to do the job full-time. Just ask Twistzz or YEKINDAR.

In addition to that slight issue, it also means that MOUZ will still be without the thing they’ve been lacking all along: a true captain. Someone to rally the troops when the going gets rough, or to pick them back up when the crowd boos them into another crying fit. Someone who will actually remind them of why they were so good to begin with, instead of doing the worst and shortest heel turn since John Cena.

But hey, at least xertioN will be able to cover up his terrible fragging by using the IGL excuse.

All the world’s a stage, and we’re terrified of it

So, if MOUZ aren’t going to look to address their choking problem through the addition of a captain, how else can they do it?

The most obvious route, and the one I hope they go down, would be to sign jL permanently following the conclusion of Cologne. It’s a move I’ve been asking MOUZ to make for an extended period of time, so it’s a shame that it’s only happening in a loan (for now), where he will likely struggle to have the true impact he could.

jL is a dream profile for a team like MOUZ. Not only is he adaptable in-game, but he also possesses the perfect mentality for them as they chase down their demons. He’s fun-loving, incredibly serious about winning and improving, and has a proven reputation of being the beating heart of a team.

It’s not like you could say the same about torzsi.

But even if they do sign jL permanently, how much can one man really do? If that one man is also handicapped by an IGL who chokes harder than big game Bukayo Saka, can that man hope to have any real impact at all?

In that reality, is the impact of jL enough to save MOUZ from themselves?

Let’s not forget that MOUZ have also promoted a 17-year-old as part of these changes. Obviously, I can’t be sure if xelex has the same choking gene that the rest of MOUZ NXT’s graduates seem to have, and not all youngsters are cut from the same cloth, but it’s reasonable to assume that he won’t take to the bright lights like a fish to water.

In that reality, does it therefore not become clear that MOUZ, once the period of time it takes to protect a new core has passed, might need to make more changes in order to actually reach the level they hoped they would have reached long ago?

Fighting with no firepower

Another factor that might contribute to the idea that MOUZ will need more than two changes is their firepower. Or rather, their lack of it.

xertioN hasn’t been the only player struggling for form in 2026. His decrease in T side rating from 1.08 last year to 0.97 this year has hurt, but blaming MOUZ’ downturn solely on him is the easy way out.

torzsi has also been a big culprit in MOUZ’ struggles. 1.06 rated in 2025, He’s decreased to 1.00 so far this year, and like xertioN, his T sides have taken a big hit. The same can be said for Jimpphat and Spinx, too. Although, ironically, not Brollan.

Go figure.

This is where the introduction of xelex begins to concern me. A promising player with solid trading and clutching stats, he has a 1.20 for the year, perfectly split between his T and CT sides. The only issue being, the vast majority of that has come against absolute nobodies.

There are some decent opponents in there. I could point out a 1.32-rated map against fnatic, or a 1.31-rated series against K27, but these types of opponents are few and far between. The rest would leave you scratching your head, gaslighting yourself into thinking you’ve heard of some of his opponents before.

My point being, he could handle the step up to tier one just fine, but what if he doesn’t? What if his ratings nosedive, and it’s clear that this move was months, if not years, too soon?

You could demote him again, you’d still have the core of torzsi, xertioN, and Spinx, but in that situation you’re back to square one. You still need two players, and you’ve thrown away Cologne for absolutely no reason.

Even if xelex does work out, what if Spinx or torzsi don’t pick up their output under their new IGL? What if jL’s break has taken too much out of him as a player? What if all of these things happen at once?

The fact is, in the blink of an eye, MOUZ have gone from one of the most stable and uncertain teams in CS, to one that should be looked at as being as uncertain as FaZe.

Uncertainty reigns supreme

Sometimes uncertainty is inevitable, I get that. It’s especially bound to happen if you make two changes, and even more likely if you add an IGL change into that, but the frustrating thing with MOUZ is that it doesn’t feel like it needs to be this way.

You’ll never convince me MOUZ didn’t know they needed to make changes after Budapest. I don’t know what happened to prevent the expected from happening, but I simply refuse to believe it was purely because MOUZ decided the power of friendship would get them through.

They lost to FaZe, for f-cks sake.

If they had made changes after Budapest, whether that was for a new IGL instead of Brollan (even if it was xertioN), or for PR over Jimpphat, or both, I truly don’t think I’d be sitting here writing this article right now.

In fact, I don’t think anything would have changed at all. Maybe they still would’ve been one change away from doing anything the community would have really cared about, but dropping off in the way they have? I just don’t see it.

Instead, we’re now staring down the barrel of another Major, looking at a MOUZ team that used to never miss playoffs and thinking that they don’t stand a chance of seeing the inside of the LANXESS.

In my opinion, that’s a crying shame, but there is a sense of irony to it that I quite enjoy.

The entire time MOUZ made all those playoffs, they were always chasing Vitality. It turns out, though, they weren’t just chasing Vitality in terms of playstyle or firepower, they were chasing them in proactivity, too.

Vitality’s proactivity is what got them to this dominant position, and the complete opposite from MOUZ is what got them to theirs.

Other teams adapted, other teams changed and evolved, MOUZ did not. Really, it’s nothing more than peak Darwinism.