sycrone on PR and xelex: “You have to work a lot with them mentally.”
MOUZ coach Dennis “sycrone” Nielsen spoke in an interview at the 2026 CS2 Esports World Cup about the recent match against FUT Esports, assessed the team’s map pool, and discussed the team’s new players, Aldrich “PR” Novi and Adrian “xelex” Vince.
On the match against FUT Esports
We’re a little disappointed that we couldn’t handle the pressure they put on us. We were also hoping to see some progress with our ban/pick strategy to perform better on Ancient. I think we still have a lot of work to do with that map. As for Dust2, I think we gave our opponents too many opportunities, and that team knows how to capitalize on them.
On Ancient
We switched positions the most on this map. It requires players to take responsibility; they need to communicate a lot and coordinate, especially on defense. Dorian calls a lot on defense, but on Ancient, the other guys need to put in more effort as well.
On the Cache ban
Yes, we’ve played it a lot. And we joke that other teams probably respect us on it because we’ve practiced it quite a bit. But Cache has always been our third map, and we asked ourselves whether our young players would really be comfortable playing it as our primary map.
On xelex and PR
They’re both 18 or 19 years old—they’re young and have just embarked on their professional careers, striving to compete against the best teams in the world. We have to work a lot with them mentally to build their resilience; we have a sports psychologist on staff. This aspect is very important in the game. They have their ups and downs, and we try to give them the tools they can rely on.
In the quarterfinals of the 2026 Esports World Cup for Counter-Strike 2, FUT Esports swept MOUZ. Aulon “Krabeni” Fazli’s team proved stronger on Dust2 (16–13) and Ancient (13–5), advancing to the next stage of the championship. The German team finished the tournament in 5th–8th place, earning $60,000.
Photo by Sebastian Pandelache, PGL.
