xertioN on MOUZ’s elimination from StarLadder StarSeries Fall: “We trapped ourselves by ending up in the lower bracket.”
MOUZ captain Dorian “xertioN” Berman spoke in an interview at StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 about the losses to FURIA and NRG, the lack of practice, and preparations for upcoming tournaments.
On the match against FURIA
Lately, we’ve definitely lost a bit of confidence in our play on Nuke, but I think that’s natural: it’s impossible to maintain such a strong map pool without practice. That definitely affected us. And yes, as I already said, we didn’t play up to our usual standard in almost any game at this tournament. So, of course, we’re disappointed, but there are still a lot of positives we can take away from this.
On our performance at the tournament
We essentially had one of our worst tournaments in terms of performance—how we played on the server—and yet we still beat Natus Vincere and nearly defeated FURIA, who, in my opinion, played very well today. So, I’d say our baseline level is pretty high, but unfortunately, today and on other days, we weren’t able to show enough grit. I think we needed to fight a little harder, and that’s what we’ve been talking about. And yes, we’ll need to learn from this. We still have two young players who, of course, need to cope with a certain amount of pressure.
On the loss to NRG
That was, without a doubt, the worst game we’ve ever played as a team. Congratulations to them on the win, but this is definitely not the team we’d like to lose to right now. But oh well, it happened. I think we set ourselves up for trouble by ending up in the lower bracket, where there were a lot of good teams, and we had to fight our way through it. We tried our hardest, but today it wasn’t enough, and that’s how it turned out.
On the lack of practice
With such a packed schedule as we have at the Tier 1 level, it’s very difficult to develop new players. Sometimes it’s also hard to develop my own style as a captain, because I learn a lot directly from official matches, and there isn’t much practice time. But we’re not complaining. That’s the reality. Everyone’s on equal footing. And yes, we just need to play a little better and show more grit in these matches. I think the same thing happened against FURIA. And yes, we know what the problem is, and we’ll do everything we can to fix it.
On preparing for upcoming tournaments
The coaching staff will have to decide how much time we should take off. But for me, it’s really important that we, of course, get some rest. At the same time, though, we also need to work on improving.
Earlier, MOUZ lost to FURIA in the lower bracket semifinals at StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 with a 1–2 map score. As a result, Dorian “xertioN” Berman’s team finished the tournament in 5th–6th place and earned $20,000 in prize money.
Photo: Esports Foundation.
