MOUZ xertioN on IEM Rio crowd: “I just appreciate that we are on the side of the cheering.”

The recent IEM Major quarterfinal matches in Rio de Janeiro’s Jeunesse arena brought something we’ve never seen before in CS:GO — the true passion of the Brazilian audience. The crowd’s unstoppable roar sent the hype to cosmic levels, leaving even those with the longest careers in esports production amazed. 

However, not everyone is amused. While the crowd can instantly heat up the room with their passionate cheering for the teams that they favor, they can also put the same amount of energy into booing an unfavored team even before the team shows up on stage. Some call it simply a part of the competition, while some call it simply mean. 

Apart from obviously cheering for FURIA, the crowd seems to be cherrypicking its favorites, with the German organization MOUZ being among those fortunate enough to experience the colossal support of Brazilian fans. Following their quarterfinal victory over Cloud9 at IEM Rio Major, MOUZ are now set to face another tough opponent — Russian Outsiders — in a battle for the Grand Final spot. 

Ahead of the much-anticipated semifinal face-off, we caught up with MOUZ Dorian “xertioN” Berman to talk about his impressions from the Brazilian crowd and from his stay in Rio, as well as about his expectations from the upcoming match with Outsiders. 

Getting boo-ed is not the best feeling

Fragster: Brazil fans met your team very warmly, and you repaid them by beating perhaps the strongest rival FURIA had in the tournament bracket. Tell us about your emotions after you left the arena following your victory over Cloud9.

xertioN: It was an amazing, great feeling. I’ve never had such a feeling in my life. So much support from so many people. And yeah, Brazilian fans are amazing. It was an amazing support to us, but I felt a little bad that Cloud 9 were getting boo-ed. 

It’s a competition and I get that maybe they like us more than them, whatever it might be, but I think booing is not the best. It’s not the best feeling and while I think it’s really good to support your team, booing is not something that I would recommend. I don’t really like it, but I understand that they’re passionate fans, I just appreciate that this time we were on the side of the cheering.

What do you expect from the match with the Outsiders, who’s one of the strongest representatives of the CIS scene? Have you already discussed the strategy, or maybe the map pool for this duel?

I think it will be a very hard match. It could be even harder than the match with Cloud9 because I think they played well, but they didn’t play as usual. And I think Outsiders are a really annoying team to play against. They are so good and they play really good Counter-Strike, and also like to gamble a lot. For example, the last time we played them, we ran into their stacks a lot and it felt horrible because they just destroy you.

But I believe this time it will be different. I think we will adapt really well because we learned a lot from the last game against them. And yeah, I’m just looking forward to playing them. Of course, we have some new tactics and we’ll just see how it’ll go.

How do you like your stay in Rio de Janeiro? And what do you like the most here? 

It’s been amazing, everyone here is really kind and nice. I have not met a single rude person. It’s been a pleasure and everyone has been supportive of us, which is really nice. And when we walk around the beach it’s beautiful, everything here is really beautiful. 

And yeah, the food, we didn’t get to try too much yet, but I had really good cheese bread. I tried the banana, I really liked it. Also guarana the drink — it’s amazing. And, yeah, I’m just enjoying the culture here. 

What would you like to say to your fans, and to the world? 

For our fans, obrigada, thank you so much. We appreciate all the support, I read all the messages everyone sends me, Brazilian fans or worldwide, doesn’t really matter. I really appreciate everyone and you guys are amazing. You guys are the reason we are here and we are all very grateful for you. And yeah, thank you for the support and I hope we can keep making everyone happy.

Header: xertioN  / Twitter