Martin "STYKO" Styk completed mousesports' roster on Aug. 8, effectively replacing long-time member Denis "denis" Howell and coming into the team with a number of different responsibilities, the main one being to assist Chris "chrisJ" de Jong with in-game calls.

Before the team heads into DreamHack Masters Malmö, STYKO spoke to theScore esports about the factors that brought him to mouz and the team's game plan going into their first event.

You leave HellRaisers after nearly two years with the team and were meant to stay with them until the end of the year. Can you elaborate on your TwitLonger about why you decided to end your contract early?

One thing I could add as a reason right now would be the pace the team was improving, it felt like our practice regime was not ideal. Other teams were making progress much faster and it was noticeable we fell behind.

We tried to change up things, but it really didn't work out.

You once again part ways with your long-time, off-and-on teammate Patrik "Zero" Žúdel, who I believe you’ve developed quite a good friendship with. Any parting words to Zero?

We became good friends, that is true. We shared a room on all tournaments so we got to know each other well.

This is not first time that we are going to play in separate teams, so he understood my decision to join mousesports. We all felt that some change was needed. Despite the fact we will not be seeing each other that often, I think we can maintain the friendship even though we will be battling each other on different teams.

Who on mouz will you watch bad movies with now?

It seems like I will be sharing a room with oskar [Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný] from now on. He will be the lucky guy to watch some hidden gems of cinematography with me!

enjoying free evening with Zero. watching the cringiest movie that has been directed. EVER. Tommy Wiseau 💕 The Room. pic.twitter.com/MRVLiy8aic — STYKO 🚜 (@STYKOcsgo) July 23, 2017

Speaking of oskar, he's an old teammate of yours, making your move a reunion of sorts. How much of a factor was he in your move to mouz specifically?

I believe he was a big factor, together with LMBT [Sergey "LMBT" Bezhanov]. They knew me from before, what I was capable of, so I have a feeling they kind of vouched for me.

I am thankful for that and I am looking forward to prove that giving me the opportunity to play for mousesports was the right choice.

How much will you have to adjust your gameplay. The team's press release mentioned you’d assist chrisJ with calling but how much have you done that with HR or your previous teams?

I will have to adapt to multiple new roles and positions, that is for sure. But once we discussed our overall game plan and how we want to play, I realized that these roles in mousesports will fit me better than in my old team.

Everyone is having impact on calling right now, we try to help Chris as much as possible and we are bringing some ideas from our previous teams together with suNny [Miikka "suNny" Kemppi]. We understand it might be hard for Chris to lead a new lineup, so we are trying to assist him whenever we can.

My calling in HR was occasional. Sometimes I gave input for what we could improve or try to surprise the enemy, but I have to say it was mainly ANGE1 [Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow] and Johnta [Ivan "Johnta" Shevtsov] making the decisions.

Speaking of chrisJ, my read on his situation is that, becoming the team’s main caller may have had a negative effect on his gameplay. Would you ever considering becoming the team’s main caller if the need arose?

I feel uncomfortable in making impactful calls, at least for now. Maybe later, when I learn from Chris how to call such a loose-style team as mousesports is, I might fill in and assist him more.

In my old team we were somewhat strat-based and right now in mousesports we are all capable of doing solo plays around the map with good team play. That is what I like and that is where our strength lies, I think.

When will you finally make your full-Slovak team? How many years down the road?

That will not happen in the near future. My rough estimation would be probably three-plus years. It might be even more.

We need to develop some talents from our region in order to work with them later. And we need to gain experience in how to lead the team, so if the opportunity of full Czech/Slovak team comes, we are ready to decide who will be our leader.

Your first event with the team will be DreamHack Masters Malmö. How is the team preparing? How are scrims going so far?

We have a tough practice schedule. We are playing almost every day against other top teams for many hours and we have individual preparation on top of that.

So hectic days in front of me. Hard practice schedule combined with moving to my new appartment before all tournaments start. Wish me luck😇😬 — STYKO 🚜 (@STYKOcsgo) August 15, 2017

We are determined to show our best potential in Malmö, despite the fact our tactics will not be 100 percent ready, probably. We need time to learn things that mousesports were used to. And we need to make new game plans and strategies as well.

We are working on it, we are having good results on practice matches so I feel comfortable going into DreamHack.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.