We sat down with Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk on the semi-finals day of ECS Season 6 Finals to reflect on the tournament from mousesports' point of view and ask him about his first events back in the European squad.

STYKO & co. exited the tournament in the group stage, as they lost to MIBR in the opening round and beat Cloud9 in the elimination before narrowly losing to Astralis, who extended their Nuke streak to 25-0 at the time despite being on the back foot at 11-13 during the match.

STYKO discussed a variety of topics with us, including mousesports' second close attempt at breaking Astralis' Nuke streak

We caught up with the Slovakian on the semi-finals day to get his thoughts on mousesports' showing, and we also asked about his return to the team, how his views have changed in the time he was away, and whether that has affected his play.

Let's start with ECS and what has your run been like here. You've had a few close games, including two against Astralis, but at the same time also against Cloud9 who played with valens. So what is your evaluation of the tournament from mousesports' point of view?

It's true that the Cloud9 match didn't go as we planned, especially on the first map where we almost lost. We won narrowly 16-14, but the important difference between these two matches was that we prepared much better for Astralis. I don't want to say we underestimated Cloud9, but we didn't prepare as much because we knew that they don't have an in-game leader playing for them and they're playing with the coach, so we didn't put that much effort in it and we were kind of sad after the MIBR loss, as well, so that it didn't help.

For Astralis, we realized that we have to do something, that we can't play the same CS we played against Cloud9, we're not going to beat the number one team in the world. So, we had a long talk before the match and we created the game plan for Nuke that we never practiced before, which was kind of a risk because, usually, when we do something we didn't practice, it doesn't go well. We created strats just in our minds to try to counter what they are doing and how they're moving around the map to abuse their rotations. We tried to do that, it worked pretty well, we got close. Again, we lost a 1v3 versus Xyp9x, 2v2s against device and Xyp9x... Yeah, it was a close match, it could have gone either way and the only way that we got so close was that we talked about it and we played the things we never practiced before.

I think if we put more preparation into this practice on Nuke against Astralis, we're going to beat them in Odense if we get a chance to play against them on Nuke. I think we're confident enough to just come up with stuff on-the-fly before the match and implement it into the game so that we're more unpredictable.

I think if we put more preparation into this practice on Nuke against Astralis, we're going to beat them in Odense if we get a chance to play against them on Nuke. Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk

You mentioned ESL Pro League Finals and you have the EU Minor closed qualifier very close after that, how does that going to affect mousesports, what's going to be the focus?

The Major circuit is the number one priority for us, but, at the same time, the closed qualifier is a best-of-three double elimination against lower-tier opposition that we are beating confidently in practice, so we're not that scared coming into the qualifier. Looking at the teams, we have quite a good chance to go into the top eight who qualify to the Minor without any special preparation.

Obviously, if we just come on point from Odense, we should be able to get quite comfortable in this closed qualifier, so I hope it's going to go that way.

mousesports have ESL Pro League Finals and the EU Minor closed qualifier coming up in the first two weeks of December

So, in that sense, do you feel like having a good result in Odense will be very important just to keep the confidence high for the qualifier?

Yeah, I think if we play well in Odense, it's going to give us the confidence to play well in the Minor qualifier. If we lose early in Odense, it's going to give us time to prepare for the closed qualifier, so either way it's a win-win situation.

Going back to when you returned to the team - when you left, mousesports were a top-five team and the reasoning was that the team wanted to get to the next level, so now that you've been brought back, does that mean you're content with where you are? Or what will it take for you to take the next step?

I think we are a top-five team right now - whether it's consistently a top-five, that's still the question because we just had two tournaments, basically. And this one didn't go that well despite there being eight teams and they're pretty good teams, so it was hard to get out of the groups. What we can do is just to prepare for Odense and see there if we are actually capable of staying in the top five.

Currently, I don't see us getting anywhere better because of individual slumps, I guess. We aren't playing that well individually and still, we are learning how to move around the map, we are making basic mistakes. We have to keep repeating stuff we talked about two months ago, we forgot about them and then we have to repeat it again. We're just in this process of getting everything under somewhat of a system that we just stay focused and we remember it for a long duration and we'll always perform when it matters.

Currently, I don't see us getting anywhere better because of individual slumps, I guess. We aren't playing that well individually and still, we are learning how to move around the map, we are making basic mistakes. Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk

A couple of times you've mentioned that it's not really like being plugged back into the same mousesports of earlier his year, what do you think are the differences? What has changed in the period when Snax was in the team?

I can say this only from my personal point of view, but I was much more selfless, now I think I'm being more selfish, sometimes I'm trying to use my players around me for my benefit. So it's not completely like I'm being used by my teammates, but I'm also using them, that's what I learned in Cloud9, for example.

The roles didn't change that much. First of all, I'm more confident, so that helps, but like I said, I'm using help from my teammates rather than letting them do whatever they want and make plays around the map. I'm actually capable of standing a chance against holding rushes or something, I'm using them more for my own benefit because I think that's the meta right now, you have to support the anchors on the sides of the maps. That's what we're trying to do and I'm trying to improve myself, as well, because sometimes it's hard for me to communicate to the teammates what's good for me. I'm just learning my role right now.

Statistically, your form does look improved, so do you feel that way? Do you feel like what you were talking about is working?

Yeah, I think it is working. As I said, it's the meta right now, so we're trying to stay on top of it. We're trying not to fall behind the meta, so this is how we work right now, it works, I'm glad it works. I'm not saying it couldn't work better, it definitely could, but we need practice for that.

I was much more selfless, now I think I'm being more selfish, sometimes I'm trying to use my players around me for my benefit. So it's not completely like I'm being used by my teammates, but I'm also using them, that's what I learned in Cloud9, for example. Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk

Any last words?