Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný is the AWPer for mousesports who, at 26 years old, has qualified for his first ever Major.

Ahead of his games in Kraków, oskar answered questions from theScore esports about his long journey to the Major and coming into the event after a poor showing at ESL One Cologne 2017.

First off, congratulations on making the Major. After your win against PENTA Sports in the offline qualifier, which clinched your Major spot, what were your reactions, what was the first thing you did when you got backstage? What were the reactions from your friends and family?

Hey, thank you. It was a hard match and a pretty big relief for me because of the previous attempts with HellRaisers.

I don't even know, it was a lot of mixed feelings in my head, but what I really remember was that I was happy, together with my family. I was receiving messages from my mother, dad, grandmother and my girlfriend. They supported me for this long time and I really appreciate it.

Everyone was happy, that's what my name Šťastný means in Czech. But for this moment, I wasn't happy only cause my name says so.

In a TwitLonger, you spoke briefly about your difficult path here, leaving 3DMAX to retire, then returning on nEophyte and more difficulties on HellRaisers, unable to make the Major. Then when you first joined mousesports you also took an indefinite hiatus, but now you’ve finally made it to the Major.

In that same TwitLonger you said you couldn’t describe your feelings, but now that a few days have passed and your qualification has sunk in, can you speak further on your achievement?

Yes, it was really long way to achieve my goals. Now I'm really happy that, together with my team, we managed to qualify even after NiKo [Nikola "NiKo" Kovač] left and we are playing some good Counter-Strike at the moment. And yes, you are right, for me its just the beginning, I have new goals that I want to reach.

In my CS history I didn't achieve so much yet, won some small tournaments with HR. Now I would like to show the CS world what I am capable of, even as a 26-year-old.

Talking about age, I don't feel that anything here changed. I still want to play and I still feel I can do much better if I get experience from Tier 1-2 tournaments. One day I will lift a trophy.

And about the feelings after qualifying, still can't describe it, I am still happy that we did it. Now I am looking forward to my next goals.

You actually qualified just a few days after your birthday, did you and the team celebrate in any big way?

No, I had one beer with the team, but that's it. I don't celebrate birthdays since I was 22, and this no celebrating it means I will stay 22 years old forever.

Switching to ESL One Cologne 2017, mouz had a really hot start, going 2-0 in the group with wins over Fnatic and FaZe. But Ninjas in Pyjamas surprised you with a 16-10 win, you lost 16-4 to Natus Vincere, then lost an overtime map against Cloud9. What are your takeaways from that event? How will you prevent this from happening at the Major?

We had a really good start in Cologne, but somehow we didn't manage to go through the Swiss system and lost three matches in a row. It was a huge slump from us, we felt like we got it in our hands, but the map against NiP was just unlucky.

Our strength is on T sides, but for the first time in 2017 we won a CT side with nine points I believe, but on T side we didn't win single one. I don't remember well, but yeah, we were disappointed of course.

Talking about the Na`Vi match, it was just a veto failure. I knew before the match that something like this would happen. We beat them twice very hard on Mirage and I had a feeling that this time they would be prepared, and they were. We also weren't hitting our shots, so that's that. Same against Cloud9, we played well, but lost crucial clutches which cost the playoff spot.

We didn't think about it. We were just disappointed and I hope every player on my team is smart enough to not think about it. We gained some experience moving into the Major and I hope we will stay calm until the end of every match and that we finally go through to the playoffs in a big tournament with this lineup.

As I mentioned before, this is your first Major, along with Robin "ropz" Kool’s. Is that a concern for you guys? Have you made any special preparations like consulting a sports psychologist?

No, nothing like that, we are ready. We just practiced hard and that's all. We will still do our thing and we will see how its going to work.

Any final thoughts?

I would like to thank everyone for the support especially our fans, sponsors and you for the opportunity to talk.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.