frozen: "I'm not where I would like to be yet"

We chatted with David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský after MOUZ won ESL Pro League S18 over Natus Vincere.

MOUZ have clinched the final CS:GO Big Event title after defeating Natus Vincere in the ESL Pro League S18 final with a 3-0 scoreline to finish off an era of Counter-Strike with some style.

They navigated a challenging path from the first playoff round and took down formidable opponents, including FaZe, G2, ENCE, and Natus Vincere on their way to the trophy.

After their victory over Natus Vincere, frozen took a moment to talk to HLTV about his team's run at EPL, the rise of Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo, and the future of Counter-Strike.

First of all, congratulations. What are your feelings right now?

Speechless, I would say. It's been some time since I put my hands on the trophy and it just feels amazing. I kept believing this whole time that this team is capable of it.

You've been showing fantastic individual performances for quite a while now, so how good does it feel to cap that off with a trophy?

It feels great. I've been working on my craft to be consistent for a lot of years, and I'm not where I would like to be yet. But it just feels great that we're bearing the fruits now.

Do you think this title is worth a bit more because it's the last CS:GO Big Event?

There are going to be people who say that since this is the last CS:GO event, people didn't care, but I think a trophy is a trophy. It feels great to end CS:GO on a high note.

I also want to ask you about today's series, the first two maps were quite comfortable for you guys. Not to take anything away from you, but do you think NAVI didn't show up on the first two maps?

I'm not really sure. On Inferno, I think we are very comfortable on the map, and we just knew what they were going to bring, and we knew what we can bring. So we were just always pretty calm about the situations, even though maybe there were some scrappy rounds, but we always played our game. And I think that was the case for both the first two maps. On Mirage, towards the end, maybe nerves got to us a little and we started to play a little scared, but I'm just glad that we actually finished the map and won.

You've been in MOUZ now for four and a half years, and you're the veteran of the team, which sounds weird. Do you think it was your role to calm the guys down, especially at the end of Mirage?

I'm focusing on it, even though, let's say it's the last round of the game, and there is a trophy waiting behind this round, it doesn't really matter if you don't play the round correctly. So I'm always trying to keep them calm, if possible. Maybe it's the experience, but maybe just the way I am.

Talking about experience, you have a new IGL who is relatively experienced. Tell me what he changed when he came into the team during the off-season.

He brought his stuff and his theory on how they did it in GamerLegion, but it's not like a full one-to-one replacement. We have some of the stuff that we used to have, he implemented some of his stuff, and we have some individual plays here and there. But overall, the system we could say that he brought with him, or we created. And it just fits everyone.

I also have to ask about Jimpphat. He's just 17, and he just won his first Big Event by playing great in the finals. So what can you tell me about him?

torzsi said that he's born for Counter-Strike, I think he's amazing. He's very calm. It could be that he's from Finland. Finnish people are a little bit calmer, but I didn't really feel like he was nervous, even though he admitted that he was after a few games. It didn't feel like it, he held his own.

Looking into the future. With CS2 coming out, do you feel you can stay on the top, especially considering the caliber of teams you beat here?

I think there is a reason why all the players are at tier one at the moment. And I think that people are going to catch up a bit to us, but again, I think there is a reason why all the players that are playing in the scene are where they are. So I think after we transition to CS2, there are going to be differences, but I personally don't think it's going to be that big of a difference. It's still the same game, after all. Maybe some grenades change, but I think it's the same. And if we approach it the same, then I think we should have no problem.