Brollan: “Tonight we celebrate and tomorrow we go again”

Brollan: “Tonight we celebrate and tomorrow we go again”

MOUZ captain Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin struck a balanced tone after his team finally broke their Vitality hoodoo in the IEM Cologne semi‑finals, stressing that the job wasn’t finished with Spirit waiting in the grand final. “It’s an unbelievable feeling… Last season we lost every time, and we finally beat them,” he told HLTV, before adding: “Of course it’s just a semi‑final. We need to focus on tomorrow to win the trophy as well. We’ve played Spirit a lot—we know we can win versus them. Tonight we celebrate and tomorrow we go again.” 

MOUZ’s 2–0 over Vitality ended the French‑led side’s remarkable run of seven straight tournament victories and a 37‑series win streak dating back to February. The series hinged on a composed MOUZ showing on Mirage and a convincing closeout on Train, with xertioN and torzsi delivering crucial moments as MOUZ finally converted the big points in late rounds. 

On the Vitality side, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut acknowledged an uncharacteristic off day—posting a 0.63 series rating—and said the team would review what went wrong before their next event. “It’s hard to play like this in the semi‑final of IEM Cologne… almost everything went wrong on my side,” he said. 

Brollan’s measured message came against a longer arc of his leadership story this season. Since taking over in‑game leading, he’s been open about the learning curve—calling the switch “tough” earlier in the year—yet MOUZ’s consistency has held, including a streak of deep finishes and bounce‑back wins after setbacks to Vitality earlier in the season. 

The day after

By Sunday night, Spirit slammed the door on MOUZ’s fairytale, sweeping the grand final 3–0 (Mirage 13–7, Ancient 13–11, Nuke 13–6) to complete the coveted trio of Katowice, Major, and Cologne titles this year. donk led the way and later collected the event MVP, while MOUZ’s chronic T‑side issues reappeared under pressure. 

Even in defeat, Brollan was one of MOUZ’s brighter performers in the final, spearheading several CT‑side surges—most notably on Ancient—before Spirit’s composure flipped the map and the series.