M8 Oski: "I've never had an organization where the support is as much as it is"

Gentle Mates showed great character against Team Falcons at the Rocket League Esports World Cup and were one goal away from nearly completing the reverse sweep in their 2-3 series loss. The result sends them to the Lower Bracket Semifinals, where they will face the winner of the best-of-five between Wildcard and MIBR.LOS.

Following the defeat, Oskar “Oski” Gozdowski spoke to us about the loss, how Erling Haaland inspires him, what it feels like to play in front of the M8 crowd, and representing England at the Esports Nations Cup in 2027.

Oskar "Oski" Gozdowski: I don't think I played my best individually. As a team, we were pretty good. We started off pretty slow, but I'm proud that we came back in the last two games. It was a Game 5, 0-2 goals, anyone could win at that point, so it's okay.

Oski: The things that went wrong, I'm not going to say right now, obviously. But to be honest, the things that we thought went wrong, we tried to fix, and I think we did well in this one. I just think that it wasn't the same problem this time. It was more of an individual issue, and maybe a team issue, but the things that were a problem in Paris are fixed now.

Oski: Same as any other tournament. We just scrimmed, played a lot of ranked, and that's kind of what there is to it when you prepare for these tournaments. Obviously, you work as a team, you have mental coaches, you do stuff outside the game, but in-game, it's usually the same stuff: just scrims and series.

Oski: To be honest, the more tournaments, the better. You play better, but that's just how the season works. We can't really change that. But personally, I don't really mind. We have scrims, so that's enough to be ready.

Oski: Oh, Haaland, yes. He was just playing incredible at the World Cup, and I watched his YouTube videos. He seems very humble, so I like that about him. And he seemed like he didn't really care about the result, which I try to take inspiration from because, at the end of the day, you try your best, and that's all you can do.

After today, it's quite hard to bounce back from the loss. Nass (Nassim Bali) is a fairly new player, so he struggles a little bit more than me and Archie (Archie Pickthall). But compared to when I used to play, I used to be a lot more sad or angry after a series. Now I'm a bit more chilled out.

Oski: Archie is Harry Kane, and I'd say Nass is... hmm, I'd say Hakimi.

Oski: It gives you another reason to play for. I've never had an org where the support is as much as it is on Twitter, in person, everywhere. We even went to the COD Major as a team, and we're just walking around and everyone's screaming our names.

It's a lot different from any other org we've been with. It's quite surreal.

Oski: Yeah, I'll be playing for England. I'm waiting for my passport to be sorted for next year.

Oski: The reason I started playing Rocket League is because it combines things I like. I liked football ever since I was little, and I liked cars as well. It was just the perfect mixture of the two. My friend just randomly invited me to play, and it was fun, that's how it all started.

Oski: No, no. To be honest, I only played Rocket League.