Snax on joining 'Let us cook': "You learn more when you listen to younger players"

The Polish legend hopes to tutor his new teammates by passing on years' worth of experience at the tier-one level.

Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski has kick-started his latest venture in Counter-Strike with the creation of the Let us cook roster.

The team, which is currently without organisational backing, features a majority of younger talent, with the Polish veteran supported by four players all under 22 years of age.

Snax headlines this new-look quintet, coming into the squad as the most experienced player by a large margin. It's this knowledge that he hopes he'll be able to pass on to his new teammates in time, although the Major winner and four-time top 20 player of the year is steering clear of the in-game leader position for the time being despite his seniority.

"I don't think it's the time for me to be [the in-game leader]. I still didn't develop exactly how to be one in English," Snax said in a comment to HLTV.org. "I've never tried it before, so I kinda see it as hard. Obviously, I'm working on that, especially when I'm playing with other IGLs — someday I think it's gonna be time to do it... maybe [laughs]."

Playing alongside Snax on Let us cook is his compatriot, Sebastian "⁠fr3nd⁠" Kuśmierz. The 20-year-old AWPer previously played alongside another one of Poland's biggest names, Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas, in a yearlong stint with HONORIS, which ended with the marksman's benching in July 2022.

Snax is joined on the international ensemble by Alexandru "⁠s0und⁠" Ștefan. The pair will benefit from their shared time ex-Finest, where the two riflers played alongside each other from October 2022-January 2023, when the roster dissolved.

Rounding out the squad are Raul "⁠Blytz⁠" Gligor, who spent two stints at Nexus before making the jump to Enterprise for the vast majority of 2022, and Mikkel "⁠Maze⁠" Sparvath, whose last team environment was with fnatic Rising. The Dane was notably a part of the squad that went on to win WePlay Academy League Season 5, but the project was axed when the London-based organisation discontinued their developmental roster programme in early January.

Snax explains that the roster came into being thanks to the work of Jędrzej "⁠Bogdan⁠" Rokita, who has also been announced as the team's coach. "The roster just formed because of Bogdan, I was not a link between all the players," Snax added.

"I knew only s0und and fr3nd before, and Bogdan said that he wants to make a team and, if I'm interested, it would be cool if we could make a team with some youngsters so I could give them some of my experience and [teach them] how to handle other things as well."

When quizzed on why he decided to build a squad around a quartet of youngsters, Snax shared that it's difficult for a player of his age to find a team that is already established in the upper echelons of competition.

"First of all, it's pretty hard for me to get a chance in teams because players with a fair amount of experience look at it as if I'm old. For me, it's only a number, but for others, it's for sure something bad. I mean, I can understand that you want to take some 20-year-old for example, but for me, CS:GO is an offline game.

"On LAN, I was always performing good and I would like to show it again. Second of all, the perspective of playing with youngsters is also good for me because I can give something away from my experience for sure; you learn more when you are listening also to younger players, it's good for both sides."

The team has already made their debut under the Let us cook moniker, trouncing GenOne 2-0 in the CCT North Europe Series 3 group stage. The squad also tried their hand at earning an IEM Brazil berth with a run through the first online qualifier, but ultimately fell in the third round following an 8-16 defeat to HEET.

Snax and company have refrained from setting out expectations for the roster just yet, however, saying that they "didn't talk about short/long-terms [goals]. Just like everyone in CS, we want to practice and then eventually win."

Let us cook has the following roster:

Raul "⁠Blytz⁠" Gligor
Sebastian "⁠fr3nd⁠" Kuśmierz
Mikkel "⁠Maze⁠" Sparvath
Alexandru "⁠s0und⁠" Ștefan
Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski

Jędrzej "⁠Bogdan⁠" Rokita (coach)