siuhy on returning to Major playoffs: "I'm on a completely different journey now"

"Having the chance to go to a Major playoffs with my best friends that I started out with, it's a huge motivational boost," the Polish captain added.

Just under one year ago, Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek led GamerLegion to a Cinderella run at the BLAST.tv Paris Major. His team was down 0-2 in the Challengers Stage and had to face off against MOUZ, where four of siuhy's former MOUZ NXT teammates resided, and the Polish captain was forced to eliminate some of his closest friends from the Major.

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siuhy on beating ex MOUZ mates: "It hurts a lot to see my close friends struggle"

GamerLegion then made a run all the way to the grand final of the Paris Major, but couldn't beat an in-form Vitality on home soil. Soon after, siuhy departed for MOUZ to reunite with his teammates, where he has completely turned the fortunes of the team around alongside the addition of Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo. The team won their second event after the change, ESL Pro League Season 18, and have remained title-contenders since, despite the loss of star David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský to FaZe.

MOUZ's 2024 form has been fearsome, including a run to the semi-final of IEM Katowice and a flawless 3-0 run through the Europe RMR, where they became the only team to beat the full Spirit lineup on LAN. Another undefeated 3-0 run through the Elimination Stage of the Major, including an absolute demolishing of Complexity, has earned siuhy's side the first spot in the playoffs of PGL Major Copenhagen, a result that means a lot to the Polish captain as coach Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen will be able to walk out to a home crowd in the Royal Arena.

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Through to the Major playoffs, a 3-0 record and insanely dominant win to end things in this stage as well. How are you feeling after that with making it back to the Major playoffs?

Although I maybe didn't show it on cameras, it's a very emotional win. Not only for me but also for my coach. I know how much it means to him and the work that he has put in to help us get here means a lot to me, so for me to give him the Royal Arena now, to help out with that, means a lot to me and him.

Coming into this you had a bootcamp, was it a bit of a long one, like 2 weeks or something?

No, it was a very short bootcamp, I think it was five days.

In that bootcamp, can you tell me what the focus was outside of just strategies?

The bootcamp was to just sharpen up. We already knew coming into the bootcamp that we had a good structure, that what we'd been working on for a long time was there. It's just a matter of sharpening it, individually performing and being on the server. Each piece needs to align on the server so that was what we worked on. It was a really good bootcamp for us, we performed really well. That's why coming into this tournament we maybe had a little bit high expectations for ourselves because of how well we performed at the bootcamp.

Also, Xyp9x joined the team. We had a little bit of time to work with him at the bootcamp and get to know him. He brought in some really good stuff, obviously his experience is a huge factor for us. It's something that we may be missing because of how young we are as a team — probably one of the youngest here. Now, having his experience on the table means a lot to us. Sometimes the small things go overlooked on the server, but we started seeing progress in it so it's also a huge thanks to our staff.

I heard on broadcast as well with what he is bringing in terms of that experience and general help. Can you go a little more into detail, obviously without revealing too much, about what exactly he is doing to help you out with some of those things?

I will say that for now, he is a fresh member to our team, so obviously we are not trying to change the dynamic of the team and we're not trying to change too much before such a huge tournament. We've had a short time to work with him, but in this short time, he has already shown us a few tips and tricks, rounds, how you can deal with pressure or stress under these situations, what you should be thinking about, how we should treat this situation, how you should react, things like this. Also pointing out some small in-game things.

For now it's baby steps moving forward, I'm sure after the Major we will have more time to work with him and get him into the team dynamic. He's also trying to learn how we work as a team for now, so it's not like someone is coming in and changing everything how he wants. It's also a little bit of a balance between both ends.

When we talked to Brollan yesterday, he also said MOUZ also had high expectations, potentially to win the Major. Harry [NER0] mentioned that you were a dark horse, is that how you feel, or do you feel like a bit more than that?

For sure after these recent performances from us, like the practice and now the result here with going 3-0, in our heads we could definitely be thinking we can be a title contender team. But it's also very important to not get ahead of ourselves, so taking it step by step, game by game, that is going to be very important for us.

And really not overlooking each opponent because at the end of the day it is the Major, and each team is here for a reason. We cannot just pretend that if someone is out of the top 20 on HLTV it means they can't perform. It's very scary to play every team, and for us, at the minute, it's possibly a title-contender competition.

Losing frozen seemed like it would be a really big blow, but with Brollan you've been playing really well. There was the loss in Kato which hurt I'm sure, but that with the RMR performance and general level you've been showing... I think a lot of people didn't expect you to bounce back immediately.

How are you feeling with the integration of that and the general level that you're able to still show from your side?

So this is a huge part of how we work as a team. We are building a long-term project for ourselves, so a big thanks to our staff members, our psychologist, the two coaches now. We are able to build a system where a player can come in and he can shine by being free and by also having a balance and adapting to each other.

We've been doing a really good job at that, and I feel like that is what allows a switch like David [frozen] and Ludde [Brollan] to happen. Where Brollan can come in and we can adapt to him, he can also adapt to us really fast. Maybe not changing the structure or the system of the team so much, and at the same time still making him feel comfortable. We've all been doing a really good job of building a system that works for everyone.

If we go back almost a year to when we were in Paris, you ended up knocking MOUZ out of the Challengers Stage in the 0-2 game. We talked back then, and it was a hard result for you because you were eliminating some of your old teammates. To come back almost a year later and bring them to the Major playoffs, what does that mean to you?

I will say that I'm on a completely different journey now. What happened with GamerLegion, happened with GamerLegion. Now, it's important for me to move on and not just think about that result. Obviously it was a very good result, but now I have different teammates, different dynamic of the team, different structure, different system. How we work here and the journey that we have here is a lot different to what we had in GamerLegion.

Being here with the guys now and being able to perform so well after not even a year of being together, it means a lot to me. Especially because of how close we are as teammates and what we've been through, the journey that we had up to this point, it means a lot to me. Having the chance to go to a Major playoffs with them, with my best friends that I started out with, it's a huge motivational boost. Knowing we can all do this together and we're still doing it together.

It is a different journey, but last year you obviously had the Cinderella run to the grand final. How do you feel now with this performance, the 3-0, going toward the playoffs of this Major while we see some of the other teams struggling a bit?

It's amazing feeling to go through 3-0, especially because we believe that this is the Major and every team can be dangerous. Whether they are above top 20 or whatever, we play against each opponent and we know it's going to be a dangerous game no matter what. They are here for a reason and we are here for a reason, so we're going to battle it out on the server. Going 3-0 in this fashion with this dominant performance means a lot, and I'm really proud of the team for this result.

How do you feel about going into the Royal Arena?

I'm really excited to play there. I've only watched it from home, never had a chance to play there, never had a chance to be there. Now going in there, I heard it's great, and I'm excited to be on the journey with my coach in the Royal Arena.