sAw: "I think SunPayus will feel the joy again with this team"

The Finnish coach shares his thoughts on HEROIC's new core, working with SunPayus again, the fifth spot on the roster, and more at BLAST Bounty.

It was a hectic off-season for HEROIC's coach, Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha, after his team lost its core to Falcons, and the other two players, Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz and Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck, went to Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas, respectively.

Despite the setbacks, sAw is happy with the way things have been turning out so far in 2025 and sees potential in the young former Sangal trio that came to the team during the winter break alongside former ENCE AWPer Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García, where the Finn and Spaniard first met.

During the media day ahead of the BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals, sAw spoke to HLTV about the hectic period and what he sees in his new team, which will have to compete with Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković instead of Andrey "⁠tN1R⁠" Tatarinovich in Copenhagen.

Read more

HEROIC issue update on nilo as Maden steps in for Bounty Finals

The Belarusian player himself was a substitute for Linus "⁠nilo⁠" Bergman, HEROIC's initial signing during the off-season, but he proved himself and earned a spot in the starting five during the online portion of the BLAST Bounty in HEROIC's victories over 3DMAX and Liquid.

Read more about how the team was brought together and sAw's first impressions of his new players, the team dynamics with SunPayus, and how things have been going so far in the interview below.

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First of all, tell me how the off-season was, being left behind again?

[Laughs] Being left behind.

The player break was a busy time. When the Major ended, we knew there would most likely be a lot of things happening, like a big shuffle coming, and then it would be interesting to see where we are at this point. But yeah, busy times with so many moves happening, and for us, things went from A to B to C, and there were different plans created all of the time.

As a coach, do you relish that challenge because it's one of the only times when you really have the chance to show your impact on a team? By building a new team from scratch, it gives you a lot of credit. Do you relish those opportunities?

Yeah, I think that every change like this gives you the opportunity to create something new. I must say it wasn't my intention, in any way, to start all over again because I would have loved to continue with the team we had and try to make improvements in the roster we had and try to reach even higher peaks with that team.

But in the end, it's also a business, and if you get a good offer for the core of the team, it can make sense. I can see that, and it gives you the opportunity to see what's out there and what kind of team you can build.

From my side, it was kind of clear from the beginning that it would be quite important to get the core of a team just because of how the Valve ranking works. The Sangal core looked like a promising one with good young players, and to bring those guys in was a clear solution at that moment.

What did you think of how the ranking works in that you need a core? Do you think it limits your freedom, or would you have gotten a core anyway and gone that way?

I think the ranking limits you. It's not made in an optimal way, and you need to have three players who hold all of the points. I think maybe some kind of mix, like the ESL ranking, where the players hold some points by themselves, could work, as well.

You'd just need to be balanced, so you would still need to obtain some kind of base of a lineup to keep the structure. You couldn't just pick five different players, and they hold 100% of the points they have had in the past. But I think there could be way better solutions. I think it's just the start of it for now, for this year, with the Valve ranking, and I hope it will be optimized for the future.

The Sangal core got a lot of attention for some good results online, but what did you see in the young trio that attracted you to them other than just the ranking points?

I saw them play last year and saw how they performed. They played a really good EPL when they beat FaZe, they beat us, and they had a really good core of players. Overall, the whole team they had with young players and they were able to show their peak level, so you knew there was something more there. They showed their peak level and that kind of gives you the promise that they can reach higher, they just need some optimization in the lineup, some more structure, and some things like experience, also, to bring them a bit further.

LNZ as an in-game leader is already showing good signs now that I've been able to work with him some days, some weeks, he's showing a lot of good signs about how he's seeing the game, how he's calling the game. Then yxngstxr is also showing good signs as a supportive rifle playing anchor positions. He has good firepower, he can handle himself in these tough situations, and they're pretty active players. Then the last one, xfl0ud, is also an aggressive player who can play these playmaker positions and show that aggression.

It's a pretty nice mix of young players bringing aggression and showing the activity that you need in CS2. You can't be too passive; you have to rely on these individual players to read the game and make moves when needed.

How would you compare LNZ to Snappi, who's super experienced, or kyxsan, who is kind of in the middle? How would you describe working with an IGL like LNZ?

LNZ is a really nice, outgoing guy, and he shows to the team that he cares about the team. He cares about the players he's playing with and cares about their opinions, but he's not shying away from taking the leadership, taking control of the team. It's nice to see that even though he's young, he still has decent experience from all the way back in NIP and then playing in these different iterations of teams like NIP, Young Ninjas, and now Sangal.

He's showing the experience he has gained during that time playing with many different players. Now he's able to handle these guys, as well, so I think he's a good mix of new leadership, fresh in-game leading, having some structure from the past, and then I think I can help him get the rest, so he'll be a really good promising in-game leader in the future.

The reunion with SunPayus, as well. It comes up all of the time that he's the kind of player who needs to have fun when he's playing. How has Falcons changed him, do you think? Is it really important for him to get back with you and feel that joy again?

I think he will feel the joy again with this team. I hope with me, at least, but then, of course, with these young guys, as well. I can see it already; it's lighting a spark inside him when he sees them hyping up TeamSpeak and hearing the joy in the morning when they join TeamSpeak, and we start the theory sessions or whatever. It might be long days, but all these guys are showing such good energy that I think SunPayus is also getting it from them.

Now it's a bit of a different situation for him as he's the oldest player in the lineup, so he can bring some leadership into the mix, as well, and show his experience, so it kind of goes nicely both ways; he can show experience for the younger guys, but the younger guys will be able to lift his energy back up even more, and then we can build from that for the future, so it's nice to see.

What was the transfer market like for you? HEROIC got a huge windfall in terms of money, so what was it like for you trying to attract talent?

Financially, from what I understood, we were able to do moves from the beginning of the transfer season, and it shouldn't have been a problem to get some upgrades for the lineup or think about what we can do with the lineup to make improvements for the next season.

In the end, it's also a business, and HEROIC needs to make smart decisions, so it's good for them in the long run and the future. That's what I understood, and like I said, I would have wanted to keep the lineup, but then things happened — business happened —, and we needed to move on, we needed to look for other opportunities.

We had a lot of options going back and forth. There were a lot of talks. There were so many organizations on the market at the same time. It's really mixed. It goes back and forth. You have so many talks with players, organizations, agents are involved, all sorts of contracts and everything, so it's really complicated how it all goes down.

Things happen quickly, and also because of the holidays. One day, it's this, and the next day, things can happen, you know? So it goes kind of fast, but I'm not too disappointed about the situation. I think we got a promising lineup, and we can do a lot of good damage.

One question mark is the fifth player on the lineup, of course, because of the nilo situation. Can you kind of add any comments to what HEROIC have already said about nilo?

Yeah, I mean, the plan from the beginning was that we get the Sangal core, we get SunPayus, and then we get nilo, but then, as I said, things change. It wasn't because of the team or anything, it was because nilo had some personal things come up and that changed the plans for us, so we had to again, in a fast pace, look for another guy that we can feel comfortable joining the lineup.

That's when we got tN1R to play the role, and there, I think we also did a good job at finding someone who could fit the team and bring something extra. In his terms, it's going to be firepower that he can bring a lot to the team, which is already nice. But those things also happen fast, and now the plan is to keep these five and work with these five, and hopefully, at some point, nilo will return to the server — whether it's on our team or another team, I don't know, but we'll see.

The wording in the statement was a bit funny because it was like he has to fight for his place on the team, but also that you're fully committed to this lineup. What do you mean by that 'on another team' comment? Him leaving the team without even playing a map, is that a real possibility?

It's hard to say right now. The most important thing for me is that the five players we have right now feel comfortable in the lineup, and their place is not like nilo is hanging around in the back and will suddenly take someone's spot.

Right now, we need to give nilo time, and we need to give the other guys time, so the five guys are safe right now. We're working with them, we're working with this lineup, and that's the only goal we have. Then, we need to assess things again in the future when nilo is better and ready to play again.

I compare tN1R to GamerLegion picking up FL4MUS. We know there's a lot of talent in Russia, but not many Western teams are picking up those Russian players. Maybe visas are part of that. But what is it like having a player from a different culture, a different mentality, almost?

It is a different mentality. I experienced some of it with degster already, and now tN1R is the second player coming from this region, and it's a different working culture — all sorts of culture. But I think he fits in nicely. His work ethic is really good, and he's also a really energetic, active kind of guy, talking a lot and bringing ideas. His English still needs improvements, but it's already at a good level, a CS basics level, and the communication in the server is good.

Also, the visa issue is, of course, one thing, but it looks like it's only going to be this first tournament now that we're going to use a stand-in. Thanks to Maden for joining us here, but yeah, tN1R looks like a good fit, and I don't think it will be an issue to get his English up to the level where he's comfortable with it and get him up to speed with a more international style of playing CS. I don't really see issues because he's a smart player, so he seems like a good fit.

What do you make of the Bounty format? Is it hard to prepare? You're the number eight seed, so you get the last pick. Is it really difficult for you to have that short window of preparation?

This time around, we have a bit more time than we had in round two. I think we had the draft and it was like nine hours. Now it's going to be, I think, like 20 hours, so a bit more, but it's still not a lot of time. It limits you, of course, but on the other hand, with us being a new lineup and having a stand-in, I think we have the upper hand in terms of anti-strats, so we can look into the team we're playing more than they can look into us.

Also, in terms of the map veto and everything, we have no pressure, so we can throw in surprises more easily, and they can't read us so much. In those terms, we have a small advantage, at least.