sycrone: "A decision like this is never sudden"

MOUZ's coach explains the team's shocking decision to replace siuhy following the first event of the season.

Just when it looked like the transfer season was over, MOUZ pulled the rug from under the whole community when, after just one loss into the new season at BLAST Bounty, the organization announced the decision to bench Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek.

The move was made all the more surprising when it was also revealed that Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin would be taking up captaincy for the first time in his career, and that the team's permanent replacement for siuhy, Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi, would not be able to play at IEM Katowice due to a roster lock.

Instead, the team traveled to one of the biggest events of the season with a stand-in, academy prospect Adrian "⁠xelex⁠" Vincze, prompting many in the community to wonder just how badly things must have gone in the MOUZ camp.

In an interview with HLTV, MOUZ's coach, sycrone, denies the idea that the move came down to personal issues or that it was made in a rush.

"A decision like this is never sudden," the Dane says. "Throughout last year and all the time we worked with Kamil, there were differences in the vision. I heard some rumors in the community that, personally, we were upset with him, or that there's something around this area, but that was never the case."

He delves further into the decision-making process behind the shock change in the interview, which you can find in full below:

If you can't see the embed above, you can listen to the audio recording of this interview on Soundcloud.

Talk me through this whole situation, this process where during the off-season you decide on no changes despite there being some issues last year, and then suddenly things change after the first event of the year.

I understand that the timeline looks a little bit questionable, and for sure it is, also in hindsight something we could have done over the break. At that time we were very occupied with making sure we could keep Jimi on a good contract, also to give the break a little bit of time and see how it would play out in the next season.

To touch on Jimi there, did you see a possibility that you might have to replace him?

It definitely was a possibility. I would hope it wasn't and I'm happy we managed to keep him on a contract.

So tell me about how it goes from finishing Bounty so early and making the decision after the fact. What happens in that time that makes you realize so suddenly that this is not going to work?

First of all, a decision like this is never sudden. Throughout last year and all the time we worked with Kamil, at times there were differences, also in the vision. I heard some rumors in the community that, personally, we were upset with him, or that there's something around this area, but that was never the case. We came out of it in a good way. The boys grew up with each other, right, and always had a good time.

Maybe just at times we didn't fully get along professionally, and I think this is where it came into play. After three weeks off and coming back at the start of the season, we could feel that we're going into a tough time here, and maybe it's better for both parties, even if it is a rough time, to part ways now.

But you're coming into one of the biggest tournaments of the season and you make this decision, not only to put a new guy in the in-game leader position who has never done it before but also come in with a stand-in. Why not make the decision to just play out Katowice and then to move on?

There's never a good timing for these things. There are roster locks for other tournaments, and if things aren't going great already — you saw the BetBoom game —, we could try to work through it again and see how good of an event we could have in Katowice, or we could just make the decision and move forwards.

How do you then go to decide Brollan is going become an in-game leader as someone who's never been in this position before? What made you confident that that was the move forward?

Actually, Ludvig stepped forward and said he would like to take on the challenge. I think he has some qualities that a good leader would have — or a good tactical leader, I would say. He watches a lot of games, he really enjoys preparing, and in a lot of his career was quite a playmaker and he enjoys that part of the game. I would say he's also a bit unselfish at times. I think these are good qualities to have in a player and also in a tactician.

In terms of communication and leadership is where he has some shortcomings, and this is stuff we'll have to work on. But I think he has a pretty good starting point and he's very eager to learn.

Did you already discuss this option beforehand in that process where you weren't sure whether this was going to be the lineup, or did this happen only at a point where you realized it wasn't going to be the lineup?

In my position as a coach, you always have to consider what the roster would look like and what the possibilities are. Since the Kamil decision wasn't just overnight, I was considering, if we at some point had to make a change, what could we do there?

Was Spinx someone, again, that you had in mind, potentially in that Jimi conversation, where it would have been a good replacement for him as well?

Spinx, for a long time it was publicly known that things weren't that great in Vitality. He also had reached out to us a few times, I think he also did to other teams, just to test the waters, what it would be like for him if he joined a team like that.

At least in MOUZ we imagine ourselves in a position now where it's not just about if we can keep players but also attract top players and make it very exciting for them to be here, not just in terms of the setup but also the structure we can offer, also contracts and stuff.

What do you think are going to be the steps that are going to make it possible to reach the level you were at in the second part of the season? Do you feel that there's going to be a bit of a transitional period?

Looking at the timeline, of course we're at Katowice and we have a stand-in, we're gonna bring Spinx in and bootcamp here going into PGL so that we have a little bit of playing time.

It will be a transitional period. If you saw our games today, you also see some players playing new positions and having different responsibilites, and this will take time, not just the leadership change. It's one step back now, but I'm sure we're gonna take two steps forward in the future. We always have, we always will.

Once Spinx does come in, he's going to be the one who's going to be taking over Brollan's former positions and Brollan slot more into what we would have expected from siuhy?

I think you'll have to wait and see when we play.

What do you think could be the upside of this change down the line? Do you think that this lineup could reach higher than the previous?

I think it could. We obviously had a great year with Kamil and reached new peaks for everyone on the team. The steps to get there is slowly working on it. What it gives us in the short term is a new look on things, a new perspective, things are a little bit exciting again. We've created some forwards momentum.

Sometimes, when you're with a group for a long time, it's not just that you get tired of each other, but maybe you need some fresh perspective, you need some input. I think a guy like Spinx, who had a lot of playtime on top teams, comes in with a different view on how to do things. He's been on that stage, he's won at Cologne and also at a Major, so I'm hoping he brings some of that to the server.