Stat Check: siuhy offers Liquid a way out of their T side nightmare

siuhy's new home offers great upside for both parties.

There were calls for a specialist in-game leader in Liquid long before Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek was surprisingly benched by MOUZ.

But once that happened, it became a clamour.

It was a move that made sense on so many levels: siuhy is the outstanding in-game leader of the new generation, Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken would be freed up as a fragger again, and you can lose the role clash between Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic.

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Sources: Liquid target siuhy

It makes so much sense that you almost assume it will never happen. But, Liquid general manager Steve "jokasteve" Perino has made it so. They have got their man.

Bish bash bosh, trophies await. Or is it more complicated than that? Let's find out.

The place to start is that a leadership change was absolutely necessary.

Liquid had a 47.6% T side win-rate overall with Twistzz as in-game leader in LAN matches between top 20 teams, the fourth worst of anyone.

But when you look deeper, and remember that their home map was the T-sided Anubis in this period, that figure looks even worse: It drops to a staggering 43.8% without Anubis, at the bottom of the pile and worse than Falcons (including the old lineup), Complexity, and MIBR.

Twistzz's Liquid were below average on every single T side they played, except their trusty Anubis. On Nuke and Mirage, Liquid had 38.4% and 38.8% T side win rates respectively.

This is down to more than just the Canadian's calling. Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis was a free opening death for the first six months. NAF and jks took time to find a balance in terms of who would be more aggressive in their lurks (although they never really found it). Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak has a 0.98 rating on T side in that period.

But Twistzz (and departing coach Torbjørn "⁠mithR⁠" Nyborg) have to shoulder most of the blame. The duo's time together saw Liquid remain hopeless on T side, as Twistzz failed to get the best out of his players or himself. He has a 1.02 T rating — a good bit below the 1.10 he had in the Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller lineup at the start of 2024 in the same roles. Leadership was a waste of his considerable talent.

siuhy comes in to fix that. In this pizza chart, we are comparing him to other in-game leaders to result in a score out of 100.

The Pole is above average in fragging, and in sacrificial stats like traded deaths percentage and flash assists. He is a stereotypical in-game leader, a selfless player who has moulded himself on the likes of Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen but, at 22, is a far better fragger than the elder statesmen of the scene.

"siuhy would balance Liquid out a lot on T side," his former GamerLegion coach Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye told HLTV in the siuhy fans come here podcast last month. "He gives a lot of structure, and a lot of top quality mid-round calling which is his biggest strength."

Given jks' drop in form below a 1.00 rating this year, the move is arguably a firepower upgrade once you account for the likely improvement in Twistzz's level now that he does not need to stay up late preparing gameplans.

The selflessness also solves the main issue with the Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz lineup, namely the lack of a natural bombsite entry. Now, we can have siuhy making space for Twistzz as the primary trade fragger, NAF as a supportive lurker, and NertZ free to make the solo plays that he made his name with.

That assumption is built into the move but we know it's not always that easy; Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and YEKINDAR can tell you as much.

Once a player has been an in-game leader, we know they can have trouble returning to being a regular player. Eyes are always on the radar, the mind is always on other teammates, and the focus on the crosshair just slips that little bit.

Something that might help Twistzz is that he will be away from the map control pack on T side, if siuhy comes in and NertZ keeps his spacetaker roles.

Twistzz spoke about playing in-game leader roles as a key part of what initially attracted him to playing under cadiaN at the start of 2024, roles which allow you to float around the map and be more aggressive than he could on FaZe.

But Twistzz was perhaps the best semi-lurker in the world under karrigan in FaZe — and those are the roles to which he should return.

When we say semi-lurker, we mean a player who often starts in lurk positions but becomes the aggressor in mid-round 3v3s, or returns to the team for executes.

Think of the dynamic with him, Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, and Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants and you understand why that worked so well in terms of aggression balance (and also why jks and NAF didn't).

So in our predictions we've got Twistzz in FaZe roles, NAF as the full-time lurker, and NertZ as the spacetaker. That's a balanced trio that siuhy should be able to get the most out of.

Defence is more of a puzzle. siuhy had a mix of CT positions in MOUZ, but clearly preferred rotator positions like Connector on Mirage. There, he was in the centre of the map and able to keep control on defence as well as offense; he was more from the Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire style of CT leadership school than Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen.

For all the struggles on T, Twistzz always ran a tight ship as in-game leader on CT with a 53% win-rate (the 4th best). Recently we have often heard of teams having different primary callers on attack and defence, with in-game leaders often shunted to the side of the map as anchors, and that seems the easiest solution here.

That means Twistzz and NertZ continuing as rotators, with the Canadian as the primary shotcaller on CT. It's a proven template, with Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač the main example of a star CT caller.

It does require siuhy to give up some of the control he had in MOUZ, an interesting proposition for a caller some have characterized as partial to a micro-manage.

The 22-year-old will also have to deal with big names, proven trophy winners who won't shy away from a conflict (or a coup — just ask cadiaN).

We also are still at a loss as to why siuhy was removed from MOUZ in the first place, with the team keeping it vague with terms like "differing visions." Given their success under Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin, even in arenas, was siuhy as good as his reputation? Was his success down to highly rated coaches like ash and Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen?

These questions are all hanging over the young Pole. His benching was the first hiccup in what has been a mightily successful career from WePlay Academy League domination, to a Major final in GamerLegion before ESL Pro League trophies at MOUZ.

Liquid is a different challenge, and siuhy will start PGL Bucharest alone with data analyst and self-admitted CS outsider Jay "⁠DeMars DeRover⁠" Li as the team's substitute coach.

He is also joining on a short-term three-month loan deal, at least initially, giving him a short window to prove he is worth a big buyout in the summer.

Liquid have been stuck in a cycle of changes. siuhy's job is to provide the stability they have been lacking.

siuhy has plenty in his in-tray when it comes to achieving that goal. He must cast aspersions on the doubts around not only upon himself but all four of his new teammates.

Twistzz can be an immensely useful secondary caller, with bags of experience and the talent to be a top 20 player once more — if siuhy can keep a lid on his leadership aspirations.

NertZ is a star rifler as skilled as any siuhy has worked with, despite his drop-off in March, but his approach will differ to previous spacetakers Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan or Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman in what is still a new role for him.

NAF is 27, with 1045 LAN maps on the clock, and has dropped below a 1.00 rating in 2025. That's fine for a supportive element, but he needs to be a top anchor on CT side at least.

ultimate has the mechanical ability to be a top AWPer, and, in a market starved of alternatives, siuhy will need to mold him into one. That's a lot of work for one in-game leader who has no coach behind him, but everything we hear about him indicates that he has the ability, and the nerve, to pull it off. A move to Liquid is his chance to prove it.