siuhy: "I think we can all be proud of the result"

The Polish captain is pleased with his team's progress since Bucharest. "We can compete against the best teams," he said.

Liquid were eliminated from IEM Melbourne 2025 in the quarter-final stage following a 2-1 defeat to The MongolZ, who came back from a map down to reach the top-four stage of the Australian event.

This was only Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek's second tournament at the helm of Liquid after taking the reins from Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken. At PGL Bucharest, the team had gone out 0-3 in the Swiss stage without a single map win; for siuhy, beating 3DMAX, Virtus.pro and Natus Vincere shows progress is clear.

"Obviously, we are competitors, and we love to compete, so going out in the quarter-finals is a little bit sad for us," the Polish tactician told HLTV. "But at the same time, we need to look at the positives, that we actually reached the quarter-finals in such a short period of time. I think we can all be proud of the result."

siuhy admitted it has been a "very stressful" month for everyone, having joined Liquid while the season was underway. There has been no downtime as everyone has been working around the clock in an effort to bring the team back to the top.

"Now it's time for some off-time for us as players because we had, like, one day off or two days off throughout the last three weeks, constantly working, and I feel like it's a well-deserved little break for us now," he said.

Next up on the calendar is IEM Dallas, a very important event for Liquid as a team and organization. The quarter-final run in Melbourne has lifted everyone's spirits, but siuhy said it's too early to have any expectations for the tournament. For now, he wants to focus on the process, rather than the result.

"It's all about getting to know what we can do in this period of time and then making sure we use all that experience for the Major," he explained.

Read more in the interview below, or listen to it on Spotify.

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You couldn't make it out of the quarter-finals. Still, it was a very close series against The MongolZ. You got off to a good start, but you couldn't close it out. Considering where you were two weeks ago when you went out 0-3 in Budapest, your first tournament leading the team, I would say that you have to be happy with the progress your team has made in just two weeks, right?

Yeah, definitely. We had a talk after we lost against The MongolZ and we knew that, when we look back at 2-3 weeks ago, we have to be satisfied with the amount of progress we made in such a short period of time. Obviously, we are competitors and we love to compete, so going out in the quarter-finals is a little bit sad for us, but at the same time, we need to look at the positives, that we actually reached the quarter-finals in such a short period of time. I think we can all be proud of the result.

What are the main takeaways from this event? You managed to beat VP and NAVI, so obviously big names — especially NAVI, VP are not in good shape right now — so what are the main lessons you take from this event?

There are a few takeaways for us. Definitely that we can compete against the best teams. Against Vitality, it wasn't the result that we would have liked, but they are the number-one team in the world at the end of the day. It was a tough game against them, but against a team like NAVI, where we performed, where we showed up, that meant a lot to us because it kind of showed us a little bit of a bright light when we were in a little dark hole after Bucharest, going out 0-3. It kind of proved to us that the potential we have is there and we are able to use that potential, so it definitely gave us a lot of confidence coming into the MongolZ game.

Even against The MongolZ, they are a very good team, so being one map up and then basically losing the game through our own mistakes... it just shows there are a lot of positives from that.

What was it like to play in front of a crowd like this? It had been a while for everyone on the team, and you were gone for a spell, so what was it like to play in an arena with the crowd roaring? In this case, they were pretty much against you because of what happened with Justin [jks], but can you explain what everyone felt?

It was amazing. I really enjoyed playing in front of the crowd, I missed it. Last time I played was in Shanghai at the Major, and I definitely missed this part of the sport. For me, it doesn't matter if they cheer against you or for you. The fact is that they are still there, they are basically the ones creating esports and they are making that moment very special for everyone on the server, so it's a blessing to be there and play in front of them. Especially the Australian crowd, where they can have a lot of fun, you just look up and there's a guy in a costume, so it's definitely fun to play.

Walk me through the process since you joined the team. By the time you went to Bucharest it had only been a few days since you joined the team. What has it been like to come into a team like this during the middle of the season and try to create your own system, leave your own imprint on the team with no downtime, no rest or anything?

Honestly, it's been very stressful ever since I joined. We tried to make the most out of every hour we had as a team. The few practices we had at home and then the few practices we had at bootcamp as well, we just tried to really get the most out of every single moment that we had together. Which, looking back now, didn't pay off for Bucharest and that's a bit of a bummer, but the work we put in there and how maybe we put a bit of pressure on ourselves from that work definitely paid off here.

That's kind of the theme for this team, that we cannot be looking for results instantly. These guys are coming off of a different chapter in their team, and I'm coming in as well, and we basically all are opening a new page in the book right now. The time has been very stressful, I think we managed to get what we wanted from it, especially here in Melbourne, so I'm happy with the result. Now it's time for some off-time for us as players because we had, like, one day off or two days off throughout the last three weeks, constantly working, and I feel like it's a well-deserved little break for us now.

Back in Bucharest you said you were still trying to figure out what kind of player NertZ is. Do you have a better picture now, because at this tournament in particular, he seemed to be playing at the level that we used to see from him back in HEROIC and ENCE.

Yeah. NertZ is an amazing player. When you understand him and know what you need from him on the server, it's very good when you utilize it as well. That's why I'm trying to talk to him a little bit outside of the game, get to know him a little bit more, see what kind of player I will get on the server today or tomorrow, and that helps me a lot to also call accordingly. If I see that he's going to have a lot of ideas today, then I'm going to use that to our advantage and I'm going to allow him to call, allow him to bring those ideas because he is in those roles where he is taking the map control as well. It's not only me, it's him as well, and it's other players that it goes for as well, it's not only him. Twistzz is also giving ideas during the game.

So a lot of these things I was always looking for as an IGL, that players are following up with my plan but they're making the plan much better as well by their little ideas. I feel like one of my strong abilities is to connect the dots when someone is calling something, so if NertZ wants something, if Twistzz, ultimate, or NAF want something, then I believe I'm pretty fast at coordinating other players to his plan. So yeah, I think we're working on a good dynamic.

Anubis is looking like a home map for you, here you won all three games on it. I think that's very important for a team like yours because, for a while, the map pool for the team was a bit all over the place. Can you give me your thoughts on your map pool right now?

In Bucharest, we didn't really know what kind of map pool we have yet, what our strengths are, what our weaknesses are, we didn't really know what map we should be looking out for or what we should be focusing on. Coming into Melbourne, we had somewhat of an idea of what we liked to play, what we were good at, and we tried to utilize that. There were some maps that we were good at in practice, and then in officials, it didn't turn out that well. There are some maps that still need to be worked on, which is a normal thing, so we have a better idea of what the map pool is looking like for us right now, but it's still a work in progress.

Obviously, Anubis is a strong map, it's something that I've never played before, but it's my first time playing it and I'm coming into a team that really liked the map, it was one of their best maps as well, so I would like to adapt to that and allow my players to continue playing that map. And I always liked the map, especially the T sides. This is a very proactive map on both sides. On T side, the rotations are very fast in terms of, you can fake call a lot, you can make a lot of small gimmicks on the map for an IGL, and that's what I like to do a lot. I feel pretty comfortable on the map.

Now you have almost three weeks to prepare for Dallas. You're going to have a bit of a break now before you start preparing for that one. What can you say about your expectations for the tournament, considering how far you made it here?

I don't think there are any expectations, there is no pressure on us to go to the playoffs or anything like that. For us, it's just to continue the progress that we have been making. I don't want to sit here and say that we should be making playoffs or anything like this. It's hard to say what we can do with this roster yet. The potential is there, Dallas is the next tournament, and after that, the big focus is obviously the Major. It's all about getting to know what we can do in this period of time and then making sure we use all that experience for the Major. We're going to have some time off now before Dallas, then we're going to get back to practice and start working on our craft again.