Since July 2025, Wildcard’s Counter-Strike 2 team has undergone a series of roster changes, and Love “phzy” Smidebrant, who just returned to the squad, opened up about team rumors regarding some behind-the-scenes drama.
Phzy returned to the American org just hours before the team’s Fragville campaign started. In an interview with Dust2.us, he said he enjoyed his short stint as a loanee at 9INE and appreciated reconnecting with teammates, including stanislaw, JBa, and vinS, and even found success with them. However, Wildcard’s sudden recall left him mentally stressed, with little time to prepare.
Wildcard had previously benched phzy, along with Tim “susp” Ångström and Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz. That hurt the team’s ranking and fans, who hoped Wildcard would be North America’s next big thing, were left disappointed.
The players weren’t told ahead of time and learned about being benched only a day before the news went public. This made it even more difficult for them to look for new opportunities, with Phzy describing the roster reshuffle as “handled very poorly.”
The biggest shock was when phzy said he’d heard that a manager used ChatGPT to suggest new teammates. When asked if the rumor was true, he replied, “Yep.” It was funny for the Swedish CS2 professional, especially since the team did well before these changes happened.
Phzy admitted regaining trust won’t be easy following what some describe as the “worst moves of 2025.” “It’s something you always have in the back of your head,” he said. “Also, the Stewie2K decision, I feel like I got a bit betrayed by the organization, obviously, and then getting benched. It’s tough giving them another chance, but there’s not much else I can do, right?”
Despite all this, he’s committed to doing his part to turn things around.”I’ve got to focus on playing, and that’s it,” he said.
He praised stanislaw’s leadership and his initial impression of new teammates Peeping and F1KU was positive, noting their in-game communication and effective support for team calls.
Wildcard’s new roster barely had any practice before their next event, so phzy thinks their success will depend on individual talent, not teamwork. As they prepare for their match against Fluxo, the team hopes that creativity and effort will matter more than anything an algorithm can suggest.
