BanKs on siuhy: “He had more than enough time to try to make it work.”
Host and analyst James “BanKs” Banks commented on rumors of Johnny “JT” Teodosio to Team Liquid, assessed Kamil “siuhy” Škaradek’s performance as team captain, and shared his thoughts on the future of sniper Roland “ultimate” Tomkovjak.
On JT’s possible move to Team Liquid
siuhy wasn’t a bad captain, but it just didn’t work out at Liquid. He had different coaches, and there were a lot of roster changes. It wasn’t a stable period during which he could build anything. But I think he had more than enough time to try to make it all work. He went through a period when NAF was in a slump. He went through the arrivals of malbsMd and EliGE. In short, a lot of players came and went under his leadership. He also went through Twistzz’s departure. On top of that, for a while he didn’t even have a full-time coach—just a temporary one. So he had to deal with a lot of nonsense, which, of course, was painful. But he never managed to steer the ship in the direction Liquid wanted to go. And remember, we’ve said this many times: Liquid is a massive organization. They need results. They weren’t even close to making the playoffs. I might be wrong, but I can’t even remember the last time Liquid made the playoffs.
On the talks between JT and Liquid
I can confirm this rumor. JT is indeed the person they’re considering. And it makes perfect sense. JT has never worked with truly strong players before. He had EliGE for a short period. Imagine if he were to get his hands on the current roster. He’s a captain who’s willing to sacrifice himself, create space, and build a game plan alongside EliGE. And EliGE likes to have a second voice on the team, and JT has already agreed to that model before. But there’s another rumor: JT wasn’t planning to make the move without his coach, T.c. However, I’ve heard from very reliable sources within Liquid that flashie will remain on the team. Does this mean that negotiations with JT are falling through? At this point—it doesn’t seem so. It looks like T.c. won’t be joining. Perhaps he’ll be offered a role as an assistant coach or something along those lines. But JT is still the main target. That’s the direction they want to go in. If JT turns down this move just because he can’t join alongside T.c., it would be a serious mistake for him and his career.
On Ultimate’s Future
One more thing. I don’t understand why no one is talking about this yet. They need to find a replacement for ultimate. I’d say: sign r1nkle right now, but he’s already been signed. If they don’t find a new sniper soon enough, I honestly don’t understand what they expect from Ultimate beyond what he’s already shown. At the same time, Ultimate is currently the second-longest-tenured player on the team.
Earlier on the podcast, James “BanKs” Banks discussed Álvaro “SunPayus” García’s move to G2 Esports’ bench, commented on Jeremy “Kursy” Gast’s transfer to 3DMAX, and spoke about the end of Alexander Zinchenko’s partnership with Passion UA.
Photo by Stefan Petrescu, PGL.
