Wildcard recall phzy from 9INE loan after 1 month

Swedish AWPer Love "⁠phzy⁠" Smidebrant will return to the United States effective immediately, as Wildcard have cancelled his loan to 9INE on September 3rd.

phzy had been playing for 9INE since July 31st and notably helped them qualify for the $500,000 StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2025 over BIG.

The news comes as a surprise, as 9INE expected to keep phzy for more time. But, it turns out that Wildcard had been trying to recall phzy since August. 9INE and Wildcard tried to find a solution that worked for everyone, but they couldn't make a deal.

"This was not according to our plan but due to circumstances outside of 9INE's control," 9INE said in a statement.

"Our hope was to continue playing with phzy, especially given the strong results we've had recently and the stability he's brought to the team."

It's currently unclear whether Wildcard plan to reinstate phzy to the active lineup or sell him. Reinstating phzy would make sense, considering that they have an 18-18 map record since he was removed from the active lineup on July 1st, and will most likely miss the StarLadder Budapest Major.

Wildcard are also reportedly replacing Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek with Maciej "F1KU" Miklas, who is currently on OG's bench.

Without phzy, 9INE will use stand-ins until finding a permanent fifth. Their roster now is:

• Rasmus "⁠raalz⁠" Steensborg

• Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann

• Tobias "⁠kraghen⁠" Kragh Jensen

• Jan "⁠cej0t⁠" Dyl

• Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger (Coach)