phzy on Wildcard's shuffle: "I heard ChatGPT was involved with making suggestions for players"

Love "phzy" Smidebrant has returned to Wildcard in what is seemingly the culmination of a messy shuffle within the NA organization that began post Major following the shock benching of phzy, Tim "susp" Ångström, and Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz. The shock benching of the trio cost Wildcard dearly as they fell sharply in the rankings while alienating many NA fans so viewed the mixed-region team as a rising star in international CS.

In an interview at Fragadelphia Fragville, phzy revealed to Dust2.us' Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore that the shuffle was done without consulting the players while also being allegedly influenced by a manager using ChatGPT to sound out roster ideas.

Overall, phzy told Dust2.us that while he is ready to play, it may take him some time before he is able to trust Wildcard again after roster moves many have described as the worst of 2025.

The complete interview can be found below on YouTube and fully transcribed below. The questions and answers were slightly edited for clarity and length.

Obviously day one was a breeze for you guys and it's great to see you back in the team of course. You were announced a few hours before you started your Fragville campaign; how are you feeling being back in Wildcard?

Well it's a bit of both [feelings]. I really enjoyed playing with 9INE and I feel like I fit in great there, we had a lot of good results. It's nice to meet the team again. I like stanislaw, JBa, and vinS and it's nice to meet the new guys as well.

You had a brief but eventful time with 9INE. They very quickly found results and you were a pivotal element to that squad. What was it like coming into 9INE, were they open to taking onboard your input and giving you an important role as the AWPer?

For sure, it is an organization I have played with before. I like the guys behind 9INE and the team as well was very open and it was very easy to get to know everyone and fit in.

I think that was a reason behind our brief success.

You were recalled from 9INE quite suddenly to return to Wildcard. When did you find out you had been recalled by Wildcard?

I knew it for quite a while. I don't know if I can say how long due to contracts between 9INE and Wildcard but I knew it for quite a while. I think that made it hard for me at 9INE, having this uncertainty over whether I would go back or not.

It was tough on me mentally I would say.

In essence it was longer than a few days, right?

Yeah.

Is there anything you can take away from your time on 9INE and bring back to Wildcard to help improve this NA squad?

For sure, you always learn a ton when you're playing under different IGLs with different perspectives of the game. Now that I'm back there's much I can do about it, and I'm going to try and do my best to qualify to the Major again.

We qualified twice in a row before we made these changes and we made Legends before these changes. Then they made these changes and we're ranked 60th now.

I'll try to save the sinking ship as they say. Yeah.

Post-Major everyone was shocked by your benching alongside susp and stanislaw. stan told us the changes weren't a team decision, were you blindsided as well?

Yeah, I think I knew a day before they announced I was benched. It was a bit of a surprise and it was done at the end of the player break so I didn't have a chance to find another team.

It was handled very poorly.

Our goal going into Wildcard was to make the Austin Major and we exceeded that goal by a lot with making Legends at Shanghai and playing decently in other tournaments.

I feel like we gave Wildcard a lot and exceeded our goals. I was very surprised it happened.

stanislaw hinted to us that one person spearheaded these changes and that there was a lack of input from anyone on the team. Do you have any idea what Wildcard's plans were or what they were thinking?

I got asked to IGL and I said I wanted to focus on AWPing so it was pretty clear they wanted to cut stanislaw pretty fast.

I'm not sure what they wanted to do, maybe they wanted to bring in more firepower but I'm not sure.

We as players didn't have much say, especially not me because I got benched. I'm not sure what happened, I heard ChatGPT was involved a bit with making suggestions for players...

Seriously?

From what I've heard, yeah.

ChatGPT?

Yep.

So like 'hey ChatGPT if I want to replace stanislaw and phzy who do you think should do it?' That seems patently absurd and almost comical to... do that especially after making two Majors.

stanislaw said that after this whole debacle management has changed. Does that allow you to return to Wildcard and put this nonsense behind you?

It's something you always have in the back of your head. 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? I've got to focus on playing and that's it.

Despite clearly having mixed feelings about the organization, do you still have buy-in for stanislaw as a leader?

Yeah for sure, I like all of the players and the coach as I stated previously. It felt like we had a really good thing going before so we have to try and do that again?

What can you tell us about your new teammates Peeping and F1KU?

I've only been with them for two days but first impressions are good.

Do you have any insight on F1KU from your time in Europe?

The roles he played in OG and the roles he has now aren't the same. The roles he has now are more similar to his time in AGO. He seems like a good player although I don't have much insight on him.

He's very vocal and he helps stanislaw with calling which I do as well. It feels good to play.

Obviously the goal here is to win it all. Despite all the issues and it being a new team, do you think Wildcard can win Fragville?

It will be hard because we haven't really practiced anything at all because we haven't had the time to. We're just trying to play our game and it might help us that NIP have a stand-in and haven't had much practice.

It's going to be a showdown between individual skill rather than teamplay and fancy strats.

phzy and Wildcard are currently in action at Fragadelphia Fragville, with the team set to face off against Fluxo tonight.