Swisher on his 2026 resurgence: "We've decided that me in rotation roles has been better for us"

In an interview with HLTV, Michael "Swisher" Schmid offered comment his own uptick in form this year, as well as the breaking-in period with Josh "JBa" Barutt.

Swisher's 1.13 rating in 107 maps played so far in 2026 is his highest since 2023, where he averaged a 1.15 rating over 270 maps.

In the Major, M80 have broken through Stage 1, defeating NRG in a 2-1 match to put themselves in the second stage at IEM Cologne.

Swisher brought up an explanation for his struggles in recent years.

I've been kind of been thrown around everywhere to try to figure out our problems on maps.

He's now taking up rotator roles, a job he performed before joining M80 in 2023.

I'm just a super selfless guy. And I think that we've decided that me in rotation roles has been a little bit better for us.

For Swisher's German teammates, Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich and Elias "s1n" Stein, this is a home Major, and the Americans on the team want to perform for them:

We obviously want to get to the arena for them. So it's just one game at a time. The B8 game yesterday was an F tier for us if I were to give us a grade on it. But today it was like a nice solid B, I would say, the CT side Inferno was really good. Our Ancient, a lot better today. And overall, like we're just giving it at all.

M80's IEM Cologne Stage 2 journey will begin tomorrow.