Could stanislaw's team get a big upgrade? Metizport Director discusses MaiL09's return to the roster

Back on June 10th, Norwegian organization Metizport announced the end of Liam "MaiL09" Tügel's loan to Alliance, seeing the 17-year-old star rifler return to Metizport's bench after five fruitful months with the Swedish team. MaiL09's return to the bench has set off a wave of speculation and discussion about where the player will head next, with many in the community predicting an off-season call up to a tier-one team.

For those who don't know, MaiL09 has been lauded by the community and a number of pro players as a potential future superstar. For their part, Metizport seem keen to keep MaiL09 within their ranks until his contract expires next year. This would likely prove to be a massive boon to Metizport IGL and NA legend Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz as the 32-year-old aims to find success in the highly competitive EU scene. With the team currently sitting at 69th in the world on the VRS, adding such a strong player could seriously help the team in the second half of the year.

With speculation abound, Friend of Dust2.us and Fragbite Editor-in-Chief Ludvig "Quacke" Nilsson spoke to Metizport's Sports Director Morten "zEVES" Vollan, with zEVES suggesting that the organization plan on integrating MaiL09 back into the lineup should he not be sold in the off season. Unfortunately for us the interview is in Swedish, however Quacke kindly translated some key passages for us that can be found below:

MaiL09 is coming back from the loan to Alliance, it's understood that's in spite of Alliance wanting to buy him out, but they weren't able to. In short, why couldn't MaiL09 continue in Alliance?

Several different models for Liam to continue with Alliance were put forward. For example, one of them was an extension of the loan. We didn't really see how it would benefit us, neither economically nor competitively.

Liam has a contract with us until the summer next year, so if he goes on loan for another season he'd only have half a year left on his contract. Then there'd be a much smaller chance to get something economically beneficial for him, and we also wouldn't be able to use him for more than half a year, it's not viable long term either.

A loan was a bit out of the question. There was of course talk of a transfer. I think it began in April at some point, I can't remember exactly. So we talked, back and forth, and we got a number, payment terms, bonus terms, but...

Even before we started talking to Alliance, or before any other parties were in the picture we had set a number – if we weren't going to use him next season, then we think this number is good enough. We have been pretty flexible with that number considering bonuses, payment structure, all that, but what Alliance put forward was good, but not good enough.

Then I think they saw a path with bobeksde, that they were comfortable with and would be a good replacement, so that's why they chose not to push the final stretch. Because yeah, we were very close, and I think Loda said himself in his X post.

I think bobeksde has a playstyle more similar to poiii, and fits rolewise, while they had to make some role changes when Liam came in, and it worked great for them. It worked great for Liam, and for avid, who's gotten to play slightly different roles.

But when it came to the transfer, our standpoint was always that we will use him ourselves. And if you want to buy him, you need to meet our criteria, and we need to stick to those criteria.

Is the short term goal to use MaiL09 for the rest of the contract period or is the goal that he'll be sold on?

Of course, we need to live with the situation we're in. We've been very comfortable with the idea that Liam would come back. We've had plans for him staying, for him being sold, and we feel that we've had a good strategy from the start. We know that Liam can come in and make a difference in our team.

And what does Liam think about these plans? There have been some comments here and there, during the period in Alliance, but with regard to your dialogue with MaiL09, what's his stance on his upcoming season.

Good question, I'm not sure how much details we should go into. But of course, MaiL09 has expressed that he wants to stay in Alliance. He's also expressed that it hasn't been the best time, the process over the winter.

I think we're starting to reflect and think back about where the team was last season. Many player changes, a new coach, Plopski got unwell, we were testing AWPers for a whole month, nawwk was in... Of course, it wasn't particularly fun for Liam, I can understand that.

I've told him that as well. I understand the situation wasn't the best, but the team Liam is coming into now is completely different. There are only a few members left from the last lineup, with a new in-game-leader who's very experienced, he's very diplomatic, the way he talks about the players. There's room for everyone, and the dynamic vinS and Peter have is something many players should aspire to be more like.

But with regard to Liam, I can understand it. Alliance climbed to something like 24-25th in the world together, fully Swedish team, Swedish organisation, with a bit of a family vibe. I can understand him, of course, but reality is what it is. He has a contract with Metizport, we tried to find a solution but we just didn't get there. If there are no more offers, he's going to be a Metizport player.

Overall, zEVES was seemingly keen to keep the option of MaiL09 staying on Metziport with the table while also highlighting that he may find the duo of stanislaw and coach Vincent "vinS" Jozefiak more amiable after struggling to find his place of Metizport's roster last year.

It remains to be seen what the future will hold, but we're holding out hope stanislaw will have the chance to mold another superstar and perhaps find great success after making the jump to Europe.