Who are susp and phzy, Wildcard's new Swedish duo?

Wildcard will reportedly bring in two new members to replace Keller "SLIGHT" Nilan and Adam "Grizz" Golden. However, unlike traditional NA roster moves, Wildcard looks to nab some European talent to bolster their squad. Hailing from Sweden, Tim "susp" Ångström will enter the lineup alongside the globetrotting Love "phzy" Smidebrant. The former comes off the bench of Metizport while the latter left Rare Atom earlier this year.

So then, who are these two? Many NA fans may never have heard of susp or phzy in their lives, so, I'm here to demystify the two newest Swedish additions to North American Counter-Strike.

As mentioned previously, susp comes from Metizport's transfer list, which we was moved to last month after breaching the top thirty teams in the world. susp is a traditional anchor player and will likely be filling Grizz's CT roles one-for-one unless the team is inclined to massage some roles around for the Swede. The only true clashes come on Anubis, Vertigo, and Nuke, where JBa played the B Anchor and Ramp positions in the prior lineup. Altogether, on CT-side, very few changes will need to be made as susp will fit in quite nicely on the defense. On Anubis and Vertigo, one of susp or JBa will move to the other bombsite to anchor, and on Nuke, one will join stanislaw on the upper bombsite defense.

On T-side, everything looks hunky dory as well, with only a small overlap on Anubis, where both Sonic and susp play Canals. It's likely we see susp transition to an A Extremity role, in keeping with his usual passive play style. Prior to Metizport, susp played a variety of roles, some more aggressive and active than his current ones. However, given the composition of Wildcard's remaining roster, I find it much more likely he was brought in to be the anchor player he excelled at in the Swedish lineup.

There does come the small wrinkle that Wildcard have recently moved to banning Mirage and playing Dust2, a map that neither susp nor phzy have played since 2022. Assuming they keep Mirage as their permaban, susp will play in tunnels alongside JBa on T-side and either play Long on CT-side or support stanislaw from site as he moves into the more active role. For phzy, this is no problem at all, as AWPers can move freely, floating wherever they want depending on stanislaw's call.

Wildcard could always move back to playing Mirage, which they moved away from in March. If roles did not change from that roster, then susp could slot in quite easily, but it all depends on how stanislaw and João "horvy" Horvath want to approach this new roster.

As for phzy, he'll be replacing SLIGHT on the roster as the primary AWPer. phzy is a more aggressive AWPer than SLIGHT, favoring opening duels much more often than his counterpart. On T-side, SLIGHT took 14.2% of his team's opening duels. Not a ton, but not out of the park for an AWPer. phzy, on the other hand, took 24.2% of the opening duels on T-side. The trend continues on CT-side as well, with 27% to phzy and 21.6% to SLIGHT. You'd be hard-pressed to find an AWPer who takes more opening engagements than the lovely phzy.

Of course, it's important to note than phzy has been off playing in Asia for the past few months. It's hard to say whether he is taking so many duels due to a genuine gameplay style or if it's because he is playing against worse teams who don't punish his aggression. In 2022, when he was with NIP and Sangal, he took significantly fewer opening duels. Whether that change over time comes down to a team composition difference, a shift in style, or just playing more loose due to being unpunished, who can say? Let's not pretend that NA plays the world's best Counter-Strike either, so phzy could very well get away with that unbridled aggression stateside.

So then, to answer the question precisely, who are susp and phzy? susp is an honest-to-goodness traditional anchor. He will play a back seat in nearly every map, just aiding his teammates and holding a site like his life depends on it. phzy is an aggressive AWPer, who will look to dominate the map on either side. He'll require strong buy-in from his teammates to follow his lead, but can yield strong results and take over a map if the stars align.

Are these two the players to bring Wildcard to the top of the NA standings? Only time will tell. Wildcard have already proved a formidable force, even while having a tough time nailing down a full five. With some European blood, some new ideas, and a trip to Malta coming soon, Wildcard's eyes are set sky-high.