Young Stars Talents have only recently secured their promotion to the ESEA Main for the coming season. To mark the occasion, we decided to interview one of the team’s key players.
Our partner has already been eliminated from the ESEA Intermediate playoffs, but their position in the group stage secured them promotion to the higher division.
Here is a profile of the captain of Young Stars Talents – Szymon “Kuczu” Kucz.
Questions are marked as [R].
Spelling mistakes
have been corrected, but the context has been preserved.
[R] Hi Kuczu, to start with, please introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi there, my name is Szymon, I’m from Silesia and I’ve been playing Counter-Strike since 2015 – it’s my lifelong passion.
[R] Can you describe the feeling you had when you found out you’d be playing in ESEA MAIN next season?
We were delighted to have secured promotion to ESEA Main; although we’d been expecting it a few matches before the end due to our strong record in this season’s ESEA Intermediate, once it was confirmed that promotion was certain, everyone had a smile on their face.
[R] What were your plans for 2024? Did you manage to achieve them?
My goal for 2024 was to qualify for ESEA Main, so that goal was achieved, and as I’m one of the people on the team who sets goals for the whole five, we had a clear objective as a team to move up to the league above.
[R] What goals have you set for the coming year? For the upcoming tournaments?
2025 is just around the corner and the minimum goal is a 7/7 record in ESEA Main, but we’d really like to play in the playoffs of the next season, which starts in January – something that’s definitely achievable.
[R] Apart from the ESEA leagues, are you planning to take part in so-called underground tournaments as well?
Apart from ESEA, we’ll be playing in the Galaxy Cup, where we’re aiming for victory. Besides the Galaxy Cup, on 15 December we’re heading to the Dreamed-Up LAN in Wrocław, where we’re also hoping for a good result. We’ll be considering whether it’s worth playing in all tournaments taking place on our home turf and beyond.
[R] What do you think needs to change on the Polish scene to fix it?
Where to start… certainly, the attitude of many players would have to change; you need to grind, watch replays, learn from your mistakes, and the Polish scene is lacking that last bit above all. I’m hoping that some young talent like donk will break through on the Polish scene, because I think that’s what we need to move things forward.
[R] What does your individual training look like before a match?
A warm-up on Pracc/Faceit and 10–15 minutes of aimbot practice.
[R] How many days a week do you train?
We train five days a week from Monday to Friday between 6pm and 11pm; we try to play as much as possible, but time doesn’t always allow it.
[R] Do you try to do some individual training on your day off?
I watch the game day in, day out; whether it’s a Major or just Tier 2-3 matches, it really makes no difference to me because I’m interested in it anyway. Besides, I regularly play Faceit and watch demos, which counts as individual training.
[R] Who on the team do you work best with?
I don’t think I have a specific player; I work with everyone on a similar level
[R] How do you rate Counter-Strike 2 after over a year on the market? Do you think Valve could put more effort into the game, or are they doing enough?
As we know, CS2 has a lot of bugs; this wouldn’t be a problem if they were fixed day by day, but if there’s a bug on Ancient where you can see where the terrorists are entering due to FPS drops and it hasn’t been fixed for three months, then unfortunately we have to say that Valve isn’t up to scratch in many areas.
[R] Who do you think will win the Major in Shanghai?
As I write these answers, we’re already past the first day of the Major, but my prediction hasn’t changed; in my opinion, Vitality will win the Major.
[R] What would your Pick’em have looked like?
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do the Pick-em due to a holiday in Spain, but I don’t regret it, as I would only have got four correct picks in the first phase.
[R] On behalf of the whole Superiongg project, thank you for accepting our invitation to this interview. I wish you the best of luck in your upcoming matches. Would you like to add anything else at the end, or send your regards to anyone?
I’d also like to thank you for the interview, and I’d like to send my regards to Patryk Sadowski.
We’d also like to thank you for the interview, wish you the best of luck with the development of Young Stars Talents, and invite you all to follow the Kucza team on social media:
(Facebook, x.com, Instagram, Twitch)
English 
Polish 