Three months on the bench ended for SunPayus when FUT Esports signed him on 1 October. Three series into his first event with the team, FUT are 3-0 at PGL Masters Bucharest, he has the best kill-death difference on the roster, and he says the young side treat him in a way his previous teams did not.
SunPayus spoke to PGL’s broadcast on Monday, minutes after FUT Esports came back from 4-8 on Anubis to beat Vitality 2-1 and become the first team through to the playoffs. Asked why it had worked so quickly, he said he had told coach coolio that nothing should change on his account. He wanted to adapt and be himself. What surprised him was how the team responded.
Everyone in the team is like, it didn’t pass in my past teams, but they treat me as a star player also. So it’s a bit weird.
On eco rounds, he explained, his teammates make do with Deagles and keep their money so that he has an AWP in the next round. They also listen when he speaks up in reviews and about specific situations, and he said they learn “super fast”.
“I was the guy who got benched”
The Spaniard came to FUT from G2, who signed him from HEROIC in June 2025 and moved him to the bench on 25 June this year, shortly after the IEM Cologne Major. r1nkle took over as G2’s AWPer. It was the second time in two years that SunPayus lost his place: Falcons benched him in September 2024, nine months after signing him from ENCE.
He did not blame the G2 environment when he was asked whether FUT’s young lineup felt different from the experienced players he had left.
I think you need to click with the team, basically. And I think in G2, I was the guy who got benched, but there was something that was missing, you know, like the vibes were insanely good.
He added that G2 had a good playbook and did reasonably well at the Major, but that he was the one the bench hit. He said he worked hard on his own game in the three months without a team. “Here, everything is clicking, so I don’t know how to explain it.”
At 27, he is now the oldest player on the team. “The guys are super young,” he said, and he is older than coolio too. The constant shouting from his teammates in every round gives him energy, he said, and the team has set no target beyond the playoffs: “Maybe we can get to finals, maybe not.”
The numbers from three series
FUT beat TYLOO, Liquid and Vitality without needing a fourth or fifth match, and SunPayus has been the steadiest part of it. Over eight maps he is on 115 kills and 69 deaths, a +46 that leads the team. dem0n has the most kills (125-91), and xfl0ud’s 57 kills against Vitality carried the deciding series, but only SunPayus and dem0n finished all three matches with more kills than deaths.
FUT Esports2-0
TYLOOStatsNuke 13-9, Ancient 13-6
| FUT Esports | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 SunPayus | 34-18 | +16 | 85.1 | 87.8% |
 Krabeni | 38-24 | +14 | 94.8 | 78.0% |
 dem0n | 31-25 | +6 | 84.4 | 78.0% |
 dziugss | 21-23 | -2 | 63.5 | 68.3% |
 xfl0ud | 19-27 | -8 | 49.7 | 82.9% |
| TYLOO | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 JamYoung | 26-26 | 0 | 76.1 | 65.9% |
| Zero | 27-31 | -4 | 66.2 | 61.0% |
| Moseyuh | 25-31 | -6 | 63.4 | 70.7% |
| Mercury | 21-29 | -8 | 62.6 | 61.0% |
| Jee | 18-27 | -9 | 53.7 | 65.9% |
FUT Esports2-0
Team LiquidStatsCache 13-5, Dust2 13-9
JTFUT Esports2-1
Team VitalityStatsMirage 9-13, Dust2 13-9, Anubis 13-10
The man who replaced him had a harder week. G2 left Bucharest in last place after losing to NAVI, Aurora and DENDELE, and r1nkle finished the three series on 107-118.
Why FUT made the call
coolio explained the decision on PGL’s broadcast before the Vitality match. cmtry, the AWPer SunPayus replaced, had started the year well, he said, but against the world’s top five teams FUT felt he was “not at the level yet”. The Ukrainian began to lose confidence and miss shots, and FUT wanted an experienced player who would be more consistent with the AWP.
Rather than sign him straight away, FUT put SunPayus through a trial. coolio said he knew SunPayus’ game but needed to see his personality and how he would fit with in-game leader Krabeni, who likes to talk a lot and coordinate. After the trial came an eight-day bootcamp. coolio also said the mood in the team had not changed much, because SunPayus and cmtry are both “the vibe guy” of the team.
A fourth match, and possibly a fifth
FUT play their quarter-final on 29 or 30 October, against a team that comes through Tuesday’s or Wednesday’s Swiss rounds. It will be SunPayus’ fourth match for FUT, and a win would bring a fifth in the semi-final. That fifth match carries weight outside FUT as well: it is the number Valve’s Regional Standings need before SunPayus replaces cmtry on FUT’s roster, and cmtry has since joined Astralis on loan ahead of the snapshot for the PGL Major Singapore on 2 November.
SunPayus said the Major is the main focus for this event and the next. After one month of practice, FUT still make plenty of mistakes, but they talk about them openly, keep the reviews short and move on. coolio, for his part, joked before the Vitality series that FUT had won on both of their previous visits to Bucharest, and that a third title there would make him relocate.
