Despite spending the first nine months of CS2 without a team, jks already looks comfortable on a new Liquid roster that is thriving under the leadership of it's new IGL, Twistzz.
With the team currently awaiting a BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 quarter-final showdown with FaZe, we spoke to jks about his time on the team so far and got his outlook on the shape of the Australian CS scene.
Let's start with where you're at as a team using rankings as the metric. HLTV have you eighth and Valve have you seventh, do you feel like that's a fair ranking for what you've achieved so far?
Yeah, it's a pretty good ranking considering we've only been a team for two or three months.
Obviously, we want to get better and we want to get higher, but for the time we've been together and the tournaments we've played in, we've progressed a lot as a team.
When they made the changes there were multiple big changes: coach, two players, IGL, it's a big change so to be seventh and eighth it's a good placing.
But, we want more, we want to be higher. We have players who have won events and been on top teams, so everyone wants to get back there.
As you said, there were some big changes, does that make you surprised with how well it's gone so far?
Kind of, but I think we're pretty realistic. It hasn't been that smooth, we've had a couple of hiccups here and there, but because we've been practicing so much and because we've been putting so much work in, we're just focused on that process rather than our placing at events.
Our main focus is just improving and making sure we do so every single day we get to practice. In that way, it's really good the way that we're going about it.
Obviously, we're not sad about it, we've come a long way since we made the team two or three months ago. The things we've gone through as a team already, some really big wins and some really bad losses, it's everything you could ask for as a new team.
I think it's unrealistic to get a new team and have the expectation to be winning events straight away.
You mentioned some of the losses there, the one that sticks out is FaZe in Cologne. Does a match like that so early in the team's time together help the growth of the team?
For sure, at the time, it was sad and everyone was very disappointed because we were one round away from making playoffs at Cologne, but in hindsight, we were a brand new team at the time and FaZe are a really good team that are great at making comebacks.
Looking back, it was a great learning experience. To have that happen so early on in the team is a really good thing. We also had a similar game against ENCE at Pro League that we managed to close out, so I think we learned from the FaZe game and how to not get into our own heads to close them out.
In terms of learning experiences, what are the next experiences this team needs?
The first thing I can think of is making a final. Obviously, everyone wants to be in the final at big events but it's tough when you get into your first final as a team, you don't really know how people are going to react to it or how you'll play as a team. Especially since we have ultimate who has never been in a big final.
There's things we need to consider and go through as a team, but that's the main one.
You've played with a couple of people on the team before, albeit very briefly with Twistzz, how do you think they've grown and changed since your last experience of being on a team with them?
I played with NAF a long time ago and since then he's gotten a lot older and more mature. He's still the same guy, but he's different in some good ways. As for Twistzz, I only played with him once but I've known him for quite some time over the years of playing in NA.
As people get older they just get mature with experience and treat things a little bit differently.
What about yourself? You've changed a lot as a player in the last few years, but how do you think you've changed in that time? Has your career gone down the trajectory you expected it to?
It's been a bit up and down, but I'm happy with what I've achieved so far. Obviously, I want to achieve more, but I can't complain with what I have.
From where I came from and not having a massive team in Australia, doing what I have done is something that I'm proud of.
As a person, I'm getting older so I have more life experience. I'm living away from home and I have things to deal with outside of the game, over the years I've gotten better at dealing with things inside the game too, like pressure and expectations, how I manage things within a team and on an individual basis.
It's going well, I'm still learning, still changing as a person and as a player, so it's good.
How are you looking at the Australian scene at the moment?
I think it's okay, it's good that there's another big org investing in it in FlyQuest, but it's the same old story.
They practice from home, so it's hard to get practice overseas, and then you come overseas and it's tough being from Australia because you haven't had good practice.
I still think there needs to be another step from Australia in CS, more teams moving overseas like how Brazil did in NA, I think that's necessary for them or they can't be a true contender without doing so.
But it's good that FlyQuest are investing, and also with Talon picking up some Australian and European players. I think they're based out of Malta as well, so that's a good step for those guys and for the scene overall, getting more presence overseas.
Do you think the talent is there and they just need that overseas presence?
Yeah, all the players are good enough, they just need to go overseas to have that constant practice and to progress more as teams.
That's the only way you'll find out if you're good enough as a team and if you need to make changes, otherwise, it's too difficult because you go home and beat all of the Australian teams and go back and have the same story over and over.
I want them to do really well, but it's hard being from Australia and not having efficient practice. It's nowhere near the same level as Europe.
What's it like being from Australia and having to move overseas?
It's good, it could be better because I want to live at home and I miss it a lot, especially as I'm getting older. But you get used to it after some time and, of course, playing CS is something I want to do so it's a conscious choice that I make to move here and play over here.
It's not like I'm being forced to do it, it's just something that I have to sacrifice as part of the job. You just get better at dealing with it over time, it's just part of the life.
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