Jks Becomes First Australian Player to Win a Top-Tier CS:GO Tournament
Jks - the face of Australian Counter-Strike.
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Imagine winning one of the top CS:GO tournaments in the world after being out of the competitive circuit for over three months. This is exactly what the Australian rifler Justin "jks" Savage was able to achieve along with FaZe Clan at the IEM Katowice 2022, becoming the first Australian player to win a top-tier CS:GO tournament.
The 26-year-old did not find much success playing with Complexity Gaming last year. In November 2021, Complexity decided to bench and transfer list jks. He did not play competitively for over three months, until FaZe Clan picked him up in February as a stand-in right before IEM Katowice 2022.
Jks cements his name in history as the first Australian player to win a top-tier CS:GO event
FaZe Clan star rifler Robin "ropz" Kool tested positive for COVID barely a week before the kick off of IEM Katowice 2022 forcing the team to recruit jks as a stand-in.
FaZe Clan was not expected to win the event, especially considering that they had to start out from the play-in stage. But the team successfully made its way to the group stage and from there to the playoffs.
While ropz managed to recover and join the team during the group stage itself, senior member Håvard "rain" Nygaard ended up testing positive ahead of the playoffs, paving the way for jks to rejoin the active lineup once again.
Despite the odds heavily stacked against FaZe Clan, the international roster fought hard to win seven maps in a row, and went undefeated through the playoffs to win IEM Katowice 2022.
Jks delivered an incredible performance for the side, receiving loads of appreciation from the CS:GO community. He had an overall HLTV rating of 1.14 in the tournament with a K/D of +14, which resulted in him becoming the 15th best player of the tournament.
With this, jks is not only the first Australian CS:GO player to make it into the 'Top 20' list by HLTV, but he has also created history by becoming the first Australian player to win IEM Katowice.
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