How Vitality stint lit a fire in CSGO veteran JACKZ: \u201cIf I have my roles I can get the job done\u201d Jo\u00e3o Ferreira\/DexertoCS:GO journeyman Audric \u2018JACKZ\u2019 Jug spoke to Dexerto about regaining his confidence after playing for Vitality, the issues with HEET and what he is looking for in his next challenge. \u201cI still know how to click on the server,\u201d JACKZ tells Dexerto. For JACKZ, playing for Vitality in ESL Pro League was the opportunity to prove just that. Not only to himself but to everyone. Four and a half years ago, his career finally took off when he was signed by G2 Esports. He was 26 at the time. By that point, most players have reached the autumn of their careers; he, on the other hand, was just getting started. JACKZ had a good first two years at G2 but his impact started to fade when he was pushed to a peripheral role on the server a few months into Nemanja \u2018nexa\u2019 Isakovi\u0107\u2019s stint as captain. In the summer of 2022, after a run of mixed results, JACKZ was given permission to explore his options and eventually signed with HEET. On paper, it seemed like a perfect destination for JACKZ, who was reuniting with his old teammates from DBL PONEY, the team he had represented as a stand-in two years earlier during a brief period on G2\u2019s bench. But he struggled to perform with the team and brought the relationship with HEET to an early end five months after his arrival, amid reports that the organization owes him a fee in the region of $75,000 related to his buyout from G2. With his stock at an all-time low, JACKZ seized his big chance with both hands. \u201cI saw some people on the internet say, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s the stand-in buff. He won\u2019t have pressure. It will be easy for him to kill,\u2019\u201d JACKZ says. \u201cI don\u2019t agree with that. \u201cWith HEET, I was not good enough, you know? I was not good at all. I thought that if I couldn\u2019t perform with Vitality at this event around good players, people would just say that I was washed up and finished. I played to be confident in myself and to perform.\u201d JACKZ played some of his best Counter-Strike in years while filling in for Peter \u2018dupreeh\u2019 Rasmussen in Malta, averaging a 1.26 HLTV rating and 1.35 Impact as Vitality topped their group after defeating Grayhound, OG and FaZe Clan (who would go on to win the tournament and the Intel Grand Slam). Vitality captain Dan \u2018apEX\u2019 Madesclaire switched to a faster style that suited JACKZ perfectly and gave him the kind of freedom that he had been craving for years. By his own admission, he simply played to kill. \u201capEX put me in good roles,\u201d he explains. \u201cI was taking space, being active on the T side, calling for flashes, doing the peeks that I wanted to do. This is what I didn\u2019t have at G2 towards the end and what I didn\u2019t have at HEET. I was on the extremities. I was B on Dust2, I was B monster on Overpass, I was B on Ancient. \u201cAll these things are not Jackie. You don\u2019t put Donnarumma, the goalkeeper, in attack. But that\u2019s what happened to me.\u201d Skipping dessert Despite some standout performances, JACKZ would not get to see action in the playoffs. Back from parental leave, dupreeh reclaimed his starting spot ahead of the quarter-final match with ENCE, which Vitality lost 2-1. JACKZ admits to feeling a sense of sadness after missing out on the playoffs, and likens the situation to being denied a dessert after going out for a meal. After such a promising start, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to finally get a tier-one trophy under his belt and break his streak of grand final losses. (G2 were on the losing end of title deciders at IEM Katowice 2020, IEM Cologne 2021, PGL Major Stockholm 2021 and IEM Katowice 2022.) But at the same time, he understood the team\u2019s reasoning. Getting the team back in sync before the European Regional Major Ranking, the decisive qualifier for the BLAST.tv Paris Major, had to take precedence over the mere possibility of winning Pro League. \u201cThe most important for them is the Major and they needed to have some play [time] with dupreeh,\u201d he says. \u201cBut yeah, I was a bit sad.\u201d JACKZ spent only a few days with team, hardly enough time to get a full sense of their lingering issues. But he insists that the atmosphere in the team was really good and that everyone is eager to \u201cmove on and learn from their mistakes\u201d. It is hard to overstate how important the BLAST Paris Major is for Vitality. More than a year after the team turned international with the high-profile additions of Major-winning trio Emil \u2018Magisk\u2019 Reif, Peter \u2018dupreeh\u2019 Rasmussen and head coach Danny \u2019zonic\u2019 S\u00f8rensen, they have only one trophy to show for their efforts. Since Vitality entered CS:GO in late 2018, they have reached the knockout stages in only two out of five Major appearances. They couldn\u2019t go beyond the first round of the playoffs in either tournament. With the next Major taking place in Vitality\u2019s backyard, a lot of pressure will be on the team to deliver. \u201cWhen I left the team, I told them, \u2018Please tell me you\u2019re going to play [at the Major] with your heart. It\u2019s so f***ing special for us. You cannot fail. I don\u2019t want to put pressure on you, but you cannot fail,\u2019\u201d JACKZ says. \u201cThe team was created almost from scratch to perform at the Paris Major.\u201d Despite Vitality carrying a huge burden of responsibility, JACKZ expects the team to do well in Paris, pointing to FURIA\u2019s deep run at the IEM Rio Major as proof that the support of the home crowd can provide a significant boost. For JACKZ, Vitality have to get over a mental hurdle to become an elite side and contend for titles regularly. He saw the same thing happen while he was with G2, who are currently the No.1 team in the world and recently won the BLAST Premier World Final and IEM Katowice. According to him, the line that separates success and failure can be very thin. \u201cWe choked,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cIt was maybe a meme. But at the end of the day, it really was a mental issue, and they needed to change something. HooXi has done a really good job, and jks is solid as f*** right now, but it\u2019s more like sometimes you need to open a different door to perform like that. I\u2019m really, really happy for them.\u201d JACKZ says that he has agreed to be Vitality\u2019s substitute player for the Paris Major if the team qualifies for the tournament. But barring a last-minute setback, he won\u2019t get to play, missing the first-ever Major in his home country and the final Valve-sponsored event in CS:GO. \u201cI feel so sad,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to be in this one really badly. It\u2019s a dream for us to have a Major in France and to prove to people that the French scene is not really dead.\u201d What lies ahead for JACKZ As he prepares for the next chapter of his career, JACKZ is working hard to stay in shape. He is also brushing up on his English, admitting that his poor grasp of the language was a limiting factor while at G2 (something that the even organization poked fun at). A couple of teams have sounded him out since Pro League (including one top 12 side, he says), but he won\u2019t make a decision before the end of the Major cycle. He is taking his time and making sure that he chooses the right project, where he can play to his potential. \u201cHEET was a mistake from me,\u201d he says. \u201cI love all the guys. When I came into the team, I was like, \u2018Okay, guys, I don\u2019t want to disturb your system. I\u2019m a good guy. I\u2019m going to adapt. No worries.\u2019 \u201cThis was a big mistake on my part. I need to have more confidence in myself. I\u2019m a tier-one player and if I want to perform, I need to have my roles. I cannot be put on the side, just waiting or doing some sh*t I don\u2019t like. \u201cFor me, the most important is to not be too kind to people. I\u2019m going to be nice but I just want to have my roles. And I know that if I have my roles I can get the job done.\u201d With regards to his reported money dispute with HEET, JACKZ says only that his agent is handling the matter. JACKZ, who turns 31 in July, knows that some in the scene might use his age against him but he hopes that his Pro League performances were enough to prove his doubters wrong. At the same time, he continues to exhibit the kind of passion that one typically associates with a young player \u2014 the result of being a late bloomer and having a \u201cunique\u201d career. \u201cI still have this fire in my hand,\u201d he notes. After so many heartbreaks, he has his sights on finally lifting a trophy. \u201cYeah, if I can get that, it would be good,\u201d he says. \u201cYou never know what the future holds, but yeah, one trophy at least. I think that, after all the finals I have played, I deserve one trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How Vitality stint lit a fire in CSGO veteran JACKZ: \u201cIf I have my roles I can get the job done\u201d Jo\u00e3o Ferreira\/DexertoCS:GO journeyman Audric \u2018JACKZ\u2019 Jug spoke to Dexerto about regaining his confidence after playing for Vitality, the issues with HEET and what he is looking for in his next challenge. \u201cI still know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}