Top 20 players of 2019: jks (15)

In 15th place of the Top 20 players of 2019 ranking, powered by Xtrfy and LOOT.BET, Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage makes history for his region as the first player from Australia to earn a place in the list after spearheading his team's success over the course of the year.

Top 20 players of 2019: Introduction

In a region that was years away from its incorporation into the global circuit in the early years of CS:GO, the only way for anyone to come into the spotlight was to either become the best team in Australia or find a spot on one. Having become a top-tier player in the country through years of playing Counter-Strike 1.6, jks's attempts at achieving the former were often thwarted by Vox Eminor when he was playing for various versions of Archaic and Salmon in 2013 and 2014, as the Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill-led side beat his team to local titles and participation at one of the few international tournaments featuring Oceanic qualifiers, the MSI Beat it! 2013 Grand Finals.

"When CS:GO was released, I decided to take it a bit more seriously to get ahead of everyone early. After a year or so of playing at the top in Australia, I eventually got noticed by Vox Eminor in 2014 who were the best at the time, and I felt like that was my opportunity and I didn't hesitate to join."

It had to be through the other option that the then-18-year-old found his way onto the international scene. After impressing the best team, jks replaced long-time member Iain "⁠SnypeR⁠" Turner in Vox Eminor in April 2014 and was almost immediately thrown into the biggest competition there was: CS:GO's third Major at ESL One Cologne. Like many, he struggled while he got his first taste of the best teams in the world, but it wouldn't take long for the young gun's talent to start shining through when he got some more experience.

"ESL One Cologne 2014 was my first international event, so it was a pretty surreal experience. I knew Aaron [AZR] and Chris [GoMeZ] from years before, but it was also my first event with the rest of the guys. From memory I was excited to play, but also a bit nervous, mostly because I had spent a lot of time watching these players from home and then suddenly I was there playing against them. At the time I was still at university, so I had to balance the workload between traveling, playing and studying."

In 2015, he got to play at two out of three Majors and a few other smaller tournaments, which helped jks gain some much-needed pedigree and start making a name for himself as a rising star, with a massive carry performance versus Liquid at Gfinity Spring Masters 2 showcasing just how high his peak can be.

As part of the transfer to Renegades, a life-changing opportunity to move regions came when the team relocated to the United States at the end of 2015 and became full-time players. Along with huge changes to their personal lives, the move meant a huge increase in opportunities, as they were suddenly able to participate in a plethora of online leagues, qualifiers, and offline tournaments to make up the experience gap to the best teams in the world.

With that came more consistency from jks in 2016, but the team lacked progress as a whole as they mostly put in their best results at regional tournaments like the newly introduced Asia Minors while struggling to make the next step at the Majors, failing to make it past the Main Qualifier stage on all three occasions despite more lineup changes.

"We didn't really know what to expect, but we were all really excited to take the next step so we could start playing full time. It wasn't something we had been able to do since we were working or studying full time at home. I think we had mixed results just because we were still really inexperienced and we weren't living in the most productive environment either. The hardest part is being away from family and friends, and missing things that are happening at home. Over the years it's become more manageable and you learn new ways to cope with it, but it's still sometimes difficult."

Progress came in 2017 when the team who had up to that point kept to an Australian lineup throughout their existence began to branch out, first with the addition of Aleksandar "⁠kassad⁠" Trifunović as the coach before Noah "⁠Nifty⁠" Francis and Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković came in, with the Serbian soon being replaced by Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic. Towards the end of the year, Renegades finally succeeded with another strong fragger in the Canadian player and, despite a tough first half of the year, the Australian won his first international titles at the two Minors and at SL i-League Invitational Shanghai.

"In-game we weren't really on the same page, and we were recycling the same knowledge and experience. Picking up players and coaches from outside of Australia helped give us new ideas and a new perspective on how to play the game. When we picked up NAF I think we tried our best to make him feel comfortable so he could play the best he could. He was our star player during that time and he was playing very well, which helped us win our first title. During that period I didn't feel that confident in my own game, but we were having good results as a team, so it was a good learning experience for me."

2018 was turbulent for Renegades, who struggled to make their mark at the biggest events and they underwent huge changes, as only Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward and jks remained from the lineup who won two consecutive trophies at the end of the previous year. In February, Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad filled the gap left after NAF joined Liquid, and the team we now know as 100 Thieves formed by the end of September when the roster once again reached into the Oceanic pool with the additions of Sean "⁠Gratisfaction⁠" Kaiwai and Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas. jks had already had some highlight tournaments over the year, but he ended it with one of the best of his career at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, pushing the new Renegades to the quarter-finals.

"When we picked up Liazz and Gratisfaction, it was really sudden. We lost our IGL and we had a rough period prior to this with some bad results. Outside of the game I knew we would get along since we would be more similar culturally, but in-game I wasn't sure. Mentally I wasn't in a good place at the end of 2018 either, so I just went into Odense trying not to stress about everything and I ended up having a good tournament. It was really important to have a good tournament there and we've built upon that result since. Jay and Sean have been two of the best teammates I've had the chance to play with, so I'm glad they joined."

With a promising result behind them, the squad set their sights on 2019 with the goal of becoming Major Legends and a stable top-10 team — two things an Australian team had never been able to do — and they would achieve both within the first few months.

"As a team we discussed making legends at the major and becoming a stable top-10 team as our goals at the start of the year. Individually I just wanted to be more consistent and improve upon each tournament."

In order to reach the first goal, Renegades started the year in January with a bootcamp in Katowice, where they were about to start their Major journey with yet another Asia Minor appearance and ended up staying for the better part of two months, all the way through to the end of IEM Katowice. jks seemed in great shape at the Minor as the team won the tournament for the fourth consecutive time, albeit in rather shaky fashion, with ViCi and Grayhound putting them to the test.

Two weeks later, it was time for the Major's New Challengers Stage, where the Australian star maintained his form, leading the team through with a flawless record as they beat AVANGAR, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and ENCE. The second phase proved a much bigger challenge, but the Australian side squeezed through 3-1 after some closely-contested matches against the Finns, FaZe, Astralis, and Vitality, with jks putting up two fantastic maps against the Frenchmen to push them over the line to their first-ever Legends status. Renegades' successful campaign ended there, with MIBR stopping them in the quarter-finals, but it was already a clear sign of improvement from AZR's team.

"I think it helped that we had just come off a break where we had a really good tournament before it, so we were all really eager to continue playing. Being able to stay in the same place from the Minor all the way to the quarters also helps, since we were more comfortable with everything. Playing in front of such a large crowd was a big experience for us at the time."

"There are a few, but my best memory from 2019 has to be the Katowice Major. We went from playing the online qualifier in Australia all the way to making the top eight for the first time. Playing through all the stages made it feel like we earned it."

Renegades achieved another first a month later in the form of a Big-Event semi-final placing at StarSeries i-League Season 7, losing only to the tournament's eventual champions, Natus Vincere. jks seemed to be in the best shape of his career as he came away with his first EVP mention of the year, putting up a 1.28 average rating and showcasing his clutching abilities — an area in which he has always stood out — with 11 1vX situations won.

"The best change for me was just getting into a routine of doing things, especially on tournament days. I feel like everything is a lot less random and I can focus on my game more, and that helps a lot, at least for me personally. On top of that, I was already feeling confident after Pro League and the Major, so I just tried to ride that momentum."

"I'm just confident in my understanding of what the other players will do in clutch situations and I think I'm good at finding ways to isolate 1on1s. Other than that I can't really explain it."

But things soon started going downhill. The Australians ran into trouble with P1 visas and Gratisfaction was unable to enter the United States, which prevented the team from practicing properly for several weeks. Combined with the pressure coming from playing on home turf Renegades looked far from the successful team from the first three months, bombing out in groups at IEM Sydney after convincing losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas and MOUZ, while jks put in one of two poor tournaments of 2019 with a 0.89 rating over five maps.

"We had a few issues coming into Sydney. From what I remember, our practice wasn't good in NA at all and it was the beginning of the visa problems. That event always has a different feeling, because it's a home crowd and you don't want to let down the fans, or your family and friends that come. That was probably my worst memory from 2019 because not making playoffs there just sucks. Hopefully next time everything goes more smoothly."

The disappointment in Australia marked only the beginning of an atrocious period in the following three months despite jks maintaining good form. Firstly, Renegades played cs_summit 4 with Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield standing in with little success. Results seemed to improve when Gratisfaction finally returned just ahead of DreamHack Masters Dallas, with a 1.25 rating from jks pushing the team to a top-half finish there, but as the first half of the year was drawing to a close, three consecutive last-place exits at ESL One Cologne, BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles, and IEM Chicago made it look like the team that had been so full of promise at the beginning of the year was gone for good.

"We just kept playing in hopes we would have our full team again soon. Once we did, maybe we thought we would just continue playing how we did at the start of the year, but we didn't. I think my form did drop a bit, but without Sean [Gratisfaction] we lost a lot of things that made us a good team."

When Renegades returned from the off-season at the second Major of the year in Berlin, things still looked dire when they started the campaign down 0-2 in the New Legends Stage after two close losses to NRG and AVANGAR. However, they escaped elimination after all with a remarkable comeback, sending home DreamEaters, FaZe, and G2, and holding on to the Legends status they had first obtained in Katowice. This time, they made it one step further, beating ENCE on the back of a great series from jks before falling to the red-hot AVANGAR again in the semi-finals, despite the 24-year-old's admirable effort in a tight Mirage opener.

"Without going into too much detail, we had a long talk after we bombed out of Chicago about the team and its future and what we needed to do if we wanted to continue. Then we had the player break to reset for the Major. Before the Major, everyone was fresh and we had a really productive bootcamp, like at the start of the year. They're probably the two main reasons why we recovered."

jks was awarded his second EVP of 2019 for his playoffs performances in Germany and kept up with decent form at the team's next big campaign at StarSeries in Turkey a month and a half later, putting up a few impressive maps against MIBR and Vitality as the team proved they were out of the woods with another top-four finish.

His last EVP came at IEM Beijing, where his squad debuted under the 100 Thieves banner and broke through the semi-final barrier at Big Events for the first time, with jks playing a huge part in the achievement despite a rather unremarkable group stage. He once again stepped up in the bracket stage with an incredible semi-final series against Vitality, highlighted by a jaw-dropping decider on Inferno, where the Australian star put up his best map of the year worthy of a 2.50 rating, and a good start on Vertigo in an otherwise one-sided loss to Astralis in the best-of-five grand final.

Unlike many other teams who still had multiple events to go to before the end of 2019, 100 Thieves only had ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals to look forward to in the last month of the season. When their last tournament of the year started, jks looked in good enough shape in the opening matchup against Heroic, but that remained his only good map of the event as he sank into the red with an overall 0.86 rating, while the team beat FaZe and lost two-map series to top-five teams in Evil Geniuses and fnatic, ending the year with a top-eight placing in Odense.

"I'm not entirely sure what happened. In some games I felt like I was on point but didn't get that many opportunities, in others I just lacked confidence because of that, especially against fnatic. I was really disappointed because I felt like I let the team down at Pro League Finals, but I thought a bit about it over the break and I found some things I can learn from it. Sh*t happens, though (laughs)."

Why was jks the 15th best player of 2019?

jks put up some impressive numbers over the course of the year, such as 81 ADR (10th most), 0.74 kills per round (12th most), and 18.9% of rounds with a multi-kill (ninth most), which goes on to show his performances were often of the highest quality, resulting in the 12th-highest 1.15 rating.

As showcased at tournaments such as the StarLadder Major and IEM Beijing, the 24-year-old was undoubtedly a big-match player. He averaged a 1.19 rating in Big Event playoffs, which technically ranks third highest among all players but admittedly comes from a smaller sample size than most of the players featured in the top-20 list.

Those big-match displays played a key part in Renegades' and 100 Thieves' success, with jks earning EVP mentions in three out of the team's four deep runs at StarSeries i-League Season 7, the StarLadder Major, and IEM Beijing, on the back of his play in the bracket stages.

Otherwise, the Australian was at least a Valuable Player at 10 of the 12 other events he attended and was on the cusp of being awarded another EVP mention at DreamHack Masters Dallas, where he helped Renegades to a top-half placing. The other two events — IEM Sydney and ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals — were, however, a detracting factor in his case for a higher placing than 15th, as was a lack of more awards and involvement in races for MVP medals.

"The main goal for 2020 is to work on being a better teammate where I can and lift some trophies this year. For myself, I just want to improve on my 2019 form and work on some things outside of the game."

Bold prediction

In his first chance to pick a player to make the Top 20 list next year, jks went with a former teammate of his and the current in-game leader of G2, nexa, with whom he played at the start of the Serbian's professional career in mid-2017:

Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković

"I think nexa has improved a lot since he was on our team a while ago. He seems to be a crucial part of G2 and I think he just needs time to get more comfortable in the team. Hopefully this year he makes it."

Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2019 ranking and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected. This year's ranking is supported by:

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