How Wildcard stacked the deck with JBa

The embodiment of a Joker and Ace combined, JBa's meteoric rise to the upper echelons of North American Counter-Strike has drawn eyes ahead of the Americas RMR.

North American Counter-Strike has long struggled to return to its glory days post-COVID, hamstrung by fewer opportunities to compete internationally for fledging teams, structural changes to ESL Pro League, a dearth of seasoned in-game leaders to show new talent the ropes, and an exodus of developing players to VALORANT.

Few new names emerged in the aftermath of that crumble, limited to a handful that were already on the come up like Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince, Paytyn "⁠junior⁠" Johnson, and Michael "⁠Swisher⁠" Schmid, while the quality of practice in the region plummetted.

It took almost three years before signs of movement showed from under the rubble, but 2023 finally brought pastures anew as North American talent started to bloom again, giving rise to teams like Nouns, M80, and Wildcard while practice quality — albeit very slowly — improved.

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Josh "⁠JBa⁠" Barutt stands out amongst this new guard of NA talent as the maturing product of a perfect storm: He's a player whose natural mechanical talent, humility, confidence, and jester-like personality couldn't have found a better career launch pad than with the experience of Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz on Wildcard as the team arrives in Monterrey for the Americas RMR with their sights set on qualifying for PGL Major Copenhagen.

"I started playing games when I was really young," JBa tells HLTV of his early beginnings and start in Counter-Strike. "My dad competed, he went to LAN tournaments for DOOM when he was younger, so it was always something we did for fun when I was a kid. We played games together. He showed me Counter-Strike when I was 12-13. I didn't really play it a lot, but in middle school when I was around 14, I really started to play with my friends.

"I started out playing matchmaking with my IRL friends for about 1-2 years, and then I wanted to take the next step as I started getting good in matchmaking. I always had a natural sense of competitiveness in me from sports when I was younger, so I wanted to compete in a new game, a new sport. I went over to ESEA, joined a team, and just started grinding, and have been since."

The 19-year-old rifler wasn't caught up in the common dance from lineup to lineup as he developed in the early years of his career, nor did he skip through divisions of ESEA leagues which players of his potential usually have the chance to do. Instead, he worked his way up every division from Open in Season 30 until he broke through with Limitless in ESL Challenger League Season 44, a point at which he could put more focus on the game.

"My dad understood the whole competitiveness in esports and was happy I found something I liked to do and enjoyed," JBa explained when asked about his parents' support.

"Early on, as most kids do, I played the game all day, so he didn't really like that I played the game all day long because I was in sports like soccer all throughout high school. School was very important to him for me, so I had to have a balance all throughout high school and didn't get to play the game a lot. After high school it really started to take off and both my parents really supported it, and they are actually both really engaged in it now, so it's good."

His arrival at the sub-top of NA aligned almost perfectly with the return of veteran Canadian in-game leader stanislaw, who led OpTic and Evil Geniuses to numerous titles at prestigious events such as ELEAGUE Season 2 and ESL One New York 2019. In a region where almost every in-game leader who achieved success departed for different pastures, retired, or turned to coaching, this presented a rare opportunity for a diamond in the rough to be polished.

And a diamond in the rough is exactly what JBa was proving to be after his first seasons of ECL and his performances in FACEIT Pro League. He had a natural mechanical gift for the game, described by his former teammate, Max "⁠Makzwell⁠" Sparrey, as someone who just had "it" and as a "mini-shroud." Makzwell admitted that the latter description "sounds like a meme," but his adulation of JBa's abilities was no outlier as more tenured names soon took notice too.

"I think I shot up really fast once everybody started moving to VALORANT and the playerbase started getting weaker," JBa said of his rapid rise. "I improved really fast because there were less spots and I started getting noticed because of it. I was getting on better teams and playing with more experienced players."

Shortly after stanislaw created Forsaken with Matt "⁠Warden⁠" Dickens in July 2023, he was encouraged by Gage "⁠Infinite⁠" Green and Danny "⁠Cxzi⁠" Strzelczyk to take a look at a rather inexperienced, but promising rifler from Limitless. JBa was a relatively unknown quantity at this point, only breaking into ECL that very year and averaging a respectable but not earth-shattering 1.09 rating, 0.71 KPR, 76 ADR, and 0.99 impact rating over 110 maps with his team, but his talents quickly stood out upon review.

"Prior to that, I hadn’t heard anything about him," stanislaw tells HLTV. "Once he was recommended, I scouted his demos and I was impressed with his mechanical ability; enough to the point where I was willing to give him a shot, not knowing anything about his mentality."

Praise of JBa's abilities soon grew fonder after stanislaw started to play alongside him, initially with Forsaken and later, under Wildcard. "Josh has some of the best mechanical skills in North America. He’s far ahead of most other upcoming NA talents when it comes to aim," the Canadian captain said about what makes JBa stand out from the rest of the players in the region.

"Mechanically, he reminds me of Brehze when we played on EG together," stanislaw added when asked for a comparison to any of his former teammates or active pro players. "Brehze had incredible aim, incredible pistols, and was also a great clutcher."

Plenty of aim stars have come and gone, though, and mechanical ability only gets you so far in professional play. But it is also JBa's personality and attitude on the server that makes him a particular gem and demonstrates his willingness and potential for future growth, as stanislaw and Wildcard learned over the months that followed.

"Josh always has a smile on his face and always makes us laugh," stanislaw said. "We have these hilarious random moments with him that none of us can really explain. He is also humble and receives criticism fairly well, much better than a lot of other young players that I’ve worked with.

"Inside of the server, Josh is able to maintain a calm and focused mentality. When we’re behind in a game, he tries his best to take matters into his own hands. I love to see confidence like that. I’m working with him to develop his decision-making and communication so that when he tries to take matters into his own hands, the team can play around him in the best way possible."

While both stanislaw and former teammate Makzwell heaped praise on JBa for his mechanical abilities, the 19-year-old believes it is his attitude that differentiates him from the rest, and he firmly believes that this intangible quality is key to success in his teams.

"What makes me special and stand out is… people can't really see this, but in my opinion my attitude within the server and in a team is very good," JBa explained. "I don't tilt, I don't get angry at people, I'm always getting the mood right in the team. Whereas I think a lot of players in NA have attitude issues and it really hinders their teams and themselves.

"I've always been one of those happy guys, happy kids, growing up. I always try to bring up the mood whether we're down 0-12 or losing really bad, I always try to keep the mood up because I know how important that is in a team and how important it is to succeed. You see these teams all down and always mad at each other, and I don't think that's good at all. I try to limit that as much as possible in the environment in my teams."

Since linking up with stanislaw, JBa has continued to elevate his level. His initial uptick in form on Forsaken showed he could flourish under proper leadership, and though he has had a slight downturn in stats at the turn of the year compared to those early highs, he remains Wildcard's best-performing player in 2024.

He has already earned praised from the likes of Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado for his abilities, particularly in the Americas RMR closed qualifier, where he averaged a 1.19 rating to put Wildcard through with a flawless record. With the stable support of names he respects, like stanislaw and Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek, to guide him, anticipation to see him take the biggest step in his career at the RMR is high.

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But with new talent and inexperience comes growing pains too, and JBa is not immune. He may have the ability to bring the mood up, but can get quiet, communication-wise, when games get off to a bad start. Flaws in his decision-making can also leave him open to exploitation from more tenured names who can abuse those tendencies, something exposed more when Wildcard faced Liquid in online qualifiers.

"I don’t think that he feels pressure," stanislaw said about JBa taking on the more experienced names in Liquid. "I think that better teams and players are more capable of punishing his plays and aggression. Josh doesn’t back down, even against the best teams, but when he’s getting punished too often, I have to reel him back in."

stanislaw added that JBa has improved on both of these issues since he started playing with the youngster. "If he can continue to improve on them, he will be successful," he went on.

JBa, for his part, took this criticism in stride and owned up to his tendency to go quiet. "It's gotten a lot better than it was on Limitless, but communication is my biggest weakness right now," he admitted. "I tend to shut down once I'm playing bad, comms-wise, I tend to not talk a lot when I'm playing individually bad, which is something I'm actively trying to work on every single game. I think it's gotten a lot better, but it's still the weakest point in my game."

These are aspects of their game that Wildcard have been working to improve while gaining experience against different styles and levels of Counter-Strike during a bootcamp in Serbia ahead of the Americas RMR.

JBa expressed his appreciation for the diversity of practice during this period and believes it helped him improve much faster, and added that due to the number of different teams and styles, it is easy to get caught out, forcing you to adapt in a way that practicing in North America simply doesn't.

For stanislaw, the bootcamp and the quality of practice was a test of strength for his team against better competition, and it allows him to head into the Americas RMR confident in JBa and his team's abilities.

"The bootcamp massively helped us grow as a team," stanislaw said. "The quality of the practice compared to North America is night and day. I’m very happy with how the team, especially Josh, handled themselves against better opposition. Like I said before, I don’t think he feels pressure. Now that he’s had a bootcamp under his belt where he was able to test his plays against top players, I’m confident that he will do great at the RMR."

JBa himself was unwavering in the face of his biggest competition to date, where he will begin a quest to qualify for his first Major in a best-of-one against RED Canids.

"I feel really confident in not only myself, but my team," the 19-year-old stated. "I think we played really well at our bootcamp and we learned a lot, we got a lot of confidence from it. I think it'll be good, I'm really not that nervous, I don't think there's much pressure on us."

Date	Matches
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Americas RMR
01/03/2024	RED Canids 22:00 Wildcard	Match