jks: "I had some intriguing offers, but my gut was telling me to go here"

jks talks about his return to a home team, using his experience to take on more responsibility in FlyQuest, and his goal to bring Australia back to the top.

Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage signed for FlyQuest during the recent summer break, a move that marked his return to a majority-Australian team after he left 100 Thieves back in 2020.

His debut was spoiled by FURIA, who defeated the Aussie and his team in a close-fought three-map affair, but jks was upbeat about the team's performance.

"No one really gave up or stopped communicating or anything like that, so I'm really proud of that part," he told HLTV after the loss.

FlyQuest now have one more life left at IEM Cologne, with their next game set to come against B8 in the lower bracket on Thursday.

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Commiserations, jks, a loss at first here at IEM Cologne. Tell me about the series against FURIA - maybe a missed opportunity?

Yeah, of course it's a missed opportunity, but we've only had a few weeks of practice and I feel like we're changing and implementing a lot of new things with me coming in. Overall I think we did pretty good, but the most disappointing thing is that we just lose some crucial rounds, which just broke us, anti-forces and stuff like that. It's something we've been working on and that's the only disappointing thing, just because we haven't fully fixed it yet.

But overall it's a pretty good showing, no one really gave up or stopped communicating or anything like that, so I'm really proud of that part, which is something we've actually been working on. But of course it would have been nice to win.

It was your first game back on the server, as well, after being benched in Liquid four months ago. Are you happy with what you showed individually?

Yeah, in some parts, for sure. In other parts, I feel like I'm kinda focusing on too much stuff in the server and I'm trying to coordinate a lot of stuff. I think overall it was pretty good, but there were definitely some rounds where I feel like, if I got one kill in this certain situation, we might win the game, like on some of the anti-forcebuys where we dropped the ball. Overall it's decent.

I wanted to ask you about joining FlyQuest in the first place, of course. In the past couple of times you took your time to get back on the server after leaving a team. This time, it was fairly quick. Was it just that obvious of a choice, or what was different about this off-season?

I just didn't really wanna wait for some sort of perfect opportunity or anything like that. I just wanted to go back to where I started, in a way, and just play with people who are familiar to me. I've played with two international lineups now and of course it's a good experience, but I kinda just felt like going back and playing with some Australian players and having some sense of country pride, in a way.

I just wanted something different, honestly, to play with some of my friends and see how it goes. It's at the point of my career where I feel like I can offer them a lot of experience, teach them a bunch of things so that they can get better, and hopefully we can improve as a team. I just wasn't interested in waiting for a perfect offer, because I kinda know how it goes and I didn't wanna sit there waiting the whole time.

You didn't think it was gonna come at any point, or?

Honestly, I didn't have that many hopes. Of course I had some offers, they were intriguing, but my gut was telling me to go here. I'm happy with what I did and I don't really regret anything.

You've touched on this already - it seems like a bit of a role change for you in terms of what you bring to the team, being a bit more vocal, coming in not just to bolster the firepower but also having this experience in international teams at the top tier. How are you coming to grips with this new responsibility?

Obviously, it's a big responsibility, but overall it's been pretty fun. It's a lot of work, it's really exhausting, the last two weeks I put in a lot of time, and it's fine because that's what we play for and I feel like I'm the person who needs to do this so we can get better as a team. I just took some experiences that I've had from other people I played with, like NiKo and Twistzz.

I think it's a good experience for me, I've never really had this role or position in the team before, but it's obviously one that I have to do. I couldn't just join this team and just coast along. It's something I wanted to do, I made a conscious decision about it, and it's fine.

I love playing with these guys because they all respect and they all listen to me really well, and the same thing the other way, they can give me some opinions or feedback the other way and I'm gonna listen to them. The mutual respect is there and it's really good.

But of course I have a bigger role in this team and it's something that's expected of me. Overall the hardest part is how much we need to learn, and it's just a bit exhausting in the beginning, but I feel like over time it'll get better.

It's always been difficult for this team to break the glass ceiling, to break through and have some bigger results at big events. Is that experience something you're hoping to leverage to bring Australia's best team to a higher level?

Of course. We did it back in the day with Renegades and with 100 Thieves, I think the highest world rank was like four or five, and obviously that's a really big achievement for an Australian team. I wanna do something similar again.

Of course, the scene nowadays is much more competitive and it's way more difficult to do that, but I feel like we have the players and the talent on the team to do it with, and it's just about how much we want it and how much people wanna work together. Everybody needs to chip in, not just me, and I feel like everyone is doing that so far, but hopefully we just keep it up and over time get better.

I think FURIA is a really great team, and I think we had a really close showing today in our first LAN match, and I feel like we even had some nervousness, some jitters and stuff like that, some really hectic comms and shit, and on top of that we lost a lot of forcebuys, right, so if we can fix some of these things I feel like the games will be much closer.

Obviously, the reason I joined this team was to bring Australian teams back on top, and I feel like this team can do it. That was my main goal, yeah.

Lastly, in terms of role, does what you bring to the team come more in terms of prep, theory, outside of the server, or is it a lot of micro-managing inside of the server as well, or is that happening now that there's this transitional period?

I'd say it's a bit of everything. I just help wherever people need help. If I feel like they can do better at something, I'll tell them, and if they need advice or something, I'll just say it to them. I'm not afraid to say anything to these guys because they take it really well, and I think that's one of the best parts about this team. I can't really pinpoint one thing.

Over time it will get better, we'll learn what to focus on, I'll learn what I need to focus on so I can be better individually as well and not have to focus on too many things. I just also wanna say, it's not just me chipping in, everyone is bringing a lot of stuff and doing extra things, but I just feel like I have the experience that they don't, which is what I can help with the most. Yeah, it's just a bit of everything.;