Jks To Stand In For Ropz At IEM Katowice 2022

Justin “jks” Savage will stand in for Robin “ropz” Kool at IEM Katowice 2022, FaZe Clan announced on Thursday, February 10. The news comes after it was unveiled that ropz will remain sidelined due to a COVID infection.

The Australian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro will take over for ropz, will miss the early stages of IEM Katowice 2022. The news surfaced on Wednesday when FaZe unveiled that its Estonian player had caught COVID.

It’s unknown when ropz will return to the stage and compete with his new team. Meanwhile, FaZe will continue with jks, who will serve as a replacement until at least February 19, when ropz’s 10-day quarantine ends.

That assumes that FaZe Clan will remain alive in the tournament, where the North American side first needs to fight through the Play-In stage.

“Standing in as the 5th member of our professional CS:GO roster to begin IEM Katowice, please welcome jks,” read the announcement.

“Ropz will rejoin the starting lineup following his recovery & quarantine as soon as it is safe for him to do so.”

FaZe Clan will kick off their quest for the IEM Katowice 2022 title on Tuesday, February 15, when they face off against Sprout. Assuming FaZe win the match, they’ll play the winner of the MOUZ vs GODSENT clash later the same day for a ticket leading into the group stage.

The group stage will take place between February 17-20, featuring the top eight teams from the Play-In stage and the eight directly invited CS:GO teams. These include NaVi, Gambit, G2 Esports, Vitality, Heroic, Virtus.pro, FURIA Esports, and Team Liquid.

The group stage will play out in two double-elimination (GSL) groups, with eight teams in each group. All matches are Bo3, with the top three teams advancing into the playoffs.

Depending on their group placement, the teams will be drawn into a different playoff stage. The winners get a direct bye into the semis. Meanwhile, the second and third-placed teams will proceed into the quarter-finals as the high and low seeds.

By joining FaZe Clan as a stand-in, jks will return to pro play for the first time since October 2021, when he attended IEM Winter 2021 EU Closed Qualifiers. At the time, the Australian CS:GO pro was still a part of Complexity but got benched from the team at the start of November due to poor results.

Since then, jks has been transfer-listed but has yet to find a new home. Meanwhile, the rest of the former Complexity roster went their separate ways, leaving jks as the only inactive member of the 2021 roster.

That includes coach Jamie “keita” Hall, who joined Fnatic in August, William “RUSH” Wierzba, who left for Evil Geniuses in January, Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke, who teamed up with Astralis in November, and Valentin “poizon” Vasilev, who left Complexity in October, and has yet to sign for a new team.

Jks was a member of Complexity since October 2020, when he got signed as an inactive member of 100 Thieves. Over the 13 months, jks has achieved some success, but that was limited to the earlier months of 2021.

In February, Complexity won BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2021 as their only notable tournament title. The only other silverware Complexity claimed last season came in June when they won Spring Sweet Spring #3.

Despite his lack of success with Complexity, jks was given a chance to return to the server in an official competition in five months. While he will only serve as a temporary replacement, joining FaZe on their quest at IEM Katowice will provide the Australian CS:GO pro with an opportunity to prove himself in hopes to raise his stock.