Getting to Know NA: JusTus Pro

Justus Pro are making a strong case for themselves these current seasons. They have shown many moments of brilliance such as an extremely close 14-16 loss against Cloud9 and a 13-16 against Lunatik and they have shown that they can take huge rounds off of the top teams of North America. Combined with a superb record in ESEA Premier that’s currently 9-3, they should be on everyone’s radar coming into this playoff season.

When did JusTus Pro form? What were your intentions when you made/joined the team?

planks: JusTus formed in January of 2014, by dizzaman and flowsicK under the name UMX. I joined in March of 2014 and our intention in the beginning was just to have fun. We eventually picked up ShahZaM making our roster Planks, Flowsick, Dizzaman, Shahzam and Leakim. We wanted to take it more seriously and ended up picking up Flashstep as a replacement for Leakim as our IGL. Shortly after, Dizzaman wanted to stop playing so we ended up picking up JMZ. Long story short, our roster as of now is Flowsick, Planks, agM, EliGE and Ptr. I couldn’t be happier with the roster we have and our intentions are to be one of the top teams in North America.



What are your goals for your ESEA and CEVO seasons?

planks: We're only really focusing on ESEA and making it to invite next season. We are playing CEVO for practice and just to stay in for CEVO Professional next season when our schedules will be more open to participate in two leagues.



What do you think you have to do in order to break into that top tier of professional NA teams?

EliGE: We would need to practice more than we already do, but we are prevented by it from work schedules. If we had more practice time, we could have much more solid builds that all the professionals iron out.



Many people remark on how bad the NA scene is for practicing, especially compared to Europe, or even other games in general. Do you agree with this?

EliGE: The reason why the NA scene lacks the ability to practice compared to the more established regions such as Europe or Korea is because we lack infrastructure. Europe and Korea already have the foundation they need to have these team houses, heavy payout tournaments to practice for and more. If NA could ever get the same type of setup going, the skill disparity wouldn’t be as big.

planks: North America has very little to play for, there are no big LAN events hosted in NA nor a bunch of online tournaments with giant payouts. There is one league that is dominant which is ESEA and then there is CEVO as well. If the LAN scene became big like it used to be, there would be a lot more competitive teams out there.



You’ve had some very close games with some of the top tier teams in NA. What would you say are the strong points of your team? What do you think you have to improve?

planks: Each player on the team brings something to the table and we work off of each other very well. With our schedule the way it is, we don’t have much time to practice; so we utilize our time somewhat wisely. Our only downfall is how emotional we can get during our matches, which is something we have to improve on.



Would you say your team has a specific philosophy in how they approach the game? Do you all look towards the European teams for strategies and tactics?

planks: I don’t think we have a specific philosophy per se; we just play off each other real well. Individually, all of us can play different roles when needed. Strategy-wise, we do look towards the Europeans for executions but we try making up our own strategies that work for us. We try putting our own little twists in things and being original. Always trying out new things to see what works, even with our practice schedule right now.



How do you determine how you play against another team? Does personnel of your opponents heavily factor in?

agM: Going into a match with a decent understanding how a team plays could be useful but at the end of the day you have to be prepared to play your own game. You need to just stick by what you have practiced and what works for us as a team.



How often do you practice? What is the split between team and personal play?

agM: Due to work schedule conflicts we usually go over a map on Sunday night and the rest of the week are just random scrims when we have time. As of right now, this is as much as we can practice. Hopefully in the near future we will be able to put in the time to be a top team.



Do you look at the csgl odds before a match? Do they affect your mentality?

agM: Of course we all look and joke about it but you can’t let a number affect you. It is also why I never bet on myself, it just adds extra pressure in the back of your mind.

ptr^: I think that CSGL does nothing to the mentality of our team, but I do wish that the community wouldn’t cry about throwing so much. If they honestly knew competitive counter-strike, bar a few teams(not c9 or IBP), they would know that no one wants to throw for skins.



What would you say is your favorite map? Why?

EliGE: My favorite map would probably be cache because I am comfortable with aiming / getting picks on the map. Most of the angles feel natural to get the frags needed.

agM: I would have to say mirage is my favorite CS:GO map. In my opinion, it is a lot of fun to play on the terrorist side because you can play it however you want. It is an easy map for executions, splits and also fakes. It also allows the counter-terrorists to play aggressively or passively.



When games are getting tough, or things are getting hectic who would you say is the voice of reason on the team? Or do you all feed off each others emotions?

flowsicK: That would definitely be ptr. Even when we are up by 10+ he is still giving us his southern motivational speeches.



Do you think more talent will start transferring into CSGO as more money is put into the scene?

flowsicK: Yes, as seen in the third CS:GO major more and more viewers and players are tuning in to watch the tournament. It just needs to become known in the casual GO community that there is money to be won doing something you love.



Do you (all) have any other interests outside of gaming?

planks: I enjoy long walks on the beach, naked.

Big thanks to Rick and Mike of JusTus, thanks for all the continued support!

Roster

Michael ”agM” Abood | Twitch | Twitter |

Jonathan ”EliGE” Jablonowski | Twitch |

Kyle ”flowsicK” Mendez | Twitch | Twitter |

Vinny ”planks” Mazzarella | Twitch | Twitter |

Peter ”ptr^” Gurney | Twitch | Twitter |