Fnatic Jackinho: The Right Man At The Wrong Time?

Jack “Jackinho” Ström Mattsson was signed by legendary CS:GO org Fnatic in January 2021 as an extremely talented, albeit slightly unknown, prodigy. Replacing a veteran like Robin “flusha” Rönnquist is never easy, but walking into a team as a rookie that had been on the spiral of decline for months makes the job ahead even harder, however sadly that was what Jackinho faced during his days at Fnatic. 

Nevertheless, whilst it potentially was a case of the ‘right man at the wrong time’ there is still plenty of talent with Jackinho that a top-tier team could be about to stumble upon in this post-Major roster reshuffling. Gamelevate takes a look back at Jackinho’s time in Fnatic’s CS:GO roster, and why it ultimately didn’t work out for the young Swede. 

A Team In Decline 

When Fnatic decided to ditch flusha in favor of Jackinho, the side had gone from world number one to barely in the top twenty, following a string of poor results during the online era. 

Out of all the top tier teams in CS:GO, Fnatic were undoubtedly hit the hardest by the transition from LAN to online, with the team’s loose individual playstyle not translating to a far more stacked and aggressive meta online. 

Confidence had noticeably begun to drop in the Fnatic camp, with the experienced heads of Jesper “JW” Wecksell and Maikil “Golden” Kunda Selim being the two biggest underperformers for the Black and Orange. It was clear the team needed a major shakeup and the arrival of a big personality to help revitalize things, something that the single addition of a rookie player, untested at the biggest stage, was in hindsight never likely to achieve. 

Role Crisis 

Across 2020 before his pick-up by Fnatic, Jackinho held an impressive 1.29 rating, 0.57 deaths per round, a KAST round contribution rate of 74.5%, a 1.32 impact rate, 83.3 and 0.81 average damage and kills per round, showcasing his undeniable talent in the server. 

Known as a highly-skilled AWPer however, the main question the community asked when his transfer to Fnatic was announced, was whether or not he would be trusted with the ‘big green’ for the team. At first, JW continued to be the side’s primary AWPer and it looked like the team had finally turned a corner with a second-place finish at cs_summit 7. 

However, things quickly began to unravel with JW’s performances failing to pick up and Jackinho increasingly uncomfortable as an anchoring rifler. 

The two switched their roles up again, but it was clear that there was still a major structural issue in how Fnatic were set up with JW and Jackinho both in the team. 

The Final Days

Eventually, after bottom-placed finishes at the IEM Katowice play-in, the Flashpoint Season 3 RMR event, and IEM Summer, the move that most in the community had called for months in advance finally happened, with Golden and JW being benched by Fnatic in favor of the two Brits, Alex “ALEX” McMeekin, and Will “Mezii” Merriman.

The first-ever international lineup in Fnatic’s long history in CS:GO, even that dramatic change wasn’t enough to give Jackinho the spark he needed to ignite his career with the Black and Orange. 

Despite the team impressively making it out of the group stage at ESL Pro League Season 14, Jackinho only averaged a rating of 0.97, and his 0.88 and 0.90 ratings at IEM Fall as Fnatic failed to qualify for the 2021 PGL Stockholm Major finally led to the org pulling the plug, announcing his benching in September. 

Where Did It Go Wrong For Jackinho? 

Jackinho always looked like a player that was immensely grateful for the opportunity to play for an org like Fnatic but also always seemed aware of the pressures that come with representing such a prestigious side in the Esports world. Jackinho always seemed to take the losses Fnatic were enduring the most to heart, and would often bemoan his shortcomings in the server, leading to this self-fulfilling spiral where the pressure would make him perform worse, Fnatic to lose more games, and so on. 

Compare him to his replacement, Owen “smooya” Butterfield, and you can see why it might be a case of the right player at the wrong time. Whilst smooya undoubtedly has the edge when it comes to experience, he has hardly been the pillar of consistency himself over his career.

The chief difference is smooya is a player that oozes self-confidence both inside and out of the server. One miss doesn’t derail his performance, he shrugs it off and keeps going. And it is that sort of player Fnatic have badly needed for a long time and a huge reason why the side find themselves on a six-game winning run at the time of writing. 

Jackinho still has all the potential to carve out a remarkably solid career in competitive Counter-Strike, with good spatial awareness and an eye for an outrageous flick, however, finding the same level of trust for himself is undoubtedly the biggest hurdle he continues to face in attempting to get there.