DISCLAIMER!
This is not an official article! I am not part of the VLR.gg writer staff yet, please upvote my content so that one day I can officially become one!
This is also a test, note that this profile is not nearly as complete as it could be, if you guys enjoy this type of articles, I will bring more complete ones in the near future!
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Walney "Jonn" Reis
Is a player for the Ninjas In Pyjamas roster, formerly a Gamelanders Blue player and First Strike Brazil winner.
Born in Itaboraí, Rio de Janeiro, He first started his career on Counter-Strike 1.6, where in his words, he got "Stomped" in a Open Qualifier, and that gave him his first taste of competition. Despite him getting nervous and having a bad day, he was still called a cheater for his talent.
But with the release of Point Blank, Jonn left CS 1.6 and focused on making it to the game's major tournament after seeing people travel to play in 2011, back when he first started playing the game.
How is a company paying for people to travel? This is so cool, I want to travel too.
After making his own team, Jonn competed in a qualifier, with the prize being a slot for PBIC 2012. He managed to get to the grand finals, where he faced Jhow's team, and won.
He and his team got a ticket for Indonesia, all paid, to compete in the major, Jonn had only 18 years.
Pô, I'm going to travel for free, I got a free ticket, I won the tournament and I am going to travel
to Indonesia.
Jonn didn't come close to winning the tournament, but when he stepped into the stage, he knew he wanted that to be his career, his life. After coming back to Brazil, Jonn needed to choose a career, his dad was pushing him towards studies, but Jonn insisted that he wanted to play professionally, he wanted to experience the stage again.
How am I going to live from something that doesn't pay me?
Contracts didn't exist back then, there was no guarantee of stability for the players, Jonn was living purely out of the prize pools he won at tournaments, with the only condition being that he needed to win, otherwise there would be no money for the month.
In 2013, Jhow became his teammate, together they built "The best team at the time", even did a bootcamp with the team for a month at one of the player's house.
However, the first problem that would haunt Jonn's career appeared, not all of the team was on the same page.
It doesn't matter how determined you are to win if the other players with you don't care at all, that's when I realized that if I wanted to win, I would need a solid team, they needed to have the same goal as mine, the same resilience as me, that's something that haunted my career for years. I wanted a lot, Jhow did too, but the other guys? Forget about it.
Jonn lost again in the qualifier for the 2013 major, even with the loss, his synergy with Jhow grew.
If I want to be at the top, he needs to be there with me.
Fast forward to 2016, Jonn and Jhow finally found the teammates they needed, Foox, Fzn, and Koyote. Together they swept the bracket and got another shot at a major, 3 years after Jonn's first major. They lost the first game, and did a dream run on the lower brackets, sweeping everyone and winning the event.
When I had given up in my dream, I won
But even with the win, the team disbanded, Jonn saved up some of the prize money and kept trying to follow his dream with Jhow, only to find defeat. In April of 2017, Jonn retired.
He discovered his dad had cancer, he spent 2 years of his life taking care of him, Foox tried to bring back the fire inside Jonn, but after losing to Nyang in the grand finals, he gave up on the game.
His dad managed to recover from the cancer, but Jonn was depressed, he felt he didn't accomplish anything all those years, his girlfriend was the one that convinced him to start playing again, there was a new game coming out, Zula, she told Jonn to find Jhow, and make a team once again. And so he did.
In Zula, he met Mwzera:
Mwzera played the game like it was nothing, he was one of the guys I had the most trouble aiming against. We went to play against him, he had 8 months of playtime, we had 2, but we still won against him in a LAN, one more trip for us
Their run on the major was good, but it still wasn't enough to give Jonn and Jhow the opportunity to live from the game.
With all I went through with this game, no one had invested in me, nobody trusted my work, no one came to me and said 'Jonn, you're cracked, I will invest in your team'
The team disbanded once again, and Jonn was left in a limbo, he and Jhow spend the days playing RPG games, waiting for an opportunity at a new game.
I didn't know what to do with my life, if I should go back to college or keep waiting at the computer.
That's when in 2019, I saw a news article talking about a new game soon to be released, Project A.
But the game would only released mid way through 2020, and Jonn needed a plan B. Jhow and Mwzera migrated to R6, but Jonn disliked the game, so he chose not to play it with them.
That was the lowest point in his life, he didn't know what to do with his life, everything he invested he had lost, even the investments his own dad gave him failed.
All I wanted was for someone to invest in me and my team, all I wanted was a game worth playing.
At the start of 2020, after months of not talking to his teammates, his wife once again re-ignited his fire and he got back together with his teammates.
This is my last time, the last time I ever touch a keyboard, this is the last time I'm doing this for real, if this doesn't work, I'm breaking my computer, I will sell everything. I will give 300% of me, I will use everything I learned all these years.
This is my last chance, the last dance.
Jonn and Jhow already had a plan ready, they invited mwzera to the team, he accepted, next they would have to find 2 people that had the same goals and mindset as them. They constantly went up against Nyang and Fzn in ranked, both of them had experienced the same as Jonn and Jhow. Jonn wasn't a fan of Nyang, but he made the risky move to invite him to the team, along with Fzn.
In June, they won Copa Rakin, in July, Gamers Club Ultimate. In September, Aorus League and EVOlution Open. In October, the second Copa Rakin. And in December, the Copa BrMalls and the First Strike Brazil event, 7 achievements in one year. After Gamers Club Ultimate, Final Level offered the team a contract.
Me, Jhow, Fzn and Nyang went through the same experiences, listening to promises, promises, and more promises. We were like ' Okay, I'll sign it, but I doubt the money will ever come to us.
When their first salary was sent, the entire team vibrated in TeamSpeak, Jonn finally was living from his dream, after years of resilience.
It's a dedication that has been in the works since 2011, It wasn't made this year
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