Remember jdm64?

Josh "jdm64" Marzano was one of America's most recognizable figures in the Counter-Strike space. Known for his laid-back playing position and for his reliable, if unspectacular, AWPing ability the now 32-year-old has been absent from the scene since his stint on Envy. So where is the lounge king now? and should his career demand more respect than being a meme of the community?

2012-2014

Despite having played Counter-Stirike since he was 10 years old, the AWPer didn't break out into the competitive scene until the release of CS:GO with just two ESEA seasons of CS:S under his belt, both of which in the Main division. jdm64 found his first break when he played season 12 of the ESEA Invite division, placing ninth in the division with his vVv Gaming team.

After making a fourth-place finish in Season 15 of ESEA Main with slow motion, alongside future NA star Mike "shroud" Grzesiek, the AWPer would get his first taste of professional CS on netcodeguides.com. This would kick off his five-year stay at the top of the NA scene a longevity that deserves credit, considering former teammate shroud ended up retiring two years before the AWPer.

2014 would be jdm64's breakout year, as the player found a comfortable home on netcodeguides as he adjusted to the pro level. With top four finishes in CEVO Professional Season 4 and Season 5, alongside a top four finish in FACEIT - NA Championship 2014, and most importantly his first international LAN experience at ESEA Season 16 Global Finals with a sixth place finish after losing to NAVI.

2015

After his rookie year at the pro level, 2015 took jdm64 to a whole new level as he signed with Counter Logic Gaming, one of the regions top teams at the time. CLG decided to pick up the AWPer as a replacement for Peter "ptr" Gurney, stealing jdm64 from the SKDC lineup he had spent the first months of 2015 playing with, the move was made official in June.

On CLG, jdm64 began to make a name for himself outside of the domestic scene, in 2015 the AWPer would play at his first Major with the team and win his first domestic trophies. The successful run started off with a top-four finish in the ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 which secured the team a seat at the finals. In the offline finals, CLG managed to top a group that included European powerhouses Team SoloMid and Fnatic, but would ultimately lose to Cloud9 in the semi's, leaving them in 3-4th place finish.

That top four placing at an International LAN would be followed up with easy qualification to ESL One Cologne 2015. At his first Major jdm64's CLG would go out in the group stage. However, it was not as bad as it sounds as the team lost to NIP and NAVI, with a win over the Polish ebettle team sandwiched in the middle.

The CLG side would carry confidence with them as they went back to American shores winning the two next tournaments they competed in; the RGN Pro Series NA and the WinOut.net LAN, beating the Brazilian Luminosity Gaming lineup in the final of the latter. Once again being eliminated by NAVI in the next Major at Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca, it seemed like CLG lacked the little bit extra to become a consistent top team. CLG finished the year with another domestic LAN win at Northern Arena.

2016-2017

CLG went into 2016 as one of the best teams in NA, and a top four finish at their first S-Tier LAN of the year cemented this status. The first Major of 2016 would be in North America at MLG Columbus, CLG managed to make playoffs on home soil finishing top eight after a loss to fellow Americans Team Liquid. However, their results dropped off after Columbus, bombing out of Dreamhack Malmo and most painfully not even making top four at the all-American Dreamhack Open Austin.

After this jdm64 would get the dream move as he was called up to the Team Liquid roster, with Kenneth "koosta" Suen going the other way as part of a swap deal. Instantly the move seemed to have paid off, as Liquid made the final of ESL One Cologne 2016. It would be the only Major Grand Final of the AWPers career, but for a NA team at the time to be top two in Counter-Strike's premier tournament was certainly a big achievement. NA were denied their first Major trophy however by the legendary Brazilian SK lineup who were in the middle of their dominant reign.

A top four finish at ESL One New York followed, but the team would finish out the year being second best to Cloud9 who had just secured their first S-Tier trophy at ESL Pro League Finals Season 4. 2017 would be a down year for the team as they flopped at the ELEAGUE Atlanta Major and a number of changes were made in an attempt to find the golden formula. They released Jacob "pimp" Winneche and picked up future NA legend Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, signed Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz as their new IGL, and later in the year would drop stanislaw in favor of Brazilian Lucas "steel" Lopes.

The team would make two Grand Final appearances at S-Tier events despite their struggles in 2017, at ESG Mykonos and ESL One New York. Liquid failed to win either of these finals though and would have to settle for a trophyless year. The biggest disappointment for the team would be missing the second Major of the year completely, as they failed to qualify for PGL Krakow. after a close loss to flipsid3.

2018-2019

2018 would be jdm's last few months with the Liquid squad as their results continued to be sub-par, a 12th-14th finish at the ELEAGUE Boston Major meant they had to sit on the sidelines and watch as Cloud9 became America's heroes bringing home the first-ever NA Major trophy. February 5th would be jdm64's final day as part of the Liquid team as he was benched in favor of Keith "NAF" Markovic, the AWPer would stay on Liquids bench until the end of his contract in June.

The lounge gamer's final stint on a pro team would be with a troubled Envy side, the team failed to make their mark with their only notable result being a third place finish at the America's Minor for Katowice 2019, with Finn "Karrigan" Andersen standing in for the team. This third place finish qualified them for the play-in where they would have one last chance at qualifying for the IEM Katowice Major, unfortunately, the team would fall to winstrike and North stamping their tickets home.

In June 2019 jdm would be replaced by the South African Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek and this would be the end to the players Professional Counter-Strike career.

Post-Retirement

jdm64 announced his retirement from CS in May 2020 with him set to focus on Riot's new FPS, VALORANT. jdm64 joined FaZe as their new head coach in 2021. He would spend a year with the team until FaZe failed to secure a partner spot and consequentially the team was let go. jdm64 has since been rather quiet, although he did recently make a joke about making a comeback if CS2 is released.

With our previous Remember me?, on Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert, it was fairly easy to argue that n0thing is a legend of the game, and was one of the best players NA has produced. For jdm64 it's harder to pinpoint where his legacy leaves him, jdm never dropped below a 1.00 rating across an entire year throughout his career. However, he also only had one year above a 1.1 rating (1.15 in 2015). These stats suggest jdm64 was an AWPer with a high floor but a limited ceiling, which meant whilst he provided consistent reliability he failed to have star impact across the duration of his career.

That being said, jdm64 deserves plaudits for spending five years at the top of the NA scene and spending the majority of that time on just two teams shows he was a valued member of both CLG and Liquid despite not being a superstar.

He may not have star statistics but jdm64 clearly brought a lot of value to his teams, was a finalist at multiple S-tier LAN's, and is one of only ten NA players who have played in a Major final. jdm64 finds himself as part of CS lore due to his unusual seating position, however, he should also be remembered for a pretty successful career.