JBa shines as Wildcard take down BIG at IEM Katowice Stage 1 opener
Wildcard have started their campaign at IEM Katowice 2025 Stage 1 with the right foot as they dispatched BIG by 2-0 this Wednesday, January 28th. With this victory, Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and his men only need to win one out of two possible best-of-three series to advance to the next stage.
This is a great result for Wildcard after losing to Astralis at BLAST Bounty Season 1 in their tier-one debut in 2025.
The series between Wildcard and BIG kicked off on Ancient, the German's map pick, and Wildcard dismantled them with a flawless 12-0 on CT-side, powered by Josh "JBa" Barutt dropping 20 kills in those 12 rounds. BIG had nothing to do in the second half and Wildcard closed the map after losing only four rounds.
Wildcard and BIG moved to Inferno and this time around, the match was much more tight as Wildcard couldn't close out the match on the T-side despite the 11-7 advantage.
The game went to overtime and Wildcard secured the series off the back of an impressive showing on their T-side. JBa was once again Wildcard's catalyst, this time contributing with 32 kills.
WildcardBIG| Wildcard |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'JBa' Barutt |
53 - 26 | +27 | 105.2 | 87.0% | 1.77 |
 Tim 'susp' Ångström |
34 - 27 | +7 | 82.9 | 78.3% | 1.31 |
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
28 - 26 | +2 | 72.1 | 80.4% | 1.13 |
 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
28 - 25 | +3 | 69.3 | 78.3% | 1.09 |
| Love 'phzy' Smidebrant |
25 - 26 | -1 | 64.5 | 73.9% | 0.92 |
| BIG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz |
29 - 34 | -5 | 74.0 | 73.9% | 0.96 |
| Jon 'JDC' de Castro |
25 - 34 | -9 | 74.3 | 65.2% | 0.92 |
| Marcel 'hyped' Köhn |
29 - 32 | -3 | 64.4 | 65.2% | 0.91 |
| Can 'kyuubii' Ali |
26 - 36 | -10 | 61.8 | 67.4% | 0.77 |
| Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa |
19 - 32 | -13 | 55.3 | 65.2% | 0.67 |
As soon as the match concluded, JBa gave an interview to James BanKs, and mentioned their preparation for the tournament.
"We've just been grinding a lot in Europe," JBa said. "I'm just trying to find my confidence and I'm just believing in myself and my teammates to play how I usually do, and not letting the pressure of any game get to me and not going for any plays. I'm just believing in myself."
Wildcard return to the server on Friday, January 31th to play against the winner of FURIA v. Imperial fe, while BIG play an elimination series against the loser of the same match tomorrow.
