FOKUS has officially announced the appointment of Ricardo "JTR" Júnior as the team's new head coach. He will replace kuben, who was benched earlier today. The club stated this decision is meant to "move forward in a new direction."
JTR's coaching career has seen many highlights:
Coaching Nigma Galaxy from 2021 to 2023: During this period, he led the women's team to dominate the ESL Impact scene, winning the ESL Impact championships for the first two seasons, as well as the titles at the Valencia and Katowice events.
Transitioning to ODDIK: He then coached at ODDIK for a year, leading the team in the Americas RMR, but narrowly missed the PGL Copenhagen Major.
2024-2026 at FlyQuest: Served as an assistant coach, and briefly served as head coach at BLAST Open London 2025.
FOKUS's current status: 55th in the world, season with an uneven start
The FOKUS team that JTR joined is currently ranked 55th in the world on the VRS. Following the roster changes over the summer, the team experienced a turbulent start—Jorko and volt departed, while podi and jocab joined. In recent results, they placed 9th-16th at BLAST Bounty, finished 17th-32nd in the EWC Open Qualifier, and ranked 9th-12th at Stake Pulse Beat II.
Next, FOKUS led by Erik "ztr" Gustafsson has been invited to the knockout stage of the NODWIN Clutch Series 12 and has registered for the $20,000 ROG Journey Autumn event in Skövde, Sweden, striving to get back on track under the new coach.