The Janitorz are one of the orignal teams competing since the last COD revivial in 2021. The team boasts a solid roster that has numerous cup victories under their belt. The team comes into GOTN season as one of the top teams in the game, poised to make a run. I sat down with harry aka sh0tyz aka harold to discuss.

Q: Our community has a lot of love for the Janitorz. Can you give us a little history of how Janitorz formed and how we got here today? (maybe touch on how the team formed in 2021 as well as this latest revival?)

Sure, Janitorz was formed in 2015 when Battalion was announced and small COD4 tournaments were kicking off. The name honestly came around when we were in a public server (zG shoutouts) and my in-game name was just mopped. I would just run around and frag, which caused people in the pub to constantly say “MOPPED MOPPED” (hence the bind). Then when a COD4 cup was announced, we made a team around this “lore” named Janitorz. Original members of J were Me, Everestt, Jay, Owlivahh, Chocochumk (shoutouts Nemesis LLC). After that tourney we picked up hostage (dubbed rage toggler).

We’ve all been playing together, for the most part, since 2015 in various games (Blackout, PUBG, Battalion with pride$$, COD2, COD4, CS, I’m sure other things but I can’t remember). Then late 2020 when tipzy and some friends decided to host a ladder thru Google Sheets, hostage wanted to bring Janitorz to it with me and jay. The team began with me, hostage, and jay, then we picked up zyk and 1ShoT?. We played the first cup and got second to spawn roof (with Nytrix on it). Around the time spawn roof died, Jay wanted to focus on other things. That’s when we picked up Nytrix with jay moving to backup.

Q: Janitorz came into LAN as one of the top two seeds, debatably the top seed by many. Can you talk about your teams performance since the latest revival, heading into LAN, and LAN itself?

A: Honestly, the team performed well. Sure, we didn’t get the result we’d like, but I feel like a few factors pertained into that. That includes running into the LAN winners in losers semis, after being knocked to losers by the LAN’s runner ups. We at least lost to the 2 finalist teams. We weren’t fully prepared going into LAN and relied on our team experience, a mistake we don’t intend to make going into LAN 2.

Q: Janitorz made probably one of the biggest changes on the scene post LAN. What can you tell us about that change and bringing back an OG Janitor?

A: Sure, it’s no secret the personality fit with Woody wasn’t fully there. People within the team often butt heads. After LAN we all decided to part ways. At the time Jay was interested in coming back again, full force, for LAN 2, so that was a no brainer pickup. We had other potential candidates, but it ultimately came down to wanting to reunite with OG members from a decade ago.

Q: Another big changer has been you moving to the shotgun role. How has that transition been?

A: It’s coming with it’s own challenges. On top of me having limited COD2 experience (first time touching the game was random pugs in this discord in 2019, and my first “match” being in 2021), I’ve bounced around many roles, but personally this role feels natural to me. My experience as a COD4 SMG and aggressive playstyle fits the bill. Now it’s about learning smokes and timings within the role as fast as possible so I can contribute as much as I can to the team.

Q: Okay, now the world wants to know. Who will be scoping for Janitorz, and how much of the Russian sensation, winky, should we expect to see?

A: Nytrix is the scope. 100% locked in, the scope. But the advantages of having hostage as a versatile player, if we need to shift a different look or make a hot swap Nick can grab the scope and dominate without us missing a beat. You’ve seen that multiple times on LAN, actually. For the time being, you will see a lot of Winky (and another special guest, no leaks). Hostage is temporarily on a hiatus but intends to come back.

Q: What are your team goals/expectations for the season?

A: We want to win. The drive to win is there and back. But right now, we feel a bit behind the curve with the amount of changes within the team. We’re currently a bit inactive while people deals with IRL (me and hostage). So we’ll be focusing more on prepping for LAN 2 and using the season as a means for that. So while we’re excited for the season, our main goal and expectations are the results of LAN 2.

Janitorz:

harry

hostage

Nytrix

zyk

jayYyYy

Backups: winkY, REDACTED