Before DIDI8’s arrival, Radoslav Kolev, aka JuSt.DieSeL, WAS JuSt, the face of a fledgling All-Bulgarian clan trying to make it to the big leagues. For as long as he’s been a pro-gamer, JuSt has been the only clan Kolev has known. Now, Bulgaria’s second most famous active WC3 player finds himself finally leaving the nest, off to high-powered fnatic to bolster their team’s stretch run. In this interview, Kolev talks about the highs and lows of his JuSt days, his new home, and a certain Bulgarian HU player.

Quick Links: About JuSt | Move to fnatic | China & Bulgaria | Noname's Parting Shots

Lots of casual WC3 fans became familiar with your former clan, JuSt, after DIDI8 took over, but the fact is, you were a mainstay of JuSt long before DIDI8 arrived. How did you feel when he first took over and how do you feel now that the team has disbanded, considering you were there the longest tenured member, and (along with DIDI8) probably had invested the most time and effort to see JuSt succeed?

At the Tavern, Part 1 Most memorable personal game: A game vs Xlord for the NGL-ONE Qualifiers on TM. I beat him on Echo Isles and the score was 3-3, so they used him as a Joker again on TM and the game was sick: one and a half hours and I managed to win and we got into NGL-ONE. ^^ Most memorable WC3 game: Moon vs. ToD on Twisted Meadows, WEG1 (sorry, ToD). ^^ Moon won with single Dark Ranger and near the end, stole a peasant from ToD and built an Altar and Blood Mage. ^^ Favorite Hero Spell: Blink Favorite Hero Ultimate: Metamorphosis

Well, I've been in JuSt ever since its creation and then DIDI came along after 2 years, which was nice. The first 2 years of the team were kinda amateur years; having fun and stuff along with playing some leagues. But when DIDI came along, he decided that Bulgaria needed one professional team and so he got six of the best players in Bulgaria to remake our team. He put a lot of effort into it. Eventually, he joined later on as a player to increase our power and the results came immediately.

I was a mainstay in JuSt and I don’t regret any single minute spent in that team with its members, but I decided eventually that it was time for me to move on to fnatic.

JuSt was one of the “feel good” stories two seasons ago. You had a WC3 icon in DIDI8 leave behind the prestige of a “name” clan—ironically, fnatic-- to take over a ragtag All-Bulgarian team; you qualified for the WC3L; you gained a major sponsor in WE.IGE and had began to attract some of the top up-and-coming WC3 players in LiiLD.C, Rob and KnOfF. Then this. What happened? Was there any one event or decision that you can point to as the reason for JuSt’s demise?

Well, I don’t know, really. Yes, we had our peaks-- qualifying for NGL-ONE with an all-Bulgarian squad and after that, qualifying for WC3L-- and those were pretty much our main goals. After we separated with WE, half of the Bulgarian players went inactive and we had some sponsor issues which I don’t want to talk about. Anyway, my decision to join fnatic was in my mind for a month or two, and I finally decided that if I wanted to accomplish something big, I needed to change my team. It was my personal decision and no one else’s and I'm really sorry if I let some people down with it.

If you could do it all over again, would you have done anything different, like remain an All-Bulgarian team instead of expanding to include other European countries, or perhaps chosen a European-based sponsor instead of a Chinese one?

DieSeL with fellow Bulgarian Insomnia.

Well, as I said, I don’t regret anything I did. I've had all kinds of offers in the past from European-based teams some might say were “big teams,” but I didn’t leave my team because money isn’t always everything. As for my team joining WE.IGE, it was very appealing because they are a great team with lots of great players and sponsors and so on.

As for LiiLD.C and KnOfF leaving, they just decided to move on and I don’t blame them. After all, they did great job in JuSt and we all appreciate that.

There was some talk that even after losing LiiLD and KnOfF, JuSt was still willing to honor its commitment to the major leagues with an All-Bulgarian team, but with you leaving for fnatic, the team was backed into a corner—you being their best remaining player-- and the clan had no choice but to fold. Your response?

As I said, I probably let some people down with my decision and some might think it was a selfish decision, but for the first time in my WC3 career, I decided to do something for myself rather than for someone else. And I don’t think me leaving the team meant it couldn’t continue to compete in these leagues. There are lots of good players in Bulgaria left-- some new talents, some old, great players-- but I guess for me, the time had come.