CEVO Articles

JP Moogle McDaniel had the chance to sit down with LA Complexity’s General Manager, Jason Lake.  The questions range from CGS to 1.6.

To begin with lets talk about the start of Championship Gaming Series (CGS) Season 2. Since the very first match in Region 1, compLexity was off to a poor start. The Counter-Strike division went up with a 7 point lead but the rest of your team, mainly beLLe and Perfect Legend, failed to preform. What are your thoughts on this season?

It was a rough season right from the beginning.  It seemed like different people would step up and give us a chance to win only to have someone else bomb out and cost us the match.  When the CS team posted positive points, someone else would get hammered.  When the other squads put us in the driver’s seat, CS would lose the match.  It was a painful experience.

Many critics believed that the poor performance this season stemmed from your poor draft picks. If you had to do it all over again, what would you have done differently?

I’d have to agree unfortunately.  Heading into the draft, I felt confident that I had a plan which would put us in contention for the title.  KreeganBG was a no-brainer in my eyes, but he struggled all season.  Perfect Legend looked to be a goldmine but he didn’t play up to his reputation.  coL.cs is coL.cs so I didn’t have any concerns there but a 6-6 season was sub-par for the squad.  Our racers were proven winners on the big stage and I felt their transition to Forza was going well so I stuck with them.  The biggest controversy, obviously, was the Belle pick.  I had been watching Belle play CGS males for months on Xbox Live and strongly felt 2008 would be her year.  Although she played much better than 2007 she wasn’t able to bring us the points we needed.  So, yes, although I felt the draft went very well the results obviously point in another direction.

Megan ‘belle’ Cedar has taken a lot of flack from the critics as being the downfall of your team. What are your thoughts on this, and why have you stuck with her through two seasons now?

Although Megan didn’t really help with positive point spreads, she brought in many more rounds this year and even got 3 on Vanessa only to have CS get blown out to lose the match.  I wouldn’t point a finger at her as the reason for our 2-10 season, but she didn’t step up and win us any matches either.  It was a total team meltdown, and it was something I’ve never witnessed before unfortunately.  As previously mentioned, I stuck with her because I felt she was our best option heading into 2008.  I felt she would be better than Mystic and Raspberry Tea despite what the popular opinion was.  Heading into 2009 I’ll keep my eyes on all the available talent and do my best to draft a winner.  Will that be Belle?  Who knows.

Carl ‘Perfect Legend’ White has had a controversial past with the team previous to Season 2. Disregarding this, you chose to pick him up over Season 1 Dead or Alive 4 player Adande “sWooZie” Thorne. What was the reasoning behind this? Would you do it again?

It was very hard on me to see Swoozie leave the compLexity family, but I really feel his true talents lie behind a camera and not in front of an Xbox.  PL has long been recognized as a top talent in DOA so I really felt we had solved our DOA-Male point problems and was excited to see him perform.  Who could have predicted the fact that he’d struggle?

Switching gears, lets discuss the Counter-Strike team a little bit. In the beginning of the season you replaced European phenomenon Marcus “zet” Sundstrom with Corey “kaM” Hanes. What were some of the reasons behind this and do you believe it was better for the team looking back?

I really don’t like getting too specific when it comes to internal team dynamics, but let’s just say it was time for Marcus to go home and live with family and Swedish friends.  I think the long period abroad was taking a toll on him and heading home was best for him and for compLexity.  We think the world of Marcus and miss him dearly, but I’m sure he’s very happy to be living in Sweden again.

Recently the Counter-Strike squad announced their return to 1.6. Along with Team 3D, both organizations were the first to jump aboard the CGS franchise. Why after one and a half years have you decided to come back?

We had always wanted to play some 1.6 in the offseason, but last year’s CGS policy prevented it.  Luckily for us the CGS has relaxed that rule and is even bringing in 1.6 for the Pro-Am series.  It’s very frustrating for us to lose matches due to rust, but the entire organization is really enjoying the 1.6 run.

There has always been bad blood between the Source and 1.6 community. Your team is one of the largest franchises to play both at the same time. Do you believe this is a sign of things to come for some other CGS teams? What do you have to say to both the Source and 1.6 communities?

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun watching coL.cs play both 1.6 and CS:S this Fall.  (We’ll be competing in both games.)  Obviously this will cause us to be weaker at both games, but there’s something to be said about playing games you enjoy and having fun.  I’m hoping the 1.6 break will actually help us play better CS:S in 2009 by giving us a welcome break and preventing CS:S burnout.  As far as what I have to say to the communities… I’d say drop the constant whining and play the game you like.  Who cares what someone else is playing?  Choose the version you prefer and enjoy your gaming experience.  Counter-Strike is a beautiful thing.  Let’s end this constant bickering and appreciate the games.

The team has stated numerous times that they are simply playing 1.6 for fun, do to having to focus on Source for the CGS. In the off season do you think this focus will change at all?

Right now we’re focusing mainly on 1.6 in a genuine effort to knock off the “rust.”  It’s a nice break from countless hours of CS:S practice.  However, around November we’ll get back to CS:S 100% of the time and start preparing for the CGS Combine in 2009.

The team saw its first tournament for 1.6 at the World Cyber Games Qualifiers, winning the tournament. Can you talk about this? What was it like returning to a scene after so long?

It was really exciting.  The community (both fans and haters) really made the switch something to remember.  There was over 1,000 HLTV specs for an online qualifier which is pretty rare, especially these days.  This weekend we’re playing in the WCG LAN qualifier, so hopefully HLTV’s are available to see the squad’s return to 1.6 LAN play.  We’ve found the 1.6 online community has become even more shady since we left and are really looking forward to playing some of these teams on LAN.

Most recently the team began playing in Season 9 of CS 1.6 here at CEVO and are currently 3-3. Playing against such teams as EG.USA and MoB.Gaming, the teams skill was tested. Do you believe the team has what it takes to return to the status they were prior to CGS?

I honestly don’t know if we’ll ever be the coL.cs 1.6 team from 2005-2006.  It simply requires thousands of hours of dedicated training and we only have a few months to enjoy 1.6.  Either way, it’s been a lot of fun and we’re enjoying it very much.  We appreciate CEVO placing us in the Pro division and are working hard to earn our spot and make the playoffs.

Thank you for your time. Is there anything else you would like to say?

Thanks very much for the interview.  I’d like to thank our fans, my players and staff.  2008 has had its ups and downs, but I’m optimistic the future holds very good things for compLexity.  I’d also like to invite everyone to join our Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) movement which can be found on the left side of our website.  Do something positive for someone in need.   Thanks again!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Coverage Central. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.