hallzerk: "We're not happy about our performances"
Affectionately known as the 'honorary American', hallzerk helped transform Complexity into a top 15 team upon his arrival mid-way through 2022.
A year later, having been joined on the team by NA Counter-Strike legend EliGE, he was again a big reason as to why Complexity climbed even further, making it to the grand final of IEM Sydney and the semi-finals of BLAST Premier Fall Final 2023.
However, despite that strong end to 2023, Complexity have slipped slightly in 2023, and have so far failed to reach the playoffs of any event they have attended.
With the team's sights now firmly set on ESL Pro League and their home event at IEM Dallas, we spoke to hallzerk about overcoming the challenges Complexity are facing, what those challenges actually are, and get his views on whether you should consider Complexity experienced or not.
"We're not happy about our performances"
We're now a third of the way through the year, how are you summing it up so far?
I wouldn't classify it as a disappointment so far, but we're not happy about our performances either. We know we can do much better than we have done.
We did okay at the Major, but it felt like we could've done a lot better and we feel like we should've done better at other tournaments too. We started slowly this year after ending last year in a very positive way so we're just trying now to get back to that level that we know we can be.
Photo: Michal KonkolWhy do you think you've slowed down since that strong end to 2023?
I'm not sure, I think that a little bit of it was because of the fact it was right at the start of CS2 and we had worked really hard together to understand the new game. We were one of the teams that figured out how to play CS2 the quickest and JT did a lot for us towards that in terms of creating strats with all the new nade possibilities.
It seems like the rest of the teams caught up over the break and also we're now struggling with confidence with a lot of the players, myself and a couple of the others have that struggle so I think that's something we have to work on in the next few months before the player break.
We need to get our confidence back because we all know that when we are all performing at a high level we can go far in these tournaments and should be contending for playoffs and trophies.
"Gaining confidence isn't easy"
How exactly do you work on getting your confidence back?
Gaining confidence isn't easy, it has to start with practice and starting to get comfortable with your roles if you've changed some strats that means you're no longer as comfortable in them.
Also, we have to just start winning. If you start winning then the more you win, the more you build confidence, so we just need to get on a good run and then maybe we can do well again.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenWith how the calendar is looking, is that where that becomes a difficult task? You don't have anything until Pro League and then there is decent time off between events until June, so it's quite a while until you have officials and then there's a big break afterwards.
I think that's a good thing for us, honestly.
We've been travelling so much so far this year that we've almost never been at home, it's been something around 70 to 75 days on the road in the last 80, so I've been home for about two weeks of the entire year. Being home now for a little bit and being able to gather our thoughts and relax will help us come into the next few weeks before our Pro League boot camp feeling good and not having stress about travelling all the time.
"We have to make sure we're playing in front of that American crowd"
After Pro League you have IEM Dallas, you may only be the 'honorary American', but what does it mean to the rest of your team to have that event coming up?
It means a lot, being able to get to the playoffs there is one of the most important goals for this first half of the year outside of the Major, so we have to make sure we're playing in front of that American crowd.
Even though I'm only the honorary American, that's something I want to do for the organisation because Complexity is one of the biggest and best American organisations, so getting in front of that crowd, having them behind us will help us a lot if we're playing those matches on stage.
The main goal for now is getting to the playoffs there and I think when we do we can excel.
When we spoke to JT recently he said he still views Complexity as an inexperienced team, how do you feel about your own individual experience as a player?
When I compare myself to other players that have been playing for a long time, of course, I'm not that experienced, I haven't played on stage that much. I wouldn't say I'm that experienced, but I've been playing for a few years now with Complexity and Dignitas before that so as a player and in terms of understanding how to work within a team, I'd say I'm quite experienced now.
Playing on big stages is something I have to work on still though, and the only way to do that is by playing in those matches more. Right now, we just need to work on closing out our games because it seems like we always manage to get into a good position in games but never manage to close them out [laughs], if we start doing that it will be easier for us.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenWhat about in terms of Complexity as a team? You've been playing tier one now for two years or so, can you still be considered inexperienced?
Even though it's been two years, I still feel like we haven't been in the tier one scene that long in terms of being in the top ten to 15 teams in the world. On that level, we've only been there for a year or so, so I think to be classified as experienced you have to be there for a much longer time than that.
It's difficult to explain because I feel like you don't really get any experience until you've played a lot of stage matches. Every LAN when you don't get to playoffs feels like the same thing.
"Every tournament we go to we expect to get to the playoffs"
Have you outlined as a team when you'd like to be back getting to playoffs more consistently like it seemed you would be after Fall Final 2023 and IEM Sydney?
Every tournament we go to we expect to get to the playoffs, we all know we have all the pieces to the puzzle and that we're able to get their consistently, but we aren't able to put the pieces together right now. It's very annoying for us because we know we can be there.
We're still trying to figure it out in terms of how to get the consistency. We always look towards the playoffs and we always get disappointed when we don't get there because we know that we should be there.
You mentioned the struggles to close out games, what are you doing to try to remedy that?
The only way to practice that is to get into the situation again. After it happens we speak about it every time and we review the games, and I'm not sure why it keeps happening because 2-2 plays out the same as 12-10, but people just get nervous and make small mistakes that cost us the rounds. That's something we have to work on as individuals.
Photo: Michal KonkolDo you think you get nervous in those situations?
Not really, I have been though. I remember a few games where I was, but most of the time I'm not.
Before I joined Complexity I'd never been nervous in a game, but I remember the first time I ever got nervous in a game was in the RMR for IEM Rio in the final match against Imperial. It was my first RMR and it was to qualify, we were on Overpass and I can remember it so clearly. In the overtime I just fucking became nervous, and after that it has become more frequent.
If you have a sports psychologist, is that something you're working on them with?
We don't have a sports psychologist. I don't think it would be a bad thing to, but it's not really my side of the team to figure stuff like that out. That's down to management and the coaches. If we need it, we'll get it.