hallzerk: "We are one of the best teams when we play our best"

I think it's definitely more to do with us working hard, I don't know how hard other teams have been working, of course, but I think we've been working hard with the correct stuff and haven't used unnecessary time for unnecessary things. Also, having a positive mindset for the game and just looking at it from a good angle.

Other teams say they hate the game, that just brings their mental down and they won't enjoy playing; if you don't enjoy playing, you won't play well. I think it's a combination of a good mentality and also working hard on the correct stuff.

I think the meta hasn't actually changed that much. Most of the key stuff is still the same, but there are some changes around the smokes and I think most teams have now adapted to that and are starting to bring their own stuff.

When we were in Sydney for example, we brought a lot of new stuff that other people have now taken from us, so people are definitely now starting to get new things which will help them. Most of the good teams are still good, so the meta hasn't changed that much but people are catching up now.

I was also sceptical about the change, I didn't think it looked great. But after playing with it I actually enjoy it a lot and I know our IGL [JT] also enjoys it a lot.

He can make every strat work now, where before you could get blocked off, now you can just use a HE and blow through it. I think it's been great for us, we've had a very open mind to it and that's helped us. I enjoy it.

He's helped us so much. We didn't realise how much we needed someone like him before we came. We thought we were up there and we could win against any team in the world before he came, but when he came in and started helping us with the small mistakes we didn't realise we were making, it's helped us a lot.

We're a more well-rounded team and have answers for most things now. His presence and his work ethic in and out of the game is very impressive, which makes the rest of the team work harder because you don't want to be the guy slacking and not putting effort in. With his experience, everyone respects him a lot and listens to what he has to say.

Most of us were pretty sad after losing the final, but after we had a couple of days off and could look back we were proud of how we did. We realised that when we play our best game we are one of the best teams.

It kept us motivated for the next few weeks and showed us that what we were working on was working, and where we were putting our effort was the right places, so we just have to keep doing that. We're also here to win tournaments and that gave us confirmation that we're not that far off.

I wouldn't class it as a big advantage, but it definitely is one. It means we have more experience and time together, but it can also be where teams have that honeymoon period where everyone is happy and motivated, working hard and playing 12 hours a day.

When teams change one or two players they can get big boosts early and that can be an advantage for them. That being said, later in the tournament when games get close, our experience playing together will become an advantage for us.

Yeah, it does make it harder to prepare for the teams, if they haven't played games yet then you don't know some very simple things like who is playing where.

Of course, if they haven't changed in-game leader then most things will stay the same, but if they have then it's hard to anti-strat because you don't know how much has changed. Going into this tournament we have to focus on ourselves and keep mistakes to a minimum.

We're still looking for our first tournament win in Complexity, and most of the team hasn't had a big tournament win yet. Qualifying for World Final would also be a big thing, we really want to be there. We want to be in as many big tournaments as we can.

Also, just winning a big tournament would be a confidence boost for all of us. We want to do it for Complexity too, winning would mean a lot to us and the organisation.

I think the AWP has definitely gotten a bit of a nerf, but it's still the best weapon in the game. It didn't get that bad that people will need to play five rifles.

The game did just get updated a few days ago and I haven't had much time to play it because I've been taking some time off with my family to relax.

I'm looking forward to playing it though because I've heard from other people that the AWP feels the way it did in CS:GO again. Also, the AWP is still the best gun in the game, people aren't just going to start using five rifles because they think the AWP is worse.

I know C9 have just signed another rifler, but that doesn't mean they aren't using the AWP, Perfecto and Boombl4 have both used it. People know that it's still the best weapon in the game, so I don't think five rifles will be the meta yet, but who knows how it will be in a couple of months.