dephh: "We finally have a team that is competitive"
Michael "Duck" Moriarty caught up with his countryman Rory "dephh" Jackson ahead of compLexity's opening tilt with Torqued in the ESL Pro League Relegation tournament. dephh and compLexity found themsleves brought to Leicester after an uninspiring EPL Season 7 campaign, which in turned force them to forfeit their last matches in ECS Season 5.
All is not lost, however, as the recent additions of Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and Shahzeeb "ShahZaM" Khan have seemingly unlocked a new level within the team.
You and your team have found yourself in the position of having to go through the Relegation tournament, what are your initial thoughts on that, considering you were in a similar spot with ECS last season?
Well, its a shame, really, because we started the season without an in-game leader. Halfway through the season we picked up FNS, and then he obviously went to Cloud9. Our season was kind of scattered around, it was a rebuild of the team every time. If you bring in a new IGL the whole game changes, the gameplans, how we like playing maps, and so forth.
It is also a shame that we got roster locked here, so we have to play with our analyst (Professor_Chaos) and an IGL who was filling in for us (Slemmy). We've come to this tournament just thinking we'll see what happens, play loose and scrimmy, and hope we can win.
As you mentioned you've recently made fairly drastic changes to the team, bringing in former OpTic members ShahZaM and stanislaw. What were the general thoughts when you made the changes and realized you wouldn't be able to use them in crucial matches such as here and in ECS?
The SK match for ECS we weren't able to play anyway because we were traveling here, that was the reason for the forfeit. Its a shame we can't use them because I'm sure we could have come here and beaten every team at this event.
How is your team working around having to use Professor_Chaos, who hasn't played competitively in a fair while?
Yeah, we've been scrimming this week, and he played with us in EPL as well, so we kind of know how he plays. We've put him in spots where he can do solo things.
Other than that, we did a week of practice, just trying to get some stuff down, a few defaults. Apart from that, we are taking this with a pinch of salt and trying our hardest to keep the spot — even though we're in a pretty dire situation.
How will it impact you sticking with Slemmy for the tournament, considering you were using him as an IGL until recently?
We've only played with stanislaw for a bit now, so a lot of the stuff that we played with Slemmy before, we know how he likes to call. We aren't completely behind, we have a few defaults, some set strats that we know we can run again that we haven't had to go over again.
We're just hoping for the best. Slemmy is a good guy and a good player, I like his calling.
Your first matchup will be against Torqued, are you confident against them?
The last time we played Torqued in a qualifier was when we didn't have stanislaw and ShahZaM. So I'm interested to play them with that roster, but they have beat us recently with Slemmy.
I think they are one of the best teams here, I feel like they are going to qualify. Even if we lose to them, we know it is double-elimination, and we can still squeeze through. They seem to struggle against teams who are pretty scrimmy and unpredictable, so we'll just try to be like that.
So you are confident in retaining your EPL spot here?
I mean, I'm just taking it one game at a time, and try our hardest. Slemmy and PC want to do it for us, so we don't have to play a season of MDL. I think we can beat some of the teams here and keep our spot, which would be good.
On the qualifier front, you guys have had fairly close runs in quite a number of qualifiers, and then in the middle of that qualified for DreamHack Open Summer, which will be your first LAN in awhile. Is that a relief?
When stanislaw and ShahZaM joined, we had eleven or twelve straight wins, and qualified for the first event we had tried for. The qualifier for ESL One Cologne is coming up, and DreamHack Open Valencia we just missed.
I'm excited to play with the new lineup. We haven't really practiced a lot, so I'm excited how our first event together is going to be.
You and your team have been based in Dallas for a few months now, having your coach and analyst on-site, the resources from the big investment, etc. How much of a boost is that to the teams performance lately?
I love going into work. We have an office space where we can separate work from life. If you have a team house, it is very hard to separate your life and the game you play, even though it meshes and is intertwined. It is much easier to separate work and play.
It is really good for players, I think, to be able to go home and have their own space, and also be in an environment where it feels like you are at LAN. You are together as a team, and you are working hard with eight or nine hour days — and then go home and relax. I can't complain about anything with compLexity right now, and the support from the Dallas Cowboys is just unbelievable. We couldn't ask for anything better.
You yourself are the longest-serving member of the team, through it's many iterations since joining in 2016. Throughout that time, how much are your opinions listened to by the organization?
I do think I have a say. Roster changes have come from me before, and I feel like they trust me. I've stayed around, I've always tried and given it 100% the entire time I've been here. I think the organization knows that. They do run a lot of things through me, and it is pretty cool that they do that. We finally have a team that is competitive, where I can see us being in the top four of North America. I'm just excited for the future.
In terms of the other teams in your region that have made changes, like NRG, how much more does that make you want to compete, and how do you feel about more North American teams making an impact?
It is pretty great. Almost two years ago, NA CS was a meme. It is cool that NRG are doing so well, it isn't just Liquid and Cloud9 are on top the entire time. It is nice to see more talent being spread out throughout the teams. Normally, the best players go to those two teams, but now that isn't necessarily happening and we have more competitive teams. The competition is stiffer, and you have to prepare for more.
compLexity's tough task has already commenced in Leicester, and they currently sit up 1-0 on Torqued after a nailbiter of a first map.
