NeX: "I've always told myself that I wanted to go pro"
In our final interview from the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, we have Collin "CarbonDogma" Davis interviewing Justin "NeX" McLellan of Fam143, who was in attendance for the Texas showmatch before the grand final. This interview sees him talk the Mad City LAN-dodge, new players, the ESEA Main Season 27 playoffs and the upcoming MDL season.
Going back to the Mad City LAN, what was it like to have Robin "Attacker" Leach (or "Bogdan") ditch you just before LAN?
Honestly, when we first picked him up he told us that he wasn't going to LAN, that was his final say, "I'm not going to LAN." Then I told him that he wasn't going to play with us if he wasn't going to LAN, that he had to LAN. He said "sure I'll LAN", and it just didn't seem right to me, and then we all of our flights paid for, the org hooked us up, then the night before he instigated some argument with Caleb "jaychancE" Davis and was just like "You guys are idiots, you're terrible, I'm the best player, peace!" and just left, never heard from him again. He just blocked us on Steam and just nothing.
We did pick up Liam "welshie" Newhouse to take his place, welshy is a great player but we had no experience with him. He's an IGL, so having our IGL and his leading styles were difficult, it was hard to hear people at Mad City. We lost our first map like, 16-13 or something in a match we'd never normally lose so, if we won that first game we would've won that and advanced out of groups. With him bailing it was really rough.
So what was it like trying to find a new player for not just LAN, but for the remainder of the season?
It was the worst time ever, the rosters locked whilst we were at the Mad City LAN. We ended up asking Brock "brawk" Somerhalder, Ali "optimus" Mashhour and Branden "Anzoh" Anzovino, all three of them to join the roster and kind of like, hope they got the spot. When we got back from Mad City we ended up playing with Anzoh the first day, we really liked him, then the second day we played one scrim with brawk, as that's all we could play with him. optimus we had all played with before, and he has a kind of PUG-ier playstyle, and we wanted someone who would bring that teamwork aspect. We also wanted someone who was an entry fragger, and optimus was more of a lurker.
We eventually decided on Anzoh, as it was between him and brawk. Like I said before, we could only play one scrim with brawk and Anzoh played like five or six, where he listened well, entry'd as expected and did everything we told him to do so he was an easy pick-up.
Do you guys think you're better off with Anzoh than Attacker/Bogdan?
100%. Attacker thinks he is literally the best player in the world, he actually has that mindset. Which is fine if you use it as confidence and not to degrade your teammates, but he literally just talked shit to his teammates and was a bad atmosphere to have on the team.
So in the ESEA Main S27 Playoffs you beat Glockoma, RivaL and Vikings. Were these expected results for you guys?
The only guys I was afraid of, to be honest, was Glockoma. Every other team we had scrimmed and played against without any issue. Glockoma just scared me because I know they have a really PUG-y playstyle, which is similar to ours where we play for the frags and see what works out. We're preparing better for MDL so our practice is more structured, having better teamwork, executes, taking map control and stuff like that.
Bravado in the final was the other team for who I felt we could lose to, but for the rest we were pretty prepared.
So you guys have made it to MDL for Season 28, what is it like and stepping it up to that next level.
For me it's a dream come true, I've always told myself that I wanted to go pro. I'm at the stage of my life where I'm married, I want to have kids, own my own house. It's not as if I can go to a gaming house and play professionally anymore. But I do see myself as an asset to a team as an analyst or coach at some point, so that's kind of where I want to go. But now that I've made it to MDL, I'm actually making money playing the game I love and have been playing for eighteen years, so it's a really good feeling.
What are your goals for this MDL season?
My goal is obviously to make playoffs, that's our first goal. Obviously we don't want to go to relegations so reaching playoffs would be nice. I want to hopefully get the team in a more structured environment, like I've said we're still kind of PUG-y but we're getting there. I'm hoping we surprise a lot of teams, we've got Torqued in our first matchup hopefully, not sure if they're coming back from DreamHack or however that's working out. Then we have Really Old People for sure on Thursday, with ESEA casting it, so that'll be a good match.
We'll see where it goes. Our first couple of matches are tough but I think they'll really be telling of how we'll do this season.
The team's initial match with Torqued has been rescheduled, as such they are preparing to make their MDL debut tonight against Victor "cardiac" Kwan and Really Old People.
