Jason Lake: "We’ve recommitted our efforts to Counter-Strike"
With the DreamHack Open underway in Austin, Texas, Collin "CarbonDogma" Davis kicked off his coverage of the event catching up with Jason Lake, the current CEO of compLexity Gaming.
I wanted to first go way way back and talk about when you came back into CS:GO because you’ve been in Counter-Strike for a long time and you’d always had a top team so I wanted to ask, how did it feel coming back into the game and not immediately be back at the top?
I mean, when we first came back into the game with n0thing and Hiko and Semphis and that team, we had a really exciting and compelling team. Then, we left the game for a couple of years, so when we came back in it’s been challenging. Budget-wise, Counter-Strike is a demanding game and it’s difficult to field a contender when there are so many teams with good budgets that are in the market for the same players. Since our investment, we’ve recommitted our efforts to Counter-Strike and we’re working really hard to build a contender right now.
So you guys slowly built up the team over the years since you got back in and now you have quite a strong team in the region, so how was the journey to come back up?
The journey’s been a long and difficult one to be honest with you, but we’re pretty tenacious and our roots in Counter-Strike run very deep, so while others seem to be leaving the game right now, we’re determined to remain loyal to Counter-Strike and continue to build this squad until we’ve got a team that can hoist a trophy.
I’m sure you’ve been asked this a lot, but how did it feel being bought by the Cowboys and being tied to such an organization like them?
Being involved with the Jones and Goff families is just a blessing and an honor; not only the money that’s available for our gaming budgets, but the overall organization and corporate families have embraced us and we’re working on a lot of things that I think will place us at the forefront when it comes to how best to integrate esports organizations with traditional sports organizations.
You guys recently got a new roster with stanislaw and ShahZaM. What was the process of getting them into the team?
Cloud9 bought FNS from us right around Easter, which put us in a pretty tough spot. We were lucky enough to have Slemmy join the roster and help us get through the rest of the season and avoid relegation. During that time, OpTic had some roster changes which worked out really well for us because stan and ShahZaM were already in Frisco, Texas down the street from us. It was really a no-brainer opportunity for us and we’re super excited to see where these guys can take us.
What are your expectations of this roster both at this event and in the future for Pro League and stuff?
The roster is still really new and because of visa issues, we just came off a three-week vacation basically. We just hope to get some experience, start to figure out where we’re strong, where we’re weak, and just put in some time on LAN. If we can come and put a strong showing up at this event, I’d be really thrilled. But, due to the fact that this roster is still brand new, if we don’t hoist that trophy, I’m not going to give up on it just yet.
Anything else you want to say?
Dust2 is a great resource and I’m happy that you asked to interview me. The phrase “Dust II” has been a part of my life for almost twenty years now, so I tend to have affection for it, so best of luck to everyone over there and thank you very much for the interview.
compLexity will open their DreamHack Austin run against Space Soldiers in Group B this evening. Due to Space Soldier's travel issues, the game was moved to 8:00 CDT with the winners match taking place directly afterwards.
