stanislaw: "The expectation is pretty simple: just qualify for the Major."
With the Americas Minor starting up tomorrow, our very own Michael "DuckMoriarty" Moriarty spoke to compLexity's in-game-leader Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz about the upcoming Minor, the player's transition to the new team alongside Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan, the team's performance so far, and his expectations for the team going forward.
You're coming to the Minor after qualifying flawlessly 3-0 in the closed qualifier. What are you and your team's expectations of this event?
The expectation is pretty simple: just qualify for the Major. It'd be a huge stepping stone for the guys on the team. They've never been to a Major. ShahZaM and I both have Major experience so I think it's going to be valuable to help us carry out through this Minor. So yeah it's simple, just qualify for the Major.
You're in a group with Dignitas, Rogue, and FURIA. You've played all of these teams before, so what are your main expectations? How have you prepared for these teams?
Like you said, we've played these teams before, so we know exactly what to expect. Our expectations of ourselves is that we should be able to beat them easily if we play to the best of our ability. Preparation-wise, we do the same thing for every team. We go over their stuff, we go over their basic strats, and just make sure we're prepared.
You're coming off the ZOTAC Americas Finals, where you fell to FURIA in the competition. Soon, you'll be playing against them in this event as well. Was losing to them effectively a silver lining so you know what to expect when you play them here?
I don't think necessarily losing to them was a silver lining because we had it in our pocket. We dominated them the first map and the second map went to OT and we watched the demo back immediately after and we just saw the horrible mistakes we were making. There's obviously that from every loss you can learn something, but I really think that we should never have lost that game and people understand that now so, when we play them again, we're not going to underestimate them, we're gonna make sure we're just playing our best every single round and giving it our all. We know we're capable of beating them.
Effectively, you're now prepared to face them here and not slip up this time.
Yeah.
Before ZOTAC, your last few offline events haven't been the greatest performances from your team. How have you and your team looked at that and thought of how to have to a good run at this event here to make sure you can qualify for the Major?
Being a new team, I think that first event you can always write off because it's just about getting to know each other and how everyone reacts on LAN and stuff. Our first event was DreamHack Austin and we bombed out. Comms weren't good, everyone was just kinda nervous for some reason, and we addressed that going to the next LAN.
The next LAN was DreamHack Summer and we saw a lot of improvement in the communication aspect and we were really happy with that, but still the results didn't really show, gameplay wise, how much we improved. Again, going back to ZOTAC, I think we just took another step back. Even though the setup wasn't ideal, like desk space and noise and all that stuff, it still got into people's heads again.
I feel like the more experience we're going to get, these issues will get smaller, but it's still frustrating to a point where some people are taking a bit longer to adjust because, the main thing for every pro player is all they want to do is just see improvement from event to event. When we see improvement from DreamHack Austin to DreamHack Summer, we're happy. But then, all of the sudden now, we just bomb out at ZOTAC and it's just frustrating. I think now hopefully, people took that loss at ZOTAC pretty hard and they'll use that at motivation to play their best here.
You mentioned this is like a new team and you're the in-game-leader, so you're bringing your own tactics. How was the transition been for you and the rest of the team so far, in terms of bringing your own tactics and working alongside theirs a well?
The transition for me specifically has been pretty easy. For most teams, I've struggled with leadership. I've learned from the past and now, here on this team, I have a lot more authority than I did on the past teams, so I can implement my style a lot easier and people respect my calling a lot more and it just gives me more confidence and it just spreads throughout the team. I think ShahZaM and I slotted in perfect: they needed an AWPer, they needed an IGL, and we have the pieces around us to perform well.
With compLexity, they've got this large setup they proudly display everywhere where people are in the same building developing alongside each other. Does that setup help you nurture the team and improve their performances in the long term?
I definitely think compLexity is actually the best org I've ever played for. I understand CS is a business, but playing for compLexity, you don't ever feel like they're ever treating you just like a business. They actually care and give you everything you need to succeed. They give you the facility, they give you the nutrition, they give you the advice. Anytime you just need to talk to someone as well, they're there for you. Having an org that just allows you to focus on CS because they're taking care of everything else just makes life so much easier.
Before this event, you've been on the road of playing a lot of games in quick succession. Have you managed to take a break after ZOTAC and reflect on what's going on and reset yourself before coming here?
Unfortunately not. We've been going hard for about seven weeks now going to the Minor without a single day break. Honestly, we're obviously pretty exhausted and things get stale at the end of the day, but I'm still overall happy with our progress in-game. I just hope it can translate on LAN this time. Seeing our scrims and online is obviously going to be a bit different, but seeing that progression is still good and there's no better experience than just playing on LAN every single week. This is going to be our third or fourth LAN now and I'm hoping now we just start finally clicking.
You don't necessarily see the amount of games you've been playing as a negative aspect?
Yeah, definitely. The more games you play, the better you're going to get, it's as simple as that. You're always playing these good teams in these kind of tournaments and the more you play, the more LANs you play, the more experience you get, the more comfortable you are, and we just see improvement day in and day out.
If you manage to perform at this event and then make it to the Major, a return for yourself after a fairly long sign out, what would be your expectations there?
So now the way the Major works is from the Minor, you go to the Major now, which before it used to be the Major qualifier. I think we just want to pass that New Challengers Stage where we just get out of that 16 team group and get on to the next stage, that's obviously the goal just for the first Major.
Also in September, there will be the start of the next ESL Pro League season and it'll be the first real online competition for you and your team. Are you relishing it or are you just putting it down as another event you need to get through and deal with?
These online leagues are just always another venue to get through. They're just long drawn-out seasons that are kinda frustrating to play in, but you just gotta do it because online CS just doesn't compare to LAN CS. But yeah, I'm confident. ShahZaM and I have a lot of experience in these online leagues; we usually always qualify for these LANs. It's just a matter of scheduling the time and preparation and all that stuff. We're pretty confident that we can qualify for these big events coming up.
compLexity will be playing in the Americas Minor, which kicks off tomorrow at 7AM EDT. Their first match will be against FURIA, who they had previously lost to at the ZOTAC Cup Masters Americas Finals, on July 8th at 7AM EDT.
