yay: "Jason Lake has a great vision"
During the Americas Minor, Michael "DuckMoriarty" Moriarty caught up with compLexity's Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker to discuss their group stage games, reaching the Major and his team's performances.
You've beaten Dignitas 2-0, through to face NRG in the playoffs tomorrow. What are your thoughts on today's games in general?
To be honest, we started off really well today. Our energy's been really good throughout the games. That was something we told ourselves going into it, that we were going to keep the energy high and never give up, constantly giving it our all.
Up against Furia, in the game we were really good, keeping our energy consistent throughout and it was a pretty quick map. For Rogue, well I hate to say it but we pretty much threw it. We won both pistols and didn't get eco'd, but we threw some very key clutches and very key rounds that broke our economy. In my opinion we should've had that game pretty easily, we had them on the back-foot throughout, we just lost some crucial rounds that cost us the game. After that we told ourselves that we weren't going to get down on ourselves and give it our all against whoever we were going to face next.
With Dignitas, we started off pretty slow on Dust2, it's one of the maps we've not played as much of, but once we started getting rolling we picked up some gun rounds and momentum, finishing pretty strongly in the first half. The next half we kept up the energy and took ourselves to 15-13, we choked the final rounds but then comfortably closed it out in overtime.
Going into tomorrow, we're going to keep up that same energy and we've done our homework so we are prepared.
So you're facing off against an NRG side which people have pitted as the favorites, how have you prepared to face them?
We've done a number of things. We've watched their demos and have played them fairly close a few times online so we know how they play pretty well and every time we get closer and closer to beating them. Last time we played them online I think we took them to OT on Mirage and had a 14-9 lead against them on Inferno, before unfortunately throwing it away. But every time we get closer and closer to NRG and fixing our mistakes, so we're feeling pretty confident about it.
You're currently performing really well yourself, racking up 32 and 30 kill maps against Furia and Dignitas respectively. How does this current form of yours make you feel as a player that you can prove it on LAN?
It's always a really good feeling, but even though I'm performing really well my teammates are doing so as well, everyone's fulfilling their roles and keeping the energy high. I couldn't do it without them to be honest with you, they really set it up for me.
Your team is currently in what appears to be a period of stability, which it hasn't been in the past as you know. How does it feel to play in what should be a constant lineup for the next few months at least?
It's a great feeling. We've had issues before with players' attitudes and players just leaving for other teams and stuff like that. Jason Lake, our owner, has a great vision and wants to make compLexity the top brand, a top name with players doing things right, and I think everybody on the team has bought into that idea. We're not going to make a lot of changes like other teams where they just throw in a new player every once in a while. We're going to work on our mistakes before we reach that option. We're really looking at the long-term for this project, as long as eveybody is making improvements and not slacking off, showing signs of growth, everyone has a plan to stick together.
After reaching the playoffs, can you see you and team reaching the Major?
Oh for sure. I think we definitely could. As long as we start off and fix these small mistakes and stay focused I truly believe that we can do it.
After compLexity's 2-1 win over NRG, we once again caught up with yay to talk about the game and their upcoming match with Rogue.
You've just beaten NRG 2-1, first impressions after the win?
First impressions? I think that it's awesome that we've finally done it, even though we started off against Rogue kind of bad and losing it, we knew that we were going to face NRG but we knew that even though they had been performing pretty well online and on LAN, we had been getting better and better and getting much closer to them. And on LAN, hey, we can finally say that we did it - we finally beat them. It's absolutely awesome, and we have just one more Bo3 and we can qualify for the Major. That would be awesome
If we could start with the first map, Cache, it wasn't the greatest start for you, especially on your pick. How were you and your team feeling after such a result?
After that result, we looked back and saw that we threw away a lot of rounds and we made a lot of mistakes. We just told ourselves to shake it off, if we let that map effect us going into the rest of the match then we were never going to pull through. If we go down, we wouldn't recover. We just took a break and were able to take it to Train and then Inferno. Even though Train was one of our weaker maps, everyone went into it with full confidence, ideas and strats. Even things we hadn't run before, everyone was communicating, reading the game and adjusting on the fly which is something we have had issues with before. After Cache we just shook it off and kept going, putting it in the back of our minds.
Speaking of Train, you had a fairly close first half and towards the end it was fairly touch and go, before finally forcing overtime. What were the spirits in the team when you finally managed to secure it?
For sure, our spirits were high. When we got closer and closer to overtime we were, well I don't really know how to put it. We just kept going, our spirits were lifted. Every time we got closer and closer to that victory mark we got louder, we got more hyped up and we were ready. I believe they threw a lead as well, and we just kept bringing it back. Even though it went to OT, we were very happy that we had brought it to overtime. We just needed to finish it out strongly and we managed to do that.
So you managed to win that overtime in fairly convincing fashion. Did that win give you the confidence to push on to Inferno and secure passage to the Upper Bracket Final.
Going into Inferno, we were super hyped up. Historically Train hasn't been our best map, but we had been making adjustments on it. Going into Inferno we were so ready, even though we lost the pistol round we had a really good idea of how to play. Hell, stanislaw made a wonderful strat and we just eco'd them. Even though we won the following gun rounds we went down again, we then figured out what to do and how to play against them. Peter, Shahz and even Rory were just chiming in strats that would work against this kind of play and we just kept stringing those rounds together.
Of course, because you went down about 7-3 on Inferno before taking 12 rounds in a row to reach match point, surely on that sort of form would increase confidence?
For sure. Once we brought it back to that kind of scoreline we just kept it going, I don't think there was any stopping us at that point. Everyone was fired up, making plays and communicating at the best level. Like I said, I think we figured them out towards the end about how they played, and we knew what to do. I know that sometimes they rely on Chet, at least on T-side for some anti-stratting because we noticed a few strats that were pointed towards certain setups we used to play, so we definitely adapted to around how they played like that.
In that final round you had quite a pivotal round, taking the defuse. What was going on in your head during that moment?
I knew they were both on site, I had heard CeRq scope on Lane so I had a general idea of where they would be. After I got CeRq I saw the bomb was planted for Library, so I had a full set of nades; Molotov, Smoke and Flash. All I did was smoke it off, Molly it off infront so he couldn't run in, otherwise I'd hear him, and then I just flashed. I put myself on an off-angle so I knew "I got this". As soon as I heard him spray spray spray, miss miss miss, and then I heard the reload with one second left, I knew I had it.
Now you have Rogue tomorrow, with the winner taking a spot into the Major. How are you feeling with the rematch.
We're definitely comfortable re-matching Rogue, we're 100% ready. We've looked at the previous demo where we played on Inferno and have made a lot of adjustments. Even if they watch our games right now, I don't think it'd matter so much. I guess we're prepared right now. We can pull this out.
compLexity face off against Rogue later today in the upper bracket final, with the winner heading to the Americas Minor grand final and securing the first Challenger berth at the Major in September.
