junior: "I feel like I always have something to prove"

With IEM Dallas in full swing, Dust2.us' Lukas DeWitt was able to speak with Complexity's Paytyn "junior" Johnson. The pair spoke about the AWPer's experience at his first Major, the side's opening 16-4 loss to MIBR, and the expectations that come with having an event hosted on home soil.

So, I'm here with junior of Complexity. Before we get into Dallas, walk me through Antwerp, your first Major. How was everything, the travel, the play; how are we feeling?

The Antwerp Major was pretty sick, my first Major tournament. Obviously, we didn't play as well as we wanted to but, you know, we practiced in NA for like three weeks before the tournament, so we weren't prepared the best. The experience is always super nice to get.

Coming onto home soil, things kinda happened really weird. MIBR switches in but now they're down a player so they're using BIT. What was the process walking into that game? Obviously, you guys lost 16-4, so how were you feeling entering and how are you feeling now?

Well, we prepared to play Heroic obviously but they got replaced. Then yesterday, BIT is playing so we have, like, no reads on MIBR. And because he's an IGL, we don't know if he's calling or if they're practicing with their new IGL and, obviously, BIT just owned us. He was everywhere across the map, we didn't have enough space on T-side to play at all and they played really well.

So, I'm gonna kind of go into the infamous quote of yours; the 50/50 comment. Has that kind of weighed on you since then, was it something you were thinking about when you said it or was it spur of the moment? Because you've been hit with a lot of criticism since then, is it something you think about at all when you're playing?

No, not at all, but it's always fun playing against them [Liquid]. Like, the whole comment was that Liquid in Europe is better than us but when we play Liquid, it's a 50/50 match. That's what that was. So, it wasn't saying "We're better than Liquid", it was like "When we play them, we always play them close".

So, we're on home soil, the first tier-one NA event in like 2-3 years, it's been like 1,000 days, and on top of that you're in Dallas, so is there some external pressure to get onto the stage and lift the trophy or are you just treating it like every other tournament?

I think there's not really pressure to get onto the stage, but we all want to because we've never played in front of the home crowd at this big of an event. So, I mean, obviously, the loss to MIBR is not how we want to start it and we have to play NIP tomorrow so that's not going to be easy. It's not an easy road for us but if we deserve the stage then we'll get it.

How do you feel about playing NIP tomorrow, obviously, without hampus?

hampus is a really impactful player for them so, I mean, that gives us a better chance because if they had hampus it'd be even tougher. So, we just gotta come prepared.

Every team comes here to lift the trophy, but do you have any goals that you're trying to achieve throughout this tournament, anything to prove?

I feel like I always have something to prove because I was, like, an up-and-coming player and in tier one I'm not playing as well as I should be, so I'm just using every event to get more experience and stuff like that.

Complexity are now one loss away from elimination, with their do-or-die matchup versus NIP scheduled for tomorrow at 12:00PM.