AntO_oNNN on hallzerk addition: "For us it means a lot more than one change"

Delving into a role often overlooked in Counter-Strike, Dust2.us' Dafydd Gwynn spoke with Complexity's assistant coach, Anton "AntO_oNNN" Van Gorp. The two discussed at length the responsibilities and importance of the assistant coach position, what it's like working with Johnny "JT" Theodosiou and Tiaan "T.c" Coertzen, and the changes he's seen over the course of his three years with Complexity.

Tell me a little about yourself for people who might not know you.

I'm Anton Van Gorp, my alias is also AntO_oNNN, and I'm an analyst and assistant coach at Complexity. I've been with Complexity for the last three years since the Starladder Berlin Major basically.

Can you elaborate on what an assistant coach does and your responsibilities at Complexity?

I think the big difference between an analyst and an assistant coach is that the analyst provides all the anti-strats and stuff, but I also help T.c and JT with viewing officials, reviewing scrims, and coming up with new setups. I kind of take a bigger responsibility in the strategic department as well with the team to help them improve.

You've been at Complexity for three years, but you've also worked with G2, AGO, and 3DMAX. What's different about Complexity that has made you stay here for so long?

I think my belief in the management. Throughout all the different roster iterations Complexity has always supported me and always wanted me to stay; I always felt welcome in Complexity. I always had a good relationship with the staff, the management, and every time a new player came in I always had a good relationship with all the coaches and stuff. I get along with everybody really well and I'm a hard worker so I think people appreciate that in me.

How is it working with JT and T.c at the moment?

It's very nice actually. T.c is a great coach; he knows how to approach people and he's a great leader. He's a good coach inside and outside of the game, which I think a lot of people can be really strategic but he's also a really good coach outside of the game and it's really nice working with him because we just bounce ideas off each other, like when we make gameplans for officials. We talk to each other about what is good, and what is less good, and he bounces off ideas to me, and I bounce off ideas to him. It's a good chemistry between me and him, and JT as well, he mixes in with the gameplan as well when we review stuff. I work less directly with JT, I work more with T.c as the coach, but I try to help everybody in the team with stuff like setups and strats. When I'm not anti-stratting I try to do other stuff to help the team.

What is the biggest thing that has changed in your last three years at Complexity?

Reaching Majors I think. With the Juggernaut, we didn't reach a single Major. We have been to RMRs online and offline, but we haven't reached a single Major, and for that team, it was quite disappointing for the players and names that we had. Coming in with this team, making it to Antwerp, and now hopefully to Rio, that's the biggest change for me I think. Actually being in the NA circuit and having a shot at making the Major instead of being in those EU open qualifiers and closed qualifiers where it feels like a death sentence almost.

What is the biggest difference between this lineup and the Juggernaut roster?

I think the Juggernaut had a lot more players, like blameF, who were a little bit new, [also] like oBo in the beginning as well. We also had veterans in CS; k0nfig was a veteran, RUSH was a veteran, jks joining in was also a veteran, so there were loads on the team. This team, of course, they've been in CS for a while, but tier-one CS, that's been more a new thing to them I think. It's more like an experience over the last ten months now, slowly becoming more and more tier-one veterans.

What has been your biggest role in helping them overcome that lack in experience?

I think mostly on the reviews, when we review official scrims, I think I try to point out as much as possible to make us improve at a faster rate. I think especially with the reviews on officials, we actually improve a lot from that. People are really open and transparent on feedback and stuff, nobody takes it bad. People are very welcoming, and I think that helps a lot. The biggest thing that I can't really help with for the inexperience is just getting to events, getting to stages, hopefully getting to playoffs and stuff. That's the biggest thing I think for these guys to help them get experience. These past ten months, they've gotten to a good spot at this moment.

What would you say your favorite moment with Complexity has been?

Can I name three moments?

Go for it!

I think the first one is when the Juggernaut was formed we beat like Astralis on LAN, and I think Vitality and stuff, and we made a name for ourselves and people looked up to us. Then during the COVID period, June 2020 I think, we won BLAST, which was online which kinda degrades a little bit of the winning. We won against Vitality in the final and I think that was really big for us. The last thing I think for me, I'm from Belgium, so Complexity making the Major in Belgium for me was special of course. Being in Antwerp with my team was one of the special moments I would say.

Would you say that being an assistant coach is an unrespected position in esports?

Yeah, but I think it's an unrespected position in sports a lot of the time as well, because in every sport, like NFL and soccer and stuff, the main team and the coach do get a lot of credit, and they're in the highlights most of the time, same in esports. Assistant coaches don't really get much credit, but that's fine. It's more like people are judging like "Oh yeah you're just doing anti-strat or something"; people assume what you're doing but they have no clue what you're actually doing for the team and stuff.

You've been an analyst and assistant coach for a long time now. Do you have any dreams of becoming a head coach yourself?

Yeah, I do. I mean, long-term of course I do want to be the head coach, but I don't really put any timeframe on that. I'm very happy with Complexity right now as assistant coach. It's not like I'm hunting for a head coach position, but of course, it would be nice if I did ever get the opportunity with or without Complexity to head coach a team. There's only so many spots, so it's not that easy of course, but yeah I have a dream to become the head coach.

What kind of qualifications or traits do you need to be an assistant coach?

I think if you want to become an assistant coach you have to understand the game on a really deep level. Anti-strat is just one part, seeing how the enemy plays and seeing how you play and how you plan around it. But I think just understanding how defaults work, how sets work, what flashes are being thrown, how you avoid certain executes, or how you can set up against certain executes. I think that's more of the assistant coach part. It's a lot similar, the assistant coach and the head coach, in that sense. You have to be responsible for loads more things than just making anti-strats.

What advice do you have for people who may be looking into the role of assistant coach and don't really know where to start?

I think believe in yourself and keep putting in the hours. Grind demos, try to understand what's going on in the demos. Ask other people, friends, maybe even send some Twitter DMs to players or coaches and see if they can help you and stuff. Try to be really hard-working, and then hopefully someone will answer you and help you out and you have a good shot I think at becoming a better version of yourself. That's what I did as well, I just watched so many demos and I got in touch with a few people, like maLeK in 3DMAX who went to G2 and stuff. I got in touch with a few people who are really smart and appreciated me, and then my knowledge expanded when I started working with maLeK on G2 and 3DMAX. When I worked with blameF that was probably the time that I learned the most in Counter-Strike, because blameF is a really smart guy. People always give him shit for baiting and stuff, but from a CS understanding point of view, him and keita on Complexity, they [taught] me a lot of stuff which I still use to this day.

How excited should we be for this Complexity roster?

Very excited. With this one change, for us it means a lot more than one change. It means a mentality change, people are hungry to play and win. I think this change elevates us to the next level which we have shown already, but we're not there yet. We have lots of hard work to do, lots of things to accomplish, some improvements to make, but I think we can do big things like we have shown in the past six to eight weeks already. I think we can do more damage like this in the future.

Complexity were unfortunately eliminated in the RMR after a devastating loss against Imperial. They now look forward to the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown which begins October 19th.