hallzerk on Melbourne loss: "we all got a kick in the ass"

With Complexity's run at the BLAST.tv Paris Major set to begin in less than twelve hours, Dust2.us' Ryan Friend caught up with Complexity's star AWPer Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli to discuss a number of topics ahead of his Major debut. The two chatted about hallzerk's time on Dignitas and how that has translated to playing on Complexity, the team's poor showing at ESL Challenger Melbourne, and hallzerk's thoughts on Complexity's opening matchup versus GamerLegion.

First, congratulations on making the Major, a huge accomplishment, especially for you considering the length of your career and where it has taken you. Can you walk me through what it's been like to get to this point?

I started with Norweigan teams of course, and grinded my way up to the best Norwegian team. Played there for a while, and I played quite well there, so I got picked up by Dignitas. That was a crazy feeling for me, being able to play with the biggest legends of the game, and being able to learn from them and take up everything they have and try to become the best player I can be. When things got shut down, there was a little heartbreak, but then I had to go look for a new job, and luckily Complexity wanted me, once again a good feeling. I didn't think I would get a team right away, so that was just a good confidence boost for me. Now, I've played three RMRs before this one and lost three of them, and finally being able to win and qualify in this one, the relief I had after the game, I have no words for it. Over ten years of hard work that's finally paying off, being able to be in the game forever, having a sticker now which will always be in the game. Now we just want to come to this Major and do well.

Tell me about your time on Dignitas. What was it like getting picked up and then playing with these legends of the game? What about when your time with them came to a close?

I had never thought about playing with them, it was never in my head being able to play with players like that. So then, when they messaged me, I was like 'What? What even is this? What's going on?', it was so random for me. When I first spoke with them on TeamSpeak and stuff, I was so nervous. I had to speak another language as well, I had to speak Swedish, which is kinda similar but of course, I wanted to speak the best Swedish I possibly could, so I was a bit nervous speaking Swedish. All of them are such nice guys, and they took me in so well, it was a great feeling playing with them. Sadly when Dignitas went down, it was rough; it's always rough when a team goes down but Dignitas as well is a legendary organization, and I want them to be in CS:GO, so that was rough. We didn't have the best results of course, so it was a bit in the cards. After we lost that RMR, we kinda got the feeling that something was going to happen, either a roster change or whatever. It's sad of course, but I think with the results we had it was kinda necessary to get some changes.

Now on Complexity, it's been interesting to see your development on the team, becoming one of the most vocal components of the team, especially impressive considering that you're not a native English speaker. How do you feel your experiences competing in Europe have translated to your success on Complexity?

I think I came in with some stuff that helps the team. I definitely have more to contribute as well; we are not done yet, we have more to build on, and we are definitely not at our peak yet, so I definitely have more I can help the team with. We just have to keep building on what we have with everyone on the team.

The last tournament you played in, ESL Challenger Melbourne, was not your best showing. What were the takeaways from that event?

All the experts after that looked down on us and don't think we have any chance here. I think it was a good experience for us losing there. Right before the Major we all got a kick in the ass and realized 'What the fuck are we doing, really?', so now we come here with 100% focus and we know that if we don't step up and perform like we should do, we're gonna lose to every team here. If we perform well, as we should do, we can win against every team here. I think it was a good experience for us to lose there and getting that kick in the ass.

Your first matchup is against GamerLegion, arguably one of the better ones you could have asked for. What's the mentality going into this event?

We are not here just to be here, we are here to win every game we play. We know we can win against any team here, so we just need to go in with the right mentality in every game. Even though on paper I think we're a better team than GamerLegion, I don't think we should look at them as underdogs, because every team here is so good, so we have to go in there with a good mentality and not think they're worse than us.

Are there any personal goals for you to accomplish?

Of course, everyone wants to win the tournament, but if you want to have a realistic goal iI want to make the playoffs at least, and I think we can do that if we play as we did at Katowice, for example.

hallzerk and the rest of Complexity will kick off their run in Paris in a matter of hours, with their opening match versus GamerLegion scheduled for 07:00AM.