hallzerk on facing Spirit and donk: "We have a better player in EliGE"

Complexity have arrived at IEM Katowice 2024 with a 2-0 win over Apeks, hopefully marking the end of the team's slump in from that started at ESL Challenger Atlanta. In this win, Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli individually had some strong moments, especially on Vertigo, after having the microscope on him for some time as Complexity fell off from their strong form in the summer and fall. While he struggled on Overpass and even rifled at times, the team is undoubtedly happy the Norwegian is making progress in returning to his winning ways.

Following this win, Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore had a chance to speak to hallzerk in a remote interview about today's win on Apeks, what the team is doing to overcome their slump, and his thoughts about the upcoming match against Spirit, among other topics.

It's been a while since Complexity have netted a win over a top 20 European team, how does it feel to get over that hump?

It definitely feels good. I mean everyone on the team knows we have been in a slump I'd say and we know where our level is when we play our A-game, but we were struggling to get to that, our "C-game" is way too bad right now and we've been trying to make our C-game better. When everyone on our team is playing their A-game, there is no team that we cannot win against so we've been working towards that and definitely getting this win now feels good and we just have to keep on it.

Grim mentioned on the desk that the team was practicing a ton to prepare for Katowice, so what were the priorities heading into this event?

We are practicing to try and get a better C-game, because that has been hurting us the most because when everyone is not playing at their best we keep losing these stupid rounds and we get bad results against teams we consider ones we should be winning against. We're trying very hard to get our C-game as best as possible and I think it's showing now. We are still losing some bad rounds today but we definitely should look at when we get back to the practice room.

But yeah, we are still practicing hard everyday to just improve our [skill floor] and raise the skill ceiling.

Focusing on your individual performances, you had a great showing on Vertigo, but it seems like you struggled on the AWP on Overpass, and even switched to the rifle at one point. What do you think went wrong there?

With the AWP, you have to read the game really well to get the most impact, and I was just not feeling the game on Overpass, especially on the CT-side. I felt like my reads were just off and I just wasn't feeling the game very well. It's much easier then to rifle and have output in the game.

Previously you have mentioned your struggles with being inconsistent in the server. Do you think you still struggle with inconsistency and what's been the process to try and overcome that?

It's definitely something that I'm working on a lot. In practice I'm playing very well and sometimes I don't feel like I can ever get it out in official games and that's something we're working on and it's fortunately helping a bit to try and get more impact in the games.

In practice I take more space and give myself better situations with the AWP. Sometimes in officials I get more defensive and more scared to make the hard decisions and that's just something I am trying to get better at.

For a long time Complexity has held the throne as NA's undisputed best domestic team. However, we've now seen Liquid's roster start to take shape in officials, so does that give you extra motivation to have a domestic challenger?

Yeah it does give more motivation and we always want to play well, but being the number one team in NA is good. I mean I'm not sure if they're practicing in NA or staying in Europe so we haven't seen them as much. I'd prefer for them to be in NA if they want to be an NA team. It would help the team with practice and help everyone else around them.

Tomorrow Complexity will be facing off against Spirit. On that team donk has had an incredibly explosive debut, so what's your plan to neutralize him? Also, more broadly what do you think of donk as a player?

I think donk is a great player and he has shown that now, he's probably the best [new player] since ZywOo, but he's not unstoppable. We have a better player in EliGE that's very good so they're going to [face off] because they play the same side on maps where they should meet each other so it will be a fun match.

It's definitely good and we are going to get back to the prac room and see what we can do to stop him and the team. donk is not the only good player on that team, they have zont1x who is very underrated in my opinion and they also have sh1ro as well, who's a top ten player in the world. So we can't just look at donk, we have to look at the whole team.