Preview 3-4: 9StorM and coL
Complexity is coming into these playoffs as the third and final tied team. They have the most rounds won out of the three teams, placing them at the 4th seed. The team ended the last season on a strong note. They were able to defeat the current Loaded in the Grand Finals, after being surpised to see them upset EG in the Lower Bracket Finals. After beating them on de_train 16-14, they were crowned the champions and all seemed well.
At the start of the season the team was faced with a really rocky start. People were shocked when they saw the team at 3-5. These losses led them to replace teammate Jeff "Hero" Mettetal. Mettetal was one of the fan favorites and many were confused that he was the one to be released from the team. Upon the release of Mettetal, the team brought in Derrick "Impulsive" Truong. Since Truong joined the team they went on a seven game winning streak. During those seven wins, they kept all but one team to single digits, something foreign to the first part of the season. The streak ended when EG gave them a 16-1 devastating blow to end the season.
coL has recently returned from the IEM finals there they were not able to make it out of group play. They walked away with two wins, two losses, and a tie. They put up a strong fight and it was a definite preparation for the ESEA Finals. Wherever they were mentally before the trip to the IEM Finals in Germany, their confidence ought to be 10x higher. They will be facing off against Pandemic in the first round, a team they will have to look out for. If they win this match, they will go on to face EG.
compLexity.CS Finals Roster:
Ryan "NineSpot" Bell
Derek "dboorN" Boorn
Andrew "Irukandji" Timmerman
Thomas "thoMz" Garcia
Derrick "Impulsive" Truong
Season Record: 10-6
Seed: 4th
Expected Finish: They have the ability to do whatever it takes to get to the finals. I do think that they will have some trouble against Pandemic, and quite possibly could lose to them. If this does happen, they should not have much trouble bouncing back, but a finals finish might not be what this team gets this time around.
Interview with Derek "dboorN" Boorn:
You guys had a very rough start to the beginning of the season, going 3-5. You then picked up and went on a 7 game win streak when you brought in Derrick "Impulsive" Truong, what happened in the start of the season?
In all fairness, that roster change wasn't what sparked our turn-around. Lateralus was instrumental in what we were trying to do as a team. He's actually undefeated under the coL flag. Have to give credit where credit is due. It's a shock to me that I'm not playing alongside lateralus in this All-Star game because he exhibits the qualities and epitomizes the term of an All-Star.
Many people have said that you guys losing Jeff was going to be the downfall of the team. They also thought that Derrick was not a suitable replacement. What led to replacing jeff and why Derrick?
Replacing hero wasn't the easiest of tasks but we weren't really presented with any other options. I don't think a fifth truly makes or breaks a team as it lays solely on the team itself to put in the work and to get everyone on the same page. The toughest angle I believe in replacing hero was that he was a part of the core of the team. So upon replacement, we're dealt with forming chemistry and teamwork all over again. Derrick was someone who has been a friend of the team for quite awhile. X3O and Gravitas were always friends even though the rivalry was so evident in-game. So when we were presented with the situation, he was easily one of our options due to what we already knew about him.
You guys recently were at the IEM in Germany. You walked away with 2 win and missed the top three. How did your time in Germany help prepare you for the finals and do you think not doing as well as EG will hurt you going into the Finals?
Experiences in Europe are always positive, whether they're good or bad. Unfortunately for us, we weren't able to close out WMF and move onto bracket play even though, in my opinion, we outplayed them tenfold throughout the match. SK was light years ahead of us and honestly, that's to be expected. You can't compete consistently without any prior bootcamps to get acclimated to those types of teams. Not a knock on the USA but it is virtually impossible to mimic what goes on in Europe and that even begins with the internet and is followed by the teams you're able to practice versus. The attitudes and outlooks of players, along with the fans, are also disgustingly different as opposed to the ones here in the USA. You're looked down upon as a professional here while, on the other hand, they're treated with great respect. How EG's success ties into our mindset going into this ESEA LAN, I'm not quite sure. I know, personally, I was rooting for them to do well and knew they'd perform better than anyone would give them credit for. They've put in the time and effort, along with multiple bootcamps overseas, to be more than well-deserving of their placements in recent tournaments. Unfortunately, the community will never give them the credit they deserve but that's a given over here.
9StorM/UMX is coming into these playoffs in a comfortable position. Ending the season at 11-5 helped them gain the third seed. The team has just recently teamed up with the Taiwanese organization UMX-Gaming to help achieve their goal of getting to the LAN playoffs.
This team is relatively unknown when it comes to the LAN Finals. This is the first time for them to be able to attend the playoffs at all. Tony "xaN" Lo was the leader of this team last season, but things ended up in an upsetting fashion. They finished with a 2-14 record and were far from making the playoffs. After revamping the roster over the season break, he found the recipe for success he needed.
Overall the team had a very successful season. They were able to hold almost every team to single digits when they won the match. They did struggle against EG, coL, and Loaded, three teams they must be successful against to enable them to win this tournament. Many have considered this team to be "online" and expect them to finish last in the standings. They lack the experience that every other team at the finals has, LAN play. This might be a disadvantage for them, but if they are able to find their groove, it might not be a factor at all.
UMX.CS Finals Roster:
Tony "xaN" Lo
Jon "broodex" Gibbons
Bryan "Buskey" Buskey
Zan "Zinger" Mian
Thomas "TMO" McEvily
Season Record: 11-5
Seed: 3rd
Expected Finish: I honestly do not have very high expectations for this team. If they win a match in a best-of-three, I will be happy for them. I see a quick two and out for them as they will face Loaded in their first match. This will be great experience for them, but I can't count them out completely, maybe they can show up and shock the nation.
Interview with Tony "xaN" Lo:
You totally reformed the team this season after a season where you and your team went 2-14. Why did you choose the people you did, and how happy are you with the result of this season?
For the first part of the previous 2-14 season, I was back home in Taiwan for vacation; therefore, resulting in a poor showing due to the team not having a proper leader out and inside of the game. We suffered through constant roster changes, and once I returned from my break, our chances of making playoff was too slim, so we decided to simply pug through the rest of the season with a few local players. After the season ended, I wanted to make a team that could potentially do well in INVITE with a goal of making LAN playoffs, since the local LANs were slowly disappearing from the east coast scene, making online leagues even more crucial if we want to have a chance to get to compete on LAN again. We went through a lot of people before settling on this current line-up. The core three between me, broodex, and Zinger were the easy ones because I live with broodex and I've played with Zinger for awhile as well. However, finding the 4th, and 5th were quite difficult, but we finally settled on TMO and buskey, who we have played against in local east LAN. I would say we're quite satisfied with this season's performance, since we've reached the goal we had from the beginning of the season, which is making the LAN playoff. We still have a lot of work ahead of us if we want to be considered as a top American team.
You guys are coming into this LAN as one of the teams with the least LAN experience at this level. Do you see this as a disadvantage?
To be quite honest with you, we aren't really looking at that as a scapegoat. A lot of teams use the whole "well, this is our first LAN as a team" excuse after they get unsatisfactory results. We've all been to LAN's, we've all been playing this game for awhile, and we’re just going to focus on our game, not our lack of experience.
At the start of the season the team was faced with a really rocky start. People were shocked when they saw the team at 3-5. These losses led them to replace teammate Jeff "Hero" Mettetal. Mettetal was one of the fan favorites and many were confused that he was the one to be released from the team. Upon the release of Mettetal, the team brought in Derrick "Impulsive" Truong. Since Truong joined the team they went on a seven game winning streak. During those seven wins, they kept all but one team to single digits, something foreign to the first part of the season. The streak ended when EG gave them a 16-1 devastating blow to end the season.
coL has recently returned from the IEM finals there they were not able to make it out of group play. They walked away with two wins, two losses, and a tie. They put up a strong fight and it was a definite preparation for the ESEA Finals. Wherever they were mentally before the trip to the IEM Finals in Germany, their confidence ought to be 10x higher. They will be facing off against Pandemic in the first round, a team they will have to look out for. If they win this match, they will go on to face EG.
compLexity.CS Finals Roster:
Ryan "NineSpot" Bell Derek "dboorN" Boorn Andrew "Irukandji" Timmerman Thomas "thoMz" Garcia Derrick "Impulsive" TruongSeason Record: 10-6
Seed: 4th
Expected Finish: They have the ability to do whatever it takes to get to the finals. I do think that they will have some trouble against Pandemic, and quite possibly could lose to them. If this does happen, they should not have much trouble bouncing back, but a finals finish might not be what this team gets this time around.
Interview with Derek "dboorN" Boorn:
You guys had a very rough start to the beginning of the season, going 3-5. You then picked up and went on a 7 game win streak when you brought in Derrick "Impulsive" Truong, what happened in the start of the season?
In all fairness, that roster change wasn't what sparked our turn-around. Lateralus was instrumental in what we were trying to do as a team. He's actually undefeated under the coL flag. Have to give credit where credit is due. It's a shock to me that I'm not playing alongside lateralus in this All-Star game because he exhibits the qualities and epitomizes the term of an All-Star.
Many people have said that you guys losing Jeff was going to be the downfall of the team. They also thought that Derrick was not a suitable replacement. What led to replacing jeff and why Derrick?
Replacing hero wasn't the easiest of tasks but we weren't really presented with any other options. I don't think a fifth truly makes or breaks a team as it lays solely on the team itself to put in the work and to get everyone on the same page. The toughest angle I believe in replacing hero was that he was a part of the core of the team. So upon replacement, we're dealt with forming chemistry and teamwork all over again. Derrick was someone who has been a friend of the team for quite awhile. X3O and Gravitas were always friends even though the rivalry was so evident in-game. So when we were presented with the situation, he was easily one of our options due to what we already knew about him.
You guys recently were at the IEM in Germany. You walked away with 2 win and missed the top three. How did your time in Germany help prepare you for the finals and do you think not doing as well as EG will hurt you going into the Finals?
Experiences in Europe are always positive, whether they're good or bad. Unfortunately for us, we weren't able to close out WMF and move onto bracket play even though, in my opinion, we outplayed them tenfold throughout the match. SK was light years ahead of us and honestly, that's to be expected. You can't compete consistently without any prior bootcamps to get acclimated to those types of teams. Not a knock on the USA but it is virtually impossible to mimic what goes on in Europe and that even begins with the internet and is followed by the teams you're able to practice versus. The attitudes and outlooks of players, along with the fans, are also disgustingly different as opposed to the ones here in the USA. You're looked down upon as a professional here while, on the other hand, they're treated with great respect. How EG's success ties into our mindset going into this ESEA LAN, I'm not quite sure. I know, personally, I was rooting for them to do well and knew they'd perform better than anyone would give them credit for. They've put in the time and effort, along with multiple bootcamps overseas, to be more than well-deserving of their placements in recent tournaments. Unfortunately, the community will never give them the credit they deserve but that's a given over here.
9StorM/UMX is coming into these playoffs in a comfortable position. Ending the season at 11-5 helped them gain the third seed. The team has just recently teamed up with the Taiwanese organization UMX-Gaming to help achieve their goal of getting to the LAN playoffs.
This team is relatively unknown when it comes to the LAN Finals. This is the first time for them to be able to attend the playoffs at all. Tony "xaN" Lo was the leader of this team last season, but things ended up in an upsetting fashion. They finished with a 2-14 record and were far from making the playoffs. After revamping the roster over the season break, he found the recipe for success he needed.
Overall the team had a very successful season. They were able to hold almost every team to single digits when they won the match. They did struggle against EG, coL, and Loaded, three teams they must be successful against to enable them to win this tournament. Many have considered this team to be "online" and expect them to finish last in the standings. They lack the experience that every other team at the finals has, LAN play. This might be a disadvantage for them, but if they are able to find their groove, it might not be a factor at all.
UMX.CS Finals Roster:
Tony "xaN" Lo Jon "broodex" Gibbons Bryan "Buskey" Buskey Zan "Zinger" Mian Thomas "TMO" McEvilySeason Record: 11-5
Seed: 3rd
Expected Finish: I honestly do not have very high expectations for this team. If they win a match in a best-of-three, I will be happy for them. I see a quick two and out for them as they will face Loaded in their first match. This will be great experience for them, but I can't count them out completely, maybe they can show up and shock the nation.
Interview with Tony "xaN" Lo:
You totally reformed the team this season after a season where you and your team went 2-14. Why did you choose the people you did, and how happy are you with the result of this season?
For the first part of the previous 2-14 season, I was back home in Taiwan for vacation; therefore, resulting in a poor showing due to the team not having a proper leader out and inside of the game. We suffered through constant roster changes, and once I returned from my break, our chances of making playoff was too slim, so we decided to simply pug through the rest of the season with a few local players. After the season ended, I wanted to make a team that could potentially do well in INVITE with a goal of making LAN playoffs, since the local LANs were slowly disappearing from the east coast scene, making online leagues even more crucial if we want to have a chance to get to compete on LAN again. We went through a lot of people before settling on this current line-up. The core three between me, broodex, and Zinger were the easy ones because I live with broodex and I've played with Zinger for awhile as well. However, finding the 4th, and 5th were quite difficult, but we finally settled on TMO and buskey, who we have played against in local east LAN. I would say we're quite satisfied with this season's performance, since we've reached the goal we had from the beginning of the season, which is making the LAN playoff. We still have a lot of work ahead of us if we want to be considered as a top American team.
You guys are coming into this LAN as one of the teams with the least LAN experience at this level. Do you see this as a disadvantage?
To be quite honest with you, we aren't really looking at that as a scapegoat. A lot of teams use the whole "well, this is our first LAN as a team" excuse after they get unsatisfactory results. We've all been to LAN's, we've all been playing this game for awhile, and we’re just going to focus on our game, not our lack of experience.
