Semphis: "We've just become lazy"

24-6-2014 14:34

We reached out to compLexity's Canadian Kory "semphis" Friesen to get an idea of how the struggling North Americans hope to do at ESEA Finals.

It's no secret compLexity have been underwhelming at best since Braxton "swag" Pierce's surprise departure following their quarter-final exit versus NiP at EMS One Katowice.

coL haven't been able to integrate Todd "anger" Williams properly, and struggled domestically. Now they get a chance for redemption against international competition.

semphis says his team has become lazy

How have you prepared for ESEA Invite Season 16 Global Finals, and do you feel ready for the event? How do you plan on spending the remaining time before the event kicks off?

Semphis: Well n0thing going to E3 for a week really put a dent in our preparation before the LAN but we've been trying to play 4-5 days a week. We are way under-prepared though and I think individual skill will play a big factor in our wins / losses.

Has the fact there are hardly tournaments in North America added to your motivation to prepare well for ESEA Finals, especially with four Europeans making the trip across the Atlantic? How big is the opportunity to get to play Europeans for you?

Semphis: I think the lack of tournaments actually hurts our motivation, especially when the majority of the season people are only playing the map of the week. I mean we've all played Europeans and it's nice to see how we match up, but without a proper bootcamp I don't really think it's a fair indication of our skill.

Since you have a better understanding of the North American scene, how do you think your continent will fare against Euros at the event? Is there anyone in particular you think may surprise one way or the other?

Semphis: I don't think anyone is qualified to win the LAN and if someone did it would be pretty amazing, I think that Virtus.pro, NiP, and Na`Vi are a level above everyone right now.

Player	Age	Rating
Spencer "Hiko" Martin	24	1.15
Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert	23	1.07
Kory "semphis" Friesen	25	1.02
Todd "anger" Williams	26	1.01
Sean "sgares" Gares	26	0.89

What do you make of your chances at ESEA? With the bracket published, we know you will play NiP in the first round, followed up by Na`Vi or OpenEqualFree. How do you expect to do in those match-ups?

Semphis: NiP, Virtus, and Na`Vi honestly are all so close to each other right now I'm not sure it's that big of a deal. Obviously NiP is the best team in the world, but we know what to expect because we've lost to them like 25 times. As for the Americans it will be interesting to see if they can perform on LAN like they do online.

Ever since swag’s departure your team has looked underwhelming at best. How can you possibly fix that in time for ESEA? Why haven’t you been able to get back to the level you were playing at in Katowice, despite having months to practice?

Semphis: I think the swag level we were on at DreamHack and Katowice took us a while to get to, if people don't remember we were 2-4th in ESEA when we first formed our team with Brax also. I think this line up just needs to find what works for us and we don't fast track scrim / online wins, we play for the long term. Getting back to that level is doubtful without a bootcamp though.

You were just invited to ESL One Cologne. How does this affect life in compLexity? Would you have been better prepared for ESEA if you knew about this major more in advance?

Semphis: Being invited to ESL One Cologne is honestly awesome because it takes a lot of stress off us from qualifying, but I doubt it would have increased this current line-up's motivation for ESEA, we've just become lazy.

Coming up next will be an interview featuring Virtus.pro's in-game leader Filip "Neo" Kubski, scheduled for release later today. ESEA Invite S16 Global Finals kick off on Friday.

2014-06-24 14:35

1 reply

Jesus and lazy? Nice joke.

2014-06-25 13:36

Excuses only

5 replies

hes not making excuses, he deliberately said they had become lazy

2014-06-24 15:04

We've become lazy, a reason to not waste money and stay home. Swag is the NA star and will keep that spot for a few more years or even more, sad though cz Swag and n0thing make an amazing duet

2014-06-25 05:13

he is honest and i dont think hes happy in col. when he had that interview with dustmouret he said that they wouldnt practice enough but "im here, im online". hiko streams almost every day so hes there. im pretty sure nothing, sean and anger or at least one of them has just lost interest.

2014-06-24 15:26

2 replies

probably not 'just'

2014-06-24 15:42

seangares streams semi-regularly, I think it's probably n0thing and anger that aren't putting in the time.

2014-06-25 02:48

2014-06-24 14:37

coL LAN > coL ONLINE

2014-06-24 14:38

As for the Americans it will be interesting to see if they can perform on LAN like they do online. shots fired, calling iBP onliners

2014-06-24 14:39

20 replies

Nah more likely manajumas & the shroud fanboyclub.

2014-06-24 14:41

18 replies

jumas much expirienced players + shroud. When Irukandji played on top level, semphis wasn't anywhere.

2014-06-24 14:46

15 replies

cool joke 1st time i had seen semphis in '08, he had play with canadian area51 they had play a lot of NA LAN tourneys

8 replies

Irukandji much earlier... from 2003-4 and area51 lost every match from EG(Irukandji, dboorN, n0thing etc)

2014-06-24 15:21

7 replies

Drew was noone back in 03-04

2014-06-24 15:24

and tell me where irukandji is now? is he anywhere near semphis' level in csgo? hardly in sight id say.

2014-06-24 15:28

He could be, only reason why we haven't seen him or the rest of jumas as much is because they transitioned late. The core of irukandji/dboorn only took on GO like 2-3 seasons ago and had to start in open. They took a few seasons to work their way up to invite, and they already got 2nd seed in their first season of invite in CSGO.

2014-06-24 15:37

doesnt matter they won or lost matches. he got some experience anyway. i can say when semphis had start to play csgo, but this is not about the date, its about experience he got. #33

2014-06-24 18:38

btw, i like irukandji since cs1.6. he was one of my favorite tier2 team's player (he had start to play rly graet at the end of cs1.6 era). but, cmon. he was not that famous while he had play cs1.6..

2014-06-24 18:42

wtf u talking? He played for best NA team EG together with n0thing dboorN n0thing pauly and fr0d. They had some good results at majors and absolute domination in America

2014-06-24 19:43

yea, in '10 or '11

2014-06-24 20:25

btw, the only expirienced players in jumas is Irukandji and dboorN is another 3 guys from source?

2014-06-24 15:06

4 replies

Shroud and Minikerr played 1.6. Shroud just came out of no where and Minikerr was on an invite team in 1.6, but instead of going to lan. He said he went to his brothers wedding or some shit like that and got banned for a 100 days. Also minikerr was thought to be a cheater in 1.6. Not sure who desi is.

3 replies

desi is girl i think.

2014-06-24 16:59

desi is not a girl..theres 2 desis i think,one is summit's wife/gf or whatever,and the other is in manajumas

2014-06-24 17:16

2014-06-24 18:39

Some Jumas players or most have never been to a LAN especially not a competitive one.

2014-06-24 16:48

Only for shroud I guess

2014-06-24 14:57

pretty sure u cant call shroud an onliner bcs hes never been to a real lan. if he had been to a lan and failed u could say he was an onliner. &the shroud fanboy club has some valid point: in online games he has proven to be an extremely talented and already skilled player.

2014-06-24 20:48

I was just about to post that and it's nothing special really - I just lol'd because I expected semphis to say something like this. He calls most NA players for onliners so.

2014-06-24 15:07

u r payed salary and u r lazy? omfg

2014-06-24 14:42

11 replies

coL do not get paid a salary

2014-06-24 14:45

9 replies

what do they get then? only pc stuff?

not a whole lot, they joined last august and since then have gotten trips to: 3x esea lan dh winter ems one katowice socal revival #2 that's while winning +$45k & whatever they make this weekend and giving coL some share of that (i am assuming). coL also made some money from the stickers i'm sure, so in reality they probably haven't paid ~anything for the cs team out of their own pocket.

2014-06-24 14:56

that's sad. i mean..it's ok to pay the trips but still...

2014-06-24 14:59

From what I saw on coL FB, coL.LOL got a lot of devices like headphones, PCs sort of stuff......cs still need support...

2014-06-24 16:07

i hope you're not being serious... most people don't actually want any headphones or mice or mousepads, all of that stuff is irrelevant. i'm sure col.cs got them too, but who cares?

Were you salaried in EG? If you don't mind me asking.

2014-06-24 16:34

if he moved from finland to usa i guess he was

yes

2014-06-24 18:10

The LCS LoL teams get nice team houses too, Idk if they're from RIOT or the orgs though.

2014-06-24 19:20

>DELETED<

me2 soo lazy

2014-06-24 14:43

me3 soo lazy

Does anyone not see a disbandment incoming in the next few days?

he said he was relieved to be invited to esl cologne so I doubt it

Not anytime soon. #14 They don't have salaries or a gaming house. They're still Top 3 in NA and perhaps Top 1 on LAN, even without swag. They have managed to play well both domestically and internationally(with swag, but still). Their motivation probably went down a bit when swag just suddenly wanted to leave the team, but they're surely not bad at all. coL org would be stupid to release them imo, especially when they got a spot in Cologne too.

2014-06-24 15:13

I meant that from an angle of interpersonal relationships. Everyone has been talking about one or the other teammate under-performing or being unmotivated or them not clicking as a team (in separate interviews).

2014-06-24 15:22

Actually thats why swag left the team. coL never practiced. You cant blame them tho, swag is a young kid who has all the time in the world, the rest of coL is in their 20's and don't get salary. not to mention practice is hard to find compared to what the euro's get to practice against

2014-06-24 16:28

"I doubt it would have increased this current line-up's motivation for ESEA, we've just become lazy." Obv lineup change after the ESEA-LAN.

2014-06-24 15:09

Well, the lineup can't change too much, since they need at least 3 of the same players to keep their qualification to ESL Cologne.

2014-06-24 17:54

i have faith in these guys!! they will be ready for Esl One

If there is no motivation in the team, then they have no future.

2014-06-24 15:35

go Hiko!

2014-06-24 15:39

Who'd of thought.. a couple of fat lads are lazy

2014-06-24 15:44

n0thing is a fucking twig

that's why it says a couple...

2014-06-24 18:35

Bring back old quantic +tck +frozt + dazed = win

2014-06-24 15:47

Going into the game with the attitude of "we haven't practiced that much so we probably won't perform that well" is pretty terrible. Lan experience will help them beat their domestic rivals, but won't be enough to beat the EU teams. I always liked n0thing, but this isn't fair for a guy like hiko. He works really hard and deserves teammates that match his efforts.

2014-06-24 15:51

6 replies

ur not well-informed at all dude. semphis is showing enough effort and is a very skilled player. if i had to make a guess, i would say nothing is the one not doing much anymore, but it may also be anger and/or gares.

2014-06-24 16:29

I didn't say anything about the players other than hiko and n0thing, because I don't know much about them. All I know is that hiko puts a lot more time into the game than jordan.

2014-06-24 19:28

just kinda sounded like u were saying semphis was lazy, which is not true, as he explained in the interview with dustmouret. and to be fair, how do u know that hiko is putting in the effort? yes, he is streaming 4 hours almost every day. but his stream is a joke. hes playing matchmaking with a few noob players which is - while entertaining - not to be mistaken with effort to be as prepared as possible for esea lan.

2014-06-24 20:51

I didn't say anything about semphis, don't put words in my mouth. And yes, hiko puts more effort into the game than jordan. That's pretty undeniable. You can spend time arguing about whether or not he takes the time to prep for esea, but you can't convince me that hiko doesn't play more CSGO than a guy who's in school and plays hockey regularly.

2014-06-25 01:05

The issue is that n0thing ISN'T working hard. He's gone to hockey games, went to E3 for a week etc instead of playing CS. Not saying that the other players aren't responsible too but to suggest n0thing is an innocent victim in all of this is asinine.

2014-06-24 20:41

'I always liked n0thing, but this isn't fair for a guy like hiko. He works really hard and deserves teammates that match his efforts.' I'm pretty sure he meant that he likes n0thing but the fact that he doesn't take the game too seriously is unfair for hiko.

2014-06-25 10:46

Exactly what muricans do best :)

2014-06-24 16:01

Like spain at the world cup :p

Well it's not that they've become lazy it was more like when swag was still with them, he was carrying them online so hard with his raw skill now that he's gone everyone need to step up hard to do stuff but oh well, ain't happening it seems like. Seriously, look at previous ESEA qualis where swag just CARRIED them to the ESEA finals.

2014-06-24 16:27

hiko always carried the most load..what are you talking about?

2014-06-24 16:36

We've just become lazy. we can see that by the size of ya belly.

2014-06-24 17:17

WOW and that really shows the difference. A top US team is not getting a normal salary. From what I understand, the EU teams all get salaries (the big ones).

2014-06-24 17:44

I'm starting to see a depressing theme in these interviews (even though irukandji is always like that). Hopefully at least iBP shows some enthusiasm.

2014-06-24 17:55

swag will soon realize that iBP is full of onliners and will never do well on lan, so he will want back in coL, meaning coL will finally be able to cut n0thing like they've been wanting to

2014-06-24 18:15

I think the lack of events in the USA is a big factor

2014-06-24 18:29

if they don't have a decent placement soon I see them losing the coL sponsorship in the near future

2014-06-24 22:17

Probably not that soon tbh, they have the guaranteed invite to the Cologne tournament and they are still working out the anger transition. Prior to it they were doing fine.

2014-06-25 00:02

Yeah, but they do seem unmotivated, and just knowing coL's moves in the past, they don't like bad results and they don't like coming off as undedicated/unprofessional, not saying their squad is necessarily either of those, but this interview isn't exactly giving off a good vibe, and their performances have been pretty shaky. coL management definitely not happy with losing the title (in the minds of many) of best NA team. They should definitely be clear through Cologne, but if they have a few disappointing performances and if there is a gap in competition I could see them not making it to the end of 2014 without changes.

2014-06-25 01:17

Yeah, maybe if they continue at their current level throughout the next 6 months they might have to make changes/lose their sponsorship. That being said there aren't really any other stable teams in NA that coL could pick up really. Maybe OEF if they do good at LAN and stay together. However in coL they have a roster where 4 of the members have been together for a year, an eternity in NA, and the members are LAN proven especially at international LANs. Even coL being "horrible" recently still got them into ESEA LAN, even if only just barely, and a third place in CEVO. So staying with their current team makes sense for coL. In terms of roster changes I don't see them cutting anyone. There really isn't anyone that could come in and replace a current member. However it's possible that a member might leave due to lack of interest.

2014-06-25 02:10

-anger -sean +????

2014-06-24 23:50

freakazoid don't kno about second, maybe someone like shroud (decent sniper)

2014-06-25 00:00

STOOOOOP with this freakazoid bullshit. The guy doesnt even PLAY THE GAME. You cant be on a pro team with 0 hours. Fucking highlight clip masturbating fanboys.. jesus christ..

2014-06-25 10:23

U STOOOP it ragekid. i saw him at least in 5 games for homeless. he was the best player in team. and in general he was in coL roster at first but not anger. don't kno about his online, but freak i saw was one of the most consistent aimers in north america

2014-06-25 15:54

sean is a really good IGL, they're not gonna drop him. There is really no one else in NA who could really replace anger so that's not gonna happen.

2014-06-25 00:03

sean is holding them back, there is no way around it. he is bad-average aimer, and his strats suck ass tbh. coL buy every round. sean rushes for a pick every round. it doesn't work, especially now that swag is gone.

2014-06-25 04:35

Sean isn't the best fragger for sure but not many igls are. He's decent with the awp although has consistency issues. However he is recognized as being a great igl.

2014-06-25 04:41

Coming from a guy with "<3 pronax" in his name. Cute. You obviously dont know shit about strats, or calling them so how about you shut the fuck up kid.

2014-06-25 10:22

2 lazy to get a haircut?

2014-06-25 01:27

Americans gave up CS:GO after we took over Soccer. No need for CS:GO. Were now the best at every sport in the world. Well besides cricket but if Americans played it regularly we would win that as well. Be honest though. No one likes Cricket. Not even Cricket players. The rest of the world can keep CS:GO. But maybe the rest of the world should go outside and kick the ball around. Stop being so fat and lazy.

2014-06-25 06:53

From what I can gather, n0thing is the cancer of coL. Sure sure he was a great 1.6 player but it's so obvious that he doesn't have the same kind of motivation as his teammates. Maybe swag saw a sinking ship and decided to bail.

2014-06-25 10:11