Hiko: "You are in for a treat"

compLexity missing the North American ESWC qualifier was caused by the organization choosing not to send Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin and company there due to expiring contracts.

From that point onwards it was obvious Hiko and company would soon move to a new home, and last weekend they officially became the CS:GO team of Cloud9.

This interview discusses the team's stay in coL, their recent roster changes including the recruitment of Mike "⁠shroud⁠" Grzesiek and more, as well as the upcoming major ESL One.

Hiko talks to HLTV.org in a lengthy interview 

Let's start at the beginning of your compLexity journey. You joined the organization a year ago from Quantic Gaming. Did you have other suitors at the time? Were coL the only offer on the table? How did you feel about their offer at the time?

Hiko: We needed to find a sponsor ASAP after Quantic decided not to support us anymore. I think we were a few weeks away from an ElSEA LAN and after seeing Jason Lake’s tweet about CSGO and the stream of my teammate n0thing, it seemed stupid not to reach out and see if they were actually interested in picking us up.

After about a week of negotiating we both came to an agreement and we were happy with it at the time. This is after about a month of me looking for other sponsors, so we were happy to have finally got something. There were no other offers, and if we didn’t go with coL we would have had to fund ourselves to that ESEA LAN.

Your first event was a success as you beat all your North American competitors and took a map off of NiP at ESEA Invite S14 Global Finals in Dallas, but then disappointed at ESWC. How do you feel about those results in hindsight?

Hiko: Playing under the compLexity banner at ESEA S14 LAN was a boost in confidence in so many different respects. Just being able to sport such a prestigious tag really did go a long [way] with each and every one of us. Coming in and playing against Ninjas in Pyjamas is no easy task and it probably never will be but to be able to say that we were the first North American team to come in and take a map off of them is really something else, especially here recently when we can top it by actually having beat them at S16 LAN. Our performance at ESWC was lackluster and in no way a good reflection of what that lineup had went on to achieve at Dreamhack and EMS.

Why did you miss MSI Beat It Finals in China? From what I understand, you already had flights booked to Beijing, but still wound up staying home from an event you could have easily made top three at.

Hiko: The MSI Beat It trip to China was a trip that was plagued from the get-go in terms of planning and preparedness. One of my players didn’t have enough pages in his passport, so by the time we got the invitation to apply for a visa, he would have had to put a rush on it and pay a ridiculous amount of money for it.

The truth is that we also took into consideration the travel required to go and play there and then stay on the road going directly to Sweden to play in DreamHack. I feel though that it all worked out for the best as we ended up having a 1 week bootcamp where we could really hone in and focus on tightening up our game play.

Next at DreamHack Winter you made top four, won $22,000 and beat VeryGames and Astana Dragons in the process. How'd you feel at the time about your team? Did you surpass your own expectations?

Hiko: To say that we passed our own expectations would be highly inaccurate because who goes in expecting to achieve anything but the best results. Did we blow away you and everyone else's expectations? That's a more likely scenario as we knew that whatever road we took into that LAN wasn't going to be an easy one. Luckily though we were able to get the bootcamp done and really bring it to the Euros on their own soil.

At ESEA Finals you came close to beating Titan in the upper bracket, but then collapsed against iBUYPOWER in the consolidation final. What happened? This was the first time you'd been outplaced by another NA team an event.

Hiko: Playing against a team such as Titan always proves to be a very exhausting thing. After going in and giving them our all the night prior and losing we felt a little winded and as the story goes, maybe we should have ate what iBUYPOWER had for breakfast on Sunday because they truly did bring their A-game. No one would have ever thought of them beating Titan in one Best of Three, let alone two back to back.

Shortly after returning home swag left the team, out of the blue. Do you have any idea why he chose to join iBUYPOWER? Did something happen internally in coL, or were there other issues?

Hiko: Brax left the team at a really bad time for us as a unit. To this day he still hasn’t really explained himself to anyone but Jordan. Brax is a great kid and he's well on his way to become one of the best players in the world. To my knowledge nothing happened internally in coL but I do know Brax wasn’t having as much fun as he had hoped, and apparently wasn’t happy that he didn’t have all of his spots on the different maps.

swag's departure remains somewhat of a mystery 

You recruited anger quickly to replace it. From the outside it looked like a rushed move that was bound to fail, which essentially I suppose it did - after a few months. What was your take on it?

Hiko: Our rush to fill the void was one in which we found ourselves trying to put a square peg in a circle hole. Todd is a great guy that truly has aim like no other but he did not mesh with us as a squad. I wouldn't necessarily say it failed as we did achieve great results at ESEA S16 LAN with him by our side but first place is always the goal.

At ESEA Finals you beat NiP, the Edwardless-Na`Vi and Virtus.pro. Was that your career's most rewarding result? Why'd you outperform everyone's expectations? How did you feel going into the event?

Hiko: I wouldn't say that this was the most rewarding moment in my career. The reality of the situation is that we had faced NiP several times before and were unable to get the formula down for beating them, until this time. Second place is great and hats off to the boys for getting it together, but I'll quote the great Ricky Bobby when I say "if you're not first, you're last."

We went into ESEA S16 with our heads up but also with the mentality that we barely made it there in the first place after what I will say was our worst season of online play ever. Going into the LAN and each of us bringing out everything we have in our arsenal was what we had to do and by the time we played iBUYPOWER the second time we were just juiced.

Personally, I wish ESEA would do something to address the situation where they have a team in the lower bracket that's expected to play 6 straight hours of Counter-Strike on Sunday without any breaks for lunch or anything else...

After the event you quickly let go of anger, and for a while it seemed sgares would step out as well. Did you ever consider keeping the ESEA roster after such as strong result?

Hiko: Releasing Todd was something that we took time to think over and really try to bring all possibilities to the table. We knew that finding another player to fill the gap that Todd left behind wasn't going to be an easy task. We also learned that after the LAN that Sean wanted to take a break from the game and focus on different parts of his career.

That being said we went with the dboorN and Shroud combination and tried to get a nice flow of chemistry. It wasn't long after it began, maybe a match or two, that dboorN informed us he didn't feel he was the man for the job and stepped back and we were lucky enough that GeT_RiGhT had whispered sweet nothings into Sean's ear at the Vegas LAN. We were never going to keep the same lineup after ESEA.

Now your roster is you, n0thing, Semphis, sgares and shroud. How does this roster compare to your previous teams? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Hiko: This roster is one of the strongest rosters on paper that we could have possibly formulated given the constraints of time and potential replacements for Todd. Our biggest strengths are that the 4 of us are veteran LAN players and know how to bring the ruckus at LAN.

It's safe to say our biggest weakness will be the lack of LAN experience that Shroud has; however, Shroud has the game sense and aim of Mr.Miyagi so we really are hoping that is an easy transition to LAN. At this time it's safe to say that a boot camp prior to ESL Cologne will be the safest course of action for us to work out any kinks in the hose.

coL wouldn't send you to ESWC NA or let you out of your contracts, which also practically meant you could not attend G3. How do you feel about this move?

Hiko: In one hand I can understand that coL isn't here to "just give players away," as it was put to us. To be quite honest, we really do wish we could have attended G3 but on the same note we wouldn't have near the preparation going into the event without a boot camp and/or laying down some solid framework with this roster that we have.

We try to mix it up and we try to keep the opponent guessing where it is we are going to execute and maneuver on them and so far, aside from online play in CEVO and ESEA, we haven't really had the opportunity to put in the much needed hours at a boot camp. London would have been real nice though, I can say that much.

Will ex-coL exceed expectations again in Cologne? 

I understand you weren't paid a salary in coL, and the organization made around $17,500 from the stickers at EMS One Katowice, while only sending you to three events in Europe. How did you feel when you found out they wouldn't share the sticker money like most organizations did?

Hiko: The compLexity organization owns rights to their name brand, there's no denying that. On one side of the fence you kind of see where that comes into play - it's understood but the reality is we made those stickers have the value they did and do. If we were anything less than a top tier North American Counter-Strike squad then those stickers would have less than half of their current value.

The real frustration comes from knowing that other organizations gave their sticker money directly to the players as a result of this concept. I will say that coL did fulfill their end of the contracts and even more, and am still very thankful to have had the support coL gave us.

How have you negotiated the sticker money split in your new contact with C9? Do you feel this may factor in the negotiations of more teams who are renewing their contracts for 2015?

Hiko: While I can't say what we have discussed and agreed too on sticker money split, I can agree that it will become a clause in all of my team's future contracts. That being said, it should be no real surprise to see other teams follow the same trend and I actually encourage it.

It's not that the man is getting over on teams but that it needs to be made very clear from the get go. The real setback for us in terms of the whole process was that the conception of stickers in game and the monetary value of what could be made off of them came about as kind of a surprise since it was new.

Next up for you is ESL One Cologne. How long have you been preparing for it? Do you feel you can be ready in time with shroud? Will you be able to bootcamp in Europe this time around?

Hiko: The preparation time leading up to ESL Cologne is an exciting one for us. On one hand, we have a new organization, which is almost the same feeling one might have from dawning a fresh pair of Nikes. On the other hand we have ESL Cologne to not only show that North Americans can truly contend across the pond, but that we are the exact crew for the job.

We feel as though Shroud has come into his own within our ranks and will fit like a glove at the end of the day. The works for a bootcamp are still in the final stages of planning and we will know for sure real shortly.

How is shroud as a player? We've all seen his flashy highlights, but besides that he remains largely unknown. How much does he still have to learn? Are you at all afraid that picking him might have been a bad move in the short term with ESL One so close?

Hiko: Mike is a relatively transparent player in the eyes of those who only know him for his stream. The reality is that with one season of Invite under his belt, we feel that he is more than ready to escalate his game play to the next stage.

If there are any doubts of Shroud on LAN, allow me to assure you all now that you are in for a treat as ESL Cologne. May the Viking gods have mercy on the European teams if we are able to get a bootcamp in with Shroud.

At ESL One you were drawn in a tough group with Titan, dignitas and Vox Eminor. You've beat Titan before, and are clear favorites versus the Australians. However, you've never played dignitas, and they look to be in great shape. How do you expect the group to play out?

Hiko: We have beaten Titan before but one thing I emphasise is that no team, on LAN or online, should EVER be taken lightly; therefore, the realities of being a clear favorite or having beat someone before go right out the window.

Unfortunately, we were not able to attend Gfinity but we were able to take away from it in that Titan are on their A-game. Dignitas are a unit that we have our eyes on as well. I would like to say that there hasn't been an Australian team since fzer0 that have been able to remain on the radar given the difficulties that they are faced with geographics.

Hiko's Cloud9 will make their debut in the new organization at ESL One Cologne, where they've been placed in group D along with dignitas, Titan and Vox Eminor.