stanislaw: "We have all the pieces to really do some damage"

Ahead of their opening match at the Major's New Challengers Stage against Astralis, we talked to Complexity's in-game leader Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz about the team's preparation for the biggest event of the season.

The 24-old Canadian caller was brought on from OpTic in April alongside Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan, and the two have spent the majority of the year slowly improving the team's position on the rankings, as they went from #44 in April to #29 in the last ranking update before the Major.

We caught up with stanislaw at media day before the onset of the New Challengers Stage to quiz him about the team's practice routines before leaving for London:

Let's start with what you guys did up to the Minor. You joined the team and then you've improved from there. Can you talk to me about the team's development in the last couple of months?

It all started with Jason Lake (coL CEO) approaching ShahZaM and me. His intentions were clear: He wanted compLexity to get back to the top, where they were before, and I think with the roster we have now, we're headed in the right direction. When we first started, it was pretty obvious that we would have a lot of work to do. As it goes with any team, changing one player changes a lot, but changing two is even worse. But I think the experience me and ShahZaM and I have has been pretty invaluable so far, we slotted in very well. We needed an in-game leader, and I think I fill that role pretty well. We also needed a dedicated AWPer, and I think he's the perfect guy for that. So we have all the pieces to really do some damage, it's just about how hard we work and how fast we improve.

Objectively, for you, this has been somewhat of a step down compared to your time in Liquid. Has that affected your approach to the game, or this team specifically?

From the outside, I can see how it's a step down, but for me personally, it isn't at all. It's obvious that we're going to get to the top, it just depends on how long it takes us. I think compLexity is actually the best organisation I've ever played for, they give us everything we need to just focus on playing the game, and, at the end of the day, if things keep going the way they are, with practice going really well, I think we'll rise to the top.

Tell me about the last couple of months that's passed since the Minor. What have you done, what's your routine been like?

After the Minor everyone had their break. We took a nice little vacation, because we were burned out at the end of the season, we were just playing CS nonstop. After the break, we decided to have a boot camp in Berlin, which was invaluable, especially to our teammates yay, ANDROID and dephh. Just getting that experience against European teams, because they haven't played against them, while ShahZaM and I have a lot more experience in that sense. So from day one to day twelve of the boot camp, you could see a night-and-day transformation, we were really struggling in the beginning while we were adapting to the European play style, but we adapted very well. It's just obvious, that difference in skill between European and NA teams. For instance, if we had boot camped in North America, I don't think we would have improved as fast as we did. So it was a long, hard bootcamp and then three days off, so now we're feeling fresh and ready to go.

So what about individual shape. We saw at DreamHack Masters that everyone looked a little bit rough, or at least a lot of the teams did. How are you feeling in your team, how ready do you feel you are, individually and team-wise?

It's natural to feel a bit slow in a sense, coming back from the player break. So like you said, you could obviously tell at Stockholm that people weren't up to their best level yet. But I think now that they have that tournament out of the way, everyone's gonna be at their best for the Major, and that includes us as well.

Talk to me about your expectations then, how confident are you?

Coming in to your first Major as a team, I always set expectations pretty low, because I think that's just the safest way to go. But just making it out of the qualifier, getting to the main part of the Major, that's the first step.