hallzerk: "When I heard Complexity was looking at me, there was no doubt in my mind"

Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli talks leaving Dignitas after two years and finding a new home in Complexity.

Making their first roster change since signing the former Extra Salt lineup at the beginning of the year with hopes of turning things around following a series of early exits at tier-one tournaments, Complexity replaced the struggling Paytyn "⁠junior⁠" Johnson during the off-season with hallzerk.

The Norwegian was given a new opportunity after he had just come off a more than two-year stint with Dignitas, who decided to pull the plug on the Swedish-majority CS:GO division earlier this year and step away from the game for the time being.

Competing in a LAN debut at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, the new Complexity squad has already turned heads with a win over a Natus Vincere team playing in Copenhagen with Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov instead of the world's best player, Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev.

Speaking in an interview following the upset, hallzerk discussed his departure from Dignitas and getting the opportunity to join Complexity, the move to North America, getting used to the new way of communication, and expectations at BLAST.

You spent over two years with Dignitas, how did it feel to find out that it was ending?

I wouldn't say it came as a surprise. We didn't perform at the level we wanted to perform and we felt we have the level to perform at, so it didn't come as a big surprise, but of course it hurts. Dignitas is a great organization, I have nothing bad to say about them, and also the team. We didn't stay together after, of course, but I loved my team, we had a great team, but we just missed that last thing. I'm sad that it ended, but I'm happy I got this opportunity now with Complexity.

How was it to be on the market? Was there any feeling of uncertainty about your future and where you're going to land?

Yeah, it's the first time I've been a free agent in like four years, so it was a new experience for me. I got a great agent and agency, so they helped me a lot there, but of course it was a bit weird. Not getting a salary anymore and not knowing what to do the next month was a bit weird, but I got used to it after a while, and then I got this offer from Complexity. It worked out great.

Was it always an obvious choice, or did you have other offers to consider?

I had a couple that wrote to me and asked, but when I heard Complexity was looking at me, there was no doubt in my mind. They're a great team, a great organization, and they get invites to good tournaments, and this is where I want to play. This was where I wanted to go.

Heading into the off-season there were a lot of question marks around what Complexity were going to do after a rough period. Did you have any concerns regarding their previous form?

They were having a bad period, of course, but they have been a great team in the past and everybody knows what they're capable of. There was no doubt in my mind that they were not going to be good enough or anything like that. I know they have good potential and I think when we get more playtime together, we're gonna be a great team together. I got four great players with me, a great coach, a great analyst and everything, so I'm very happy.

What was it like to make the decision to move to NA? What is the living situation going to look like for you?

We're still looking at that. I know that to become the best player I have to make some sacrifices in my life, so when I got this offer there was no doubt in my mind that I would do everything for it. If I had to move wherever, there was no problem for me. I just have to do it to become the best.

What about the language change? Any issues with the communication?

It was a bit weird the first week. NA comms versus European comms is a bit like, NA comms is a bit more chaos and a bit faster, and it's a new language, of course, so it was a bit weird, but each day it just gets better and better. I think it's not gonna be a problem in the future, I think actually it's going to be easier than Swedish for me because everything I do on the internet is in English, so I think it's going to be fine.

When did you start playing and what has it been like since you got the chance to play with these guys?

We've been practicing for like 10 days now or something. They're great guys that I get along with very easily, so there's been no problem at all.

I think I'm a very versatile AWPer, I can do most things, so I think whatever they ask me to do I can do, and whatever I want to do I can also do. I think I won't have any problems playing in any team, I can do most things pretty good, I would say.

What were your expectations of this team, and have there been any surprises now that you've got some time to play alongside them?

I feel like FaNg caught me by surprise with how good he communicates and how much control he can take in a round. How good each player is, you don't know how good they are until you play with them, every single person is so good and you don't realize it before.

Heading into BLAST, you've taken the scalp off NAVI - what did you think heading into this game and seeing that s1mple wasn't going to play?

I was very confident, actually. A bit more confident than you'd think, to be honest. We had a very good week in NA, we won the RMR qualifier pretty easily and it's going well in practice as well. Everything has just been flowing very good so far, so I'm very confident, and also s1mple, the best player in the world, not playing for the team, it was a very, very big downgrade for them. Headtr1ck is a great player, of course, and he tried his best, but s1mple is s1mple, so I was very confident, actually.

Tell me a little bit about the game, how did you pull it off?

We started it a bit bad on T side, but we just talked about it and figured out what we were going to do. We had a good game plan, so we just reminded ourselves what we wanted to do, and it just worked exactly the way we wanted the last T half. CT side has been going really well in practice as well, so when we got to CT side with eight or seven rounds, I was confident we were gonna win.

And you had some pretty big clutches going your way.

Yeah, we have very good clutchers in our team, so it's very good to have these players and to win these rounds. That's how you win games.

What do you think about the rest of the group? Liquid with YEKINDAR again, G2 having a new team, what are your expectations?

I think we won versus the best team right now, so I'm pretty confident we can win this group, so I think it's going to go well for us.