hallzerk on RMR failure: "I didn't have fun playing CS after that"

The Norwegian AWPer struggled after losing to Imperial but has found his passion again ahead of Elisa Masters Espoo.

Complexity competing at Elisa Masters Espoo marks their first LAN after the North American side blew a 2-0 record at the Americas RMR, as they fell to Imperial in the final match, a crushing loss for the side that many had predicted would make it through to Brazil's first Major.

In their first match in Espoo, Complexity lost 14-16 to the Bulgarian side 500, but they were able to turn things around by getting a win against fnatic. Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli played particularly well in the win, leading the way with 21 kills. After that victory, he spoke about how the team's mental game had much improved since the RMR.

In your second match of the day you were able to dominate on the CT side, how were you able to do that?

I think we started very well on the T side, we had a bit of a flow there but it did stop a bit. We came into half-time and just tried to reset, we know from practice that our T side is really good. So we were really happy that we could get 9 rounds on the T side and I think we were very confident when we started CT side, and we just kept going. We had a good gameplan on how to stop them and after we won the first couple of rounds, I knew we had it in the bag already because they didn't have any fixes for us.

Speaking of resets, you had a tough start in the first game losing 16-14, how were you able to bounce back in the second?

I think that in the first game I played really badly personally, especially on the CT side I didn't get into a flow. Personally for me it was just thinking that it was a different game I just have to step up and we are here to win the tournament so everyone needs to play their best. We had a talk after the game that if we just step up and play our game, like we do in practise, then we are going to dominate our opponents and play how we should be. We just had a talk about relaxing a bit and play as a team.

The last time you were on LAN was at the RMR where you failed to qualify for the Major, what was the team atmosphere like after that game against Imperial?

It was not very good, for the few minutes after everyone was a bit down especially me. It was a really rough loss for me, for one to three weeks after it I was struggling. I didn't have fun playing CS after that, but in the last week or two I've been getting my motivation back and been grinding hard, and doing well in practice as well which has helped us. We just have to look back at the games we lost at the RMR and keep improving and fix our mistakes, when you lose games you have a lot to fix and you just have to look at the positives of losing.

Looking back what would you say is the biggest thing you as a team have taken from that loss and looking to improve on now?

We choked a bit under pressure in the last few games, we did small mistakes in communication wise and people didn't talk as good as they should be in the high pressure situations. We have been looking at that and now just trying to be more relaxed.

What would you say has been the biggest improvement in that time?

I think the communication definitely, in the fnatic game we had really good communication. When we communicate at that level there are not many teams that can stop us. When we get into that flow we are very good.

Talking about this LAN, what are you hoping to achieve out of being here at Elisa Masters Espoo?

Definitely just getting more experience as a team together at LAN, that is defintely the main thing but of course we want to get to the playoffs and we on stage in front of the Finnish fans. We just want to improve after every game we play and getting more experience at LANs, this is still only my second or third LAN with the team so we are kind of a new team still with me at least. So just trying to that experience.

In the past you have stated that your biggest weakness is that lack of experience, how does that show itself?

I think sometimes in pressure situations where it's close matches or a clutch situation you can sometimes see that we are not the most experienced team but the more we play, the
better we are going to be at it.

Is there any team here you are looking forward to playing?

I look forward to playing Astralis, they are a big organisation. I hoped device would be playing because he was a big inspiration for me, at least before, I watched a lot of his demos and stuff. I would have loved to play against him on LAN, I've never done that before but sadly he's not here. Still Astralis are a good team and hopefully we can win against them.

Looking past this event and at the future, NA now has fewer spots at the next Major because of IEM Rio Major, does that shake your confidence at all going forward?

Eh, not at all really, we really should have qualified for the last Major, we were 2-0 we had it in our hands and we just threw it away. So that was all on us, so I think at the next RMR it is going to be the same we are going to go 2-0 and hopefully get the 3-0 like we should have done the last time. Getting one less spot is not a struggle for us because we should the best or one of the best teams in NA, so we should be able to go through no matter what.