"We refuse to die" - Jason Lake on reclaiming Complexity once again

Complexity's CEO gives his honest reflections on the team's history, their recent PGL Major Copenhagen campaign, and much more.

Jason Lake, Complexity's founder and CEO, is one of the OGs when it comes to Counter-Strike as an esport. He formed Complexity back in 2003, and across 1.6, Source, and GO, he has driven the organization to a plethora of trophies and has helped the brand cement its place in CS history.

The journey has been a rollercoaster for the popular CEO, and across that time Lake has sold and bought back the rights to Complexity multiple times. He just completed such a deal once again after GameSquare, Complexity's previous parent company, acquired FaZe and thus needed to solve any potential conflicts of interest.

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With Complexity now back under his control and an ill-fated campaign at PGL Major Copenhagen behind him, Jason Lake sat down for over half an hour with HLTV to discuss his and Complexity's history, and in particular how he has managed to drag the organization through so many ups and downs. First, however, the interview tackled more recent events, namely how Lake was feeling after Complexity's exit from PGL Major Copenhagen.

"I'm pretty wiped out right now, physically and, to be honest, emotionally," Lake began. "It's been a tough few days [playing] MOUZ and Vitality, who I really feel we should have beat, and then FaZe just put on a masterclass today. So to start out 2-0 and then not make the stadium, everyone's disappointed."

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A little later in the interview Lake reflected on what he tries to contribute to the team when he attends events, as throughout his time in CS he has been a particularly visible CEO compared to others in the scene. He opined that his main value is in his mentality.

"I try to help them grow as players, maybe a little sports psychology from just doing this for so long, I try to bring value and energy and hype. My goal is to try and infuse into them how bad I want to win. I am looking them in the eye and telling them "no one in this fricking hotel wants to win as bad as I do, nobody... If I can get our players to want it half as bad as I do, we'll be lifting trophies again."

Lake is appreciative to be able to attend events again, as it was a luxury he was unable to indulge in over the past couple of years whilst Complexity were under the GameSquare umbrella.

"You saw me attending less events and things, my job became very corporate, my travel budgets weren't what I would have wanted," Lake admits. "I mean, you've gotta run a company, I'm not saying anything bad. When you go through corporate changes, things change. I missed it a lot... I missed it a lot, and I was... quite frankly, not real happy."

Considering Complexity's rich history in CS, and Jason Lake's integral role throughout it all, there were plenty of fascinating stories from Lake's past to delve into. One such story displayed the darker side of esports, and emphasized the risks Lake had to take to build Complexity into what it is today.

"I moved my family across the country in May of 2008 to live in LA. Unfortunately, the global economy tanked in the summer of 2008 and in November, a week before my wife's birthday, they shut down the whole league [CGS].

"So I find myself unemployed in Los Angeles. I owned a law firm, I owned Complexity, I'd sold both, and now I'm living in a state I'm not licensed to practice law in. So you talk about the highs and lows of gaming? When your wife looks you in the eyes and asks you, 'What have you done with our lives?' Yeah, that's a low."

Lake went on to emphasize that sacrifice is a key component of the careers of many in CS and esports. "There's a lot of prices that people that are here, playing and working, pay, that fans never really see," he states. "It is kind of our jobs to project a great brand, an image of strength like, 'I'm the best AWPer' or 'I'm the best manager' or whatever. The reality is, it's frickin' lonely out here sometimes."

Despite the sacrifices he has made personally, Lake admits that "Complexity has almost died multiple times." The reason the organization managed to survive? The passionate people around him that help drive Complexity forward.

"But for the wonderful people that have been kind enough to bless me with their work lives, and a lot of patience from my own family, we wouldn't have been playing at this event now.

"It's always been about more than a business, that's why we survived 20 years. It's been about people who love esports and are so damn passionate about what we do, we refuse to die."

For more fascinating stories about Lake's journey in CS, the lowdown on his time-pressured scramble to find the capital to reacquire Complexity, and plenty more besides, check out the full interview on HLTV's YouTube channel.