CommunityFortress

Fayth busts out his first piece of content for Community Fortress, an interview with S5 LAN Champions Complexity!!! Read on for a very compelling sit down with arguably the strongest team in TF2!

Being the biggest TF2 lan in quite some time, how did it compare to any lans you’ve been to in the past?

Jaeger- It was well run, and the staff helped us solve all of our technical problems in a timely manner. I wish there were more computers so we didn't have to share, a few people change weird settings and not everyone got their computers configured exactly right after someone else had used it.

Carnage- The lan was really fun, I'm hoping TF2 blows up so we can consider this ESEA lan a small one. I'm used to Quakecons, cpl's etc. other than that it was great!

Relic- Most LAN's Ive been to are quake related and much bigger. This LAN was small but fun.

Solid- The LAN was actually smaller than I expected but it was awesome seeing a lot of familiar faces that I've met in previous LANs around the country, and meeting the popular ones in TF2 that I haven't met.  Also, it's too bad that we weren't elligible for prizes and they didn't have the usual mini games that you could do for prizes like dodgeball and pushup contests lol... which I have to say is just as fun as the actual tournament.

Pure- While it was not as big as the previous I attended for TF2, nvision2008, it was more well run and was more interesting because I was able to watch EG.cs.

Anime- I was pleasantly surprised with how well the lan was run; ESEA did a good job of organizing the event in general. Not only did all the matches start on time, but the admins were knowledgeable about the game, which isn't always the case.

 

 

What did you expect going into the lan and were your expectations met?

Jaeger- I expected to win, but I expected to play EG in the finals. So I guess my expectations were half met.

Carnage- i agree 200% with Jaeger

Relic- win, yes.

Solid- I thought we had a good chance of winning, but it wasn't definite.  LANs are different because there's new computers and no lag, so it depends on many factors, so you can never tell who's going to excel, like how Blight did during the tournament.  For all I knew, my team would just get baked and wasted the night before and lose the finals, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Pure- Was stupid how EG did not play in the finals. But we expected to win. We are all LAN proven. We excel on LAN.

Anime- Ive been to a lot of lans, this was one of the smaller ones, but there was a greater sense of community maybe because it was so small. Also esea actually provided food and drink for all the teams (pizza and soda/water, or wendys) which really wasn't mentioned anywhere, I thought that was pretty nice of them.

 

Not being able to play with your starting 6 players must have made a huge difference in your game plan. Were you able to create new strategies and successfully carry them out based on your backup?

Jaeger- We just made animeman play enigma's role to the best of his ability.

Carnage- animeman has played every class at the top level, he is CREAM OF THE CROP. He altered his game to play the same role as enigma did and pulled it off quite well 8)

Relic- Cant replace an Enigma, but animeman did really well.

Solid- Mithun did a great job filling in, but we did talk about how we wanted to show everyone that our strength wasn't just in our scouts, so we focused a bit more on our combo.  In the end, we have basically a relic frag video reel.

Pure- We talked about picking up a player to fill enigma's role but then we thought about Mithun and we felt stupid for not thinking about it sooner.

Anime- I got the call from dan saying they needed me to fill in at the lan, and being in houston, it wasn't a huge hassle for me to drive down for a fun event. I am glad I got the opportunity to play with the team, my work schedule has prevented me from playing tf2 at all this past season, going into the lan I only had a short time to shake off any rust.

 

What do you think would have gone differently if you had your starting 6 from the season?

Jaeger- I think we would have had an easier time but animeman stepped up and did his part to help us win.

Carnage- Enigma as a scout partner is pretty unfair for any team we play, but animeman stepped up to the plate and did it up big.

Relic- kill more

Solid- We would have jizzed in our pants for finally seeing what enigma looks like.

Pure- I cant say we would have done any better. Enigma has played scout longer then Anime, but Mithun did awesome at lan.

Anime- I would say all of the matches would have probably went easier for the team if enigma had come, but I am glad again that I got to play and I had a lot of fun doing it up.

 

What are your opinions on the soldier and demo unlocks that were allowed during the lan? Playing with and against them firsthand, did you notice any that worked well, maybe some that worked too well?

Jaeger- Everything seemed fine to me.

Carnage- equalizer is pretty overpowered, otherwise it seemed ok.

Relic- EQUALIZER!!!

Solid- I love the new demo unlocks but I wish that they would fix the scottish resistance doing random sticky jump damage.  Shield and sword is pretty badass though, turning the demo into basically a heavy weapons guy.  I've gotten better with it since the LAN, and I think that in the next season we're going to see a lot of targe demos.

Pure- Equalizer is too much of a game-changer.

Anime- I really enjoy the dynamicness of the new weapons, I think solid actually went through ever singly demo unlock, from chargin' targe to scottish resistance, and they all worked out pretty well. The equalizer definitely needs a little bit of a damage tweak, I think it should do maybe 90-100 max damage, thats a bit more reasonable yet still enough damage.

 

Was there a noticeable difference between playing online via client and playing on lan? (Especially with the crashes)

Jaeger- There were a few minor things, had to keep our voices down so they couldn't hear our comms, and the monitors were terrible. Overall the difference was minimal.

Carnage- not really, some of the sniper shots didnt register, but it doesnt online either! lol

Relic- Most matches we play are on Dallas servers, feels pretty similar to LAN

Solid- LAN pings are really important for demos, I usually play with 60 and above, so my aim improved significantly--always a good thing.

Pure- In our finals match, on one map, we crashed 6 times, which literally lost us 3 rounds.

Anime- Id say the shitty monitor's are really hard to get used to after only using crt's since forever. The computers were putting out good fps, but a lot of that was lost due to crappy lcd's, but thats how lans usually go anyway.

 

What was your favorite moment of the lan outside of the game?

Jaeger- Just meeting everyone

Carnage- well considering I live 15 minutes away from the venue that the LAN took place at, ive seen everything before! :( meeting new faces is always fun.

Relic- Chilling with the boys in big D

Solid- Meeting everyone and getting some alone time with my girl ;p

Pure- Hanging out with the Sturdivants and meeting the rest of the guys prior to playing at the actual event.

Anime- This was my second lan with a good portion of the team, was a lot of fun playing at a high level again, I miss tf2 competition.

 

What are your future aspirations for yourselves as individual players and together as a team?

Jaeger- We're going to keep playing and if possible keep winning. I hope we can travel to Europe at some point and play against their best on LAN.

Carnage- keep dominating, I will show the way!

Relic- To not die the whole season.

Solid- Europe.

Pure- I will focus on my medic game for important matches and hopefully we can go to Europe this summer.

Anime- I really want to do something for the community and promote TF2 in some way, hopefully work with ESEA to make sure that TF2 is a fixture at future events. The spectator friendliness of it outshines most games by a wide margin.

 

What are your plans for the offseason? Any travel or vacations?

Jaeger- Need to catch up on all the work I skipped to play TF2.

Carnage- i took a vacation for this lan, so a lot of work now :)

Relic- work is my life.

Solid- School unfortunately

Pure- I am actually interviewing for an important job so I assume ill be working a lot until summer.

Anime- I think I have 6 concerts / festivals lined up to go to, live music is bad ass.

 

What are your hopes for the future of TF2? Do you think it can become a game as big as CS/Quake/Starcraft?

Jaeger- I think TF is a fantastic spectator game and unlike CS/Quake/Starcraft there is still plenty of time and room to come from nothing and make an impact on this game. TF2 is on the rise, the old vanguard games are on the decline.

Carnage- TF2 is extremely spectator friendly, this was proven @ the lan..... koth_viaduct was a great addition and wonderful for the cs/css players who were watching, perhaps they'll make the switch. CS has been alive for too long, die!

Relic- Hopefully if all the pubbers learned to play competitive the game would grow bigger than a CS or quake.

Solid- I'm not sure if it'll ever get as big as some of the other games, but it really should be... by far the most easy game to watch and get excited about compared to the other competitive games... how can you not laugh at a black man running and cutting people's heads off with a huge sword?

Pure- I agree with Jaeger. I also think its time for CS to die.

Anime- I really hope TF2 continues to get looked at, and its still being actively developed by valve, which is awesome, those things just mean we need to do a good job promoting the game to new players so it continues to grow at all levels.

 

Shoutouts?

Jaeger- JaX, all my Texas goons, AI

Carnage- shoutout to my meatshotters 8) compLexity staff, zenna sushi

Relic- JaX, Creative, QPAD, XFX.

Solid- shoutout to the old xensity crew

Pure- Sturdivants and JaX

Anime- Shout out to all the cool people in the tf2 community i've met in real life now, it makes the game slightly more enjoyable knowing you meatshot someone you met in real life.

 

Big thanks to Complexity for sitting down and doing it up this interview, these guys are truly a class act and surely will be tearing up Season 6!