Despite ascending to the top of the pro Counter-Strike ladder in the latter half of 2023, Complexity Gaming experienced a setback in the leadup to ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta by way of head coach Tiaan “T.c” Coertzen being unable to attend due to a personal matter. As a result, assistant coach James “JamezIRL” Macaulay, who joined the team in July following his near three-year stint in pro Valorant, stepped into the main role for the competition for the hometown North American representatives.
Following Complexity’s opening match against The MongolZ, BLIX talked to JamezIRL for an interview regarding how he stepped into the head coach role for the tournament, how he reflects on his 2023 season both in CS and Valorant and more.
Pedro Romero, BLIX: James, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. You’ve had quite the eventful opening match against TheMongolz; what are your thoughts on how the team performed in that first match?
James “JamezIRL” Macaulay: I mean, we lost both pistols, but we won the force-buy on T’s side, so that wasn’t too bad. We kind of got into a hole; they rushed A twice on us on our CT side, just kind of like how ancient normally goes kind of, but they were hitting a lot of shots. So hats off to them. I know they had a rough travel day, too, but sometimes it just goes like that.
BLIX: I think the same could be said about you, specifically standing in as a coach due to T.c (Tiaan “T.c” Coertzen) being unable to be at the event. How has that experience of trying to fill in for T.c been?
JamezIRL: [Him not being here] doesn’t have a big impact on our team. Obviously, the thing we’re missing is his positive vibes and good energy, and he’s obviously really smart. But our team is kind of self-driven, they do all the processes; we all kind of believe in the same thing. So it’s not that big of a deal, but it is just who’s there during the game, right?
BLIX: It’s been quite an eventful year, with you competing in both VALORANT and CS. What do you think of your overall year? And what do you think has been the biggest thing that sort of changed the most for you?
JamezIRL: Obviously, getting removed from 100 Thieves changed everything. It’s not really public as to why, but it was very weird. I guess the thing that I kind of take as an encapsulating thing for the whole year is that I just feel lucky to work in esports. There are so few spots, and anyone who gets to work here should just feel lucky, because there are usually people who are good enough to be in your place. So I’m just so grateful.
BLIX: You’re not you’re not a stranger to CS, of course, getting back after a few years with Complexity. How has this stint in CS been so far?
JamezIRL: Yeah, I mean, I have more than 20,000 hours of CS in my life. It’s not a new thing to come back to. I love CS. It’s just so much more simple and nuanced than Valorant, right? It’s so easy to make strats in VALORANT because of all these agents. But I feel like CS is more of a calibrated competitive game for this reason: nuance and simplicity.
BLIX: Since joining, you’ve been able to put Complexity back on the map as one of the top teams in the world. Despite this result, what do you think changed the team to elevate them to this level?
JamezIRL: I think everyone trusts in each other and we’re all just being honest. If you see something you don’t like or anything, we’re all just being a team about it. There’s not anyone who’s like domineering and not reasonable, right? We’re all kind of working together, we have a good work ethic, and we believe in what we’re doing.
BLIX: With the team in the position it’s in now, there are going to be expectations set for building off of that. What do you think is going to be the issue in the team that will have to be addressed?
JamezIRL: I think the biggest thing is that the players will need to be better at adapting faster because people are going to be looking at us more. Basically, putting processes where they’re regularly thinking about, “What did I do last match in what situation?” because the coaches can’t just like tell them what they did and tell them what to do. They have to kind of be thinking about that themselves.
