Jake's Take is an editorial column by Jason Lake, the founder and General Manager of the Los Angeles compLexity. This piece does not necessarily reflect the official views of the organization or its parent companies.
Jake's Take: 2008!
As I sit to write the 2008 season blog, I do so with a heavy heart and a sad demeanor. I normally wait until the season is over and all the dust is settled before each season’s “Jake’s Take,” but unfortunately this season is mathematically over for us, and I feel the coL Community deserves a note sooner rather than later.
Now for the readers in the crowd, let’s move on..
To label this season a disappointment would be like saying World War II was a slight skirmish. I can honestly say I’ve never been more shell shocked or emotionally crushed during a 14 day period in my entire work life.
The Syndicate flew to L.A. with extremely high hopes. We honestly felt we had a World Championship contender. KreeganBG was poised to take 1st place after his domination of WCG USA. Perfect Legend was brought in to fix our DOA-M point differential. Belle was infinitely better than last year, and several pro DOA-M players confidentially had her picked 3rd-4th. Our Forza duo had a year of experience together and finished 2nd place last year, and coL.cs is coL.cs. But we had more than a solid team on paper. We had been planning this season for months during team conference calls, nonstop practice sessions and countless hours of strategy talks. We were confident the team was ready to come into L.A. and bring the coL Community some serious W’s right out of the gate. The team attitude was right. The team work ethic was solid. The team’s mental state was primed. The team was ready… or so we thought.
First, let’s talk draft. My drafts have always been controversial. Hell, from the day I started compLexity, controversy has been the sidekick of most the picks I’ve made. Many of you understandably questioned the Belle pick this year. What you didn’t know was I had been watching her play professional males for months, and I strongly felt her new talent would equate to serious rounds this season. I had insider information from DOA pros I trusted, and my advisors all agreed it was the right move. That, combined with her inherent toughness and compLexity work ethic, is why I drafted her. Perfect Legend seemed a no brainer. I knew the way the draft would move would mean we’d be looking at Forza late, and I strongly felt my boys had the speed and the previously gained stage teamwork to finish towards the top. KreeganBG and coL.cs were no brainers. I was very happy with the draft, and got exactly the team I went to Austin to get.
Now to this season. One of the biggest down sides of playing for the CGS is the fact that the season is over half complete in a matter of 10-14 days. No other sport has such an accelerated regular season. If you come in hot and get on a roll, you’re in business. If you come in cold and don’t catch some breaks, you’re in deep trouble before you can make any adjustments. Needless so say, we were the latter, and the sub-par play by our squads quickly snowballed into a 0-6 start. It’s very difficult to explain how hard it is to lose close matches night after night. It’s the old “catch-22” trap: to win you need confidence, but to get confidence you need to win. If a crash had gone our way, or a FIFA ball had slipped by a goalie, we might have grabbed 2-3 of those first 6 matches and things might have turned out differently. In all my years of sports I have never seen all the breaks go the other way so consistently. It was like living under a curse. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean this as an excuse but it’s also what objective third parties were telling us as well. In life, and in sports, you need to make your own breaks, but sometimes good old “luck” comes into play. We seemed unable to make our breaks, and lady luck kept spitting in our faces.
There were bright spots in the middle of the storm, however. Human nature traditionally dictates that when we consistently lose, we pretend to keep trying but deep inside we have accepted failure. Nearly every team in the world would have packed its bags when it got to 0-4. Sure, they would have shown up and played, but the fighting spirit that accompanied the start of the new season would have been extinguished. I find this is particularly true with teams that are used to winning a lot. If they hit a rough patch, they don’t know how to deal with losing and they implode.
However, over the years, one of our goals has always been to show the coL Community how to win world championships with professionalism, humility and dignity. For the first time in our history, we had the (unfortunate) opportunity to show you how to lose with the same qualities. I am very proud of my players for the way they upheld the compLexity dream through this challenging period. Not one time did they accept defeat. Not one time did they get down on each other. Not one single time did they sacrifice our principles of passion, dedication, professionalism, humility and dignity. Each and every match we gave it 110% until the very end. We battled, fought and clawed each second of every match. We never lied down and never gave up. It’s simply not in our nature.
It’s my hope that this simple show of heart during a difficult time might set a small example for anyone going through a tough time. Life will continually take shots at you. It will kick you down and try to knock you out. How you deal with the “losses” will always define you as a person much more than how you deal with “wins.” If at all possible, hold your head high, fight with all you’ve got and stick to your core principles no matter what. The “wins” will come if you can stick to your guns. Maybe not today. Maybe not this “season,” but they’ll come. The dream of compLexity will not be quelled by a “0” on a standings sheet. The dream began before our current haters were following eSports, and God willing will continue when their children are watching compLexity play in CGS.
2008 wasn’t our year. I accept 100% responsibility and have learned a great deal. Just remember, you can judge a lot more about a person/team by watching them when they’re down than when they’re up. I encourage you to watch us while we’re down. You’ll see the same passion and fire you’ve become used to while watching us win championships. To me.. that says it all.
To my/our haters: enjoy this moment. Bask in it. Bathe in it. Love it.
To my/our supporters: this is a small, painful bump in a very long road. Keep the faith.
Thanks very much for your support. We appreciate it now more than ever. I’m sorry I let you down this year. I’ll spend every waking moment making damn sure it never happens again.
God bless you and your families,
Jake
Pro Gamer
Staff Member
Pro Gamer
Pro Gamer
very emotional read Jake, i hope for the best for you and your team.
DGF FTW :D