Neil “Pr0lly” Hammad joined coL.LoL last week and surprised the gaming community with the depth of his midlane champion pool. Through aggressive yet tactically sound play, Hammad helped carry compLexity to victories over CLG and Vulcan. With the team having their best LCS week yet, Hammad’s addition looks to be a positive change.

—

Congratulations on your first LCS appearance and win. What was your confidence level like going into your first match against veteran team CLG?

It’s just a bad habit going into a match without expecting to win; so going into CLG I knew we’d win and was ready to impress with some ziggs play :D.

You seemed really relaxed and focused during last weeks matches. What was your state of mind as you first entered the LCS studio, and how did you remain so calm?

I’ve attended three or four LANS already for League of Legends and played in front of crowds. At the LCS studio there is no live audience, so it was more like playing with my team but around some crazy lights and effects :P.

How was your initial experience meeting the team and how do you feel your first week went?

I’ve known this team for a while and felt very comfortable living with them. I feel like the first week went well, although I’m definitely not satistifed with losing. I know my team agrees with me and this mentality should help us in the future.

Neil “Pr0lly” Hammad
Image Credit: Leaguepedia

You were the first person in the LCS to pick Ziggs as a Mid Laner. Was this a strategic decision or was this more of an opportunity to stand out from the conventional picks?

I’ve seen people say it was a selfish pick, but they obviously don’t know what they’re talking about. Ziggs fit into our comp really well, suited the lane I was in, and dealt really well vs their comp. Honestly never thought picking ziggs would get this much attention since I frequently picked it in the amateur scene.

Playing Ziggs in the Middle Lane, what was your primary focus? Was staying alive and farming more important, or did you really want Link to get behind as much as possible?

Playing any midlane staying ahead is just the easiest goal to attain without risk so that’s just a normal midlane strategy. With the Ziggs vs Lux match up, even without chalice, I outdamage her with similar range so my focus was to pick a fight with lux as much as possible. The goal with this was to keep Link from farming so their team would lack damage in fights.

In your second match last week, you decided to play AD Jarvan in the middle lane. Is this something that you feel is more viable than people give credit to, or did you just feel that your team could use a stronger bruiser?

I’ve had a great amount of success with J4 (Jarvan) mid and believe it’s much more of a force than Ziggs if you want to talk about niche picks. The pick was to shut down mid and be able to roam, two things which I succeeded in with the pick.

Despite gaining an early advantage last week against MRN, compLexity ended up faultering down the stretch and lost the match. Was this a team composition problem or more of a coordination issue from your side?

This game was a very classic example of a team just not on the same page. There were two large team fights that happened that changed the tone of the game, and the reason they went wrong for us was because we were very out of sync.

The third game you played last week was against Vulcun. In that game, you picked Annie and were playing extremely aggressive. Are you mainly an aggressive mid player, or were you just super confident with that matchup?

Confidence and aggression are very much comorbid. They are definitely a double edged sword that needs to be fine tuned. The Annie pick fit my playstyle in lane and out, and we figured teams wouldn’t understand how to counter.

Last week you started your first professional game, earned two wins in two days, played champions not often seen in high calibre play, and were named LCS MVP of the Week. Having accomplished so much in so little time, how do you think this will affect your future play and how can you top your performance?

It’s definitely nice encouragement to see how much love I get after I’ve put so much into the game. This kind of thing will serve to just push me forward and continue to improve and impress. Staying stagnant in this game is something that’s always scared me, and it’s my main goal to keep increasing my skill cap.

Now that your first week is over, how do you plan to prepare for next week where you will be going head to head with Curse and GGU?

Same way as everybody. Practice and practice more and talk about video games and practice and keep pwning and dance then practice and go pwn. Rinse and repeat.

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Related Links

• Pr0lly Twitter
• Pr0lly Twitch.tv Stream
• Post-Match Interview with Pr0lly – coL vs CLG

compLexity

5-15

VS

8-13

Vulcun

Post-Game

The first week with the new Mid laner Pr0lly proved that coL.LoL is a force to be reckoned with. Today, coL.LoL were able to dominate Vulcun, earning their sixth win of the LCS and tying up their head to head record, now at 2-2. At the start of the game coL.LoL was able to secure first blood by Lautemortis using Shen’s Shadow Dash to taunt Vulcun’s Jungler Xmithie after they saw him standing out in the open. With Nickwu getting that first blood cash, he was able to safely control the top lane, gaining a significant lead in creep score. In the middle lane, Pr0lly on Annie was able to secure a couple of kills onto Mandatory Cloud’s Karthus with the help of Lautemortis. In the bottom lane, both Brunch U and M eye A were also able to hold their ground. Teamfights were not a problem as Pr0lly was always able to position himself to stun and nuke down anyone he could find on Vulcun. After securing many objectives and finally getting Baron, coL.LoL was able to push into Vulcun’s base for a final onesided fight, and destroy their nexus for the win.

Pre-Game

Today at 4PM PDT / 7PM EDT, coL.LoL will be going up against Vulcun for their final match of this week. Currently, these two teams have a head to head record of 1-2 in favour of Vulcun. This will be the first time that both teams will be playing against each other with both of their roster changes. While Pr0lly is the new Mid lane for coL.LoL, Bloodwater is the new support for Vulcun. The lane to watch this game will be the middle lane as newcomer Pr0lly is going up against Mandatory Cloud of Vulcun. Vulcun’s current roster consists of Sycho Sid (Top Lane), Xmithie (Jungler), mandatory cloud (Mid Lane), Zuna (ADC), and Bloodwater (Support). Again, the scheduled broadcast time is 4PM PDT / 7PM EDT.

League Championship Series Week 8
compLexity		Vulcun
Nasus	Ban	Ban	Amumu
Diana	Ban	Ban	Kha Zix
Jarvan IV	Ban	Ban	Zed
Kayle	Pick	Pick	Sona
Shen	Pick	Pick	Hecarim
Annie	Pick	Pick	Karthus
Varus	Pick	Pick	Miss Fortune
Darius	Pick	Pick	Vladimir

The battlefield is set as 32 teams converge upon Hollywood, California to duke it out for an incredible $1,000,000 prize pool in the Call of Duty Championship. Over the course of the last two months, players from around the world qualified for the tournament online in the Champions Series of League Play and on LAN at the MLG Winter Championship, EGL Championship, and various other regional competitions.

Held at the historic Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Blvd., the Championship opens with an exciting round robin format, and ends in a double elimination bracket where the top eight teams finish in the money. With an exclusive field vying for a $400,000 first place prize, participating in the Championship is a once in a lifetime opportunity and career defining moment for all the teams invited, including compLexity’s Call of Duty squad.

compLexity competing on the main stage at the 2013 MLG Winter Championships

“I love playing in these high stakes tournaments, the feeling you get from a big win is like none other and when the adrenaline starts to kick in you feel like there is nothing that can stop you,” said Tyler “TeePee” Polchow. “Hopefully we can ride the wave of confidence that we have into the championship.”

compLexity’s road to the Championship started in early February through an extensive grind during online league play. There, the team compiled an 800 – 30 (.964) record across 125 hours of game play that included an 120 game winning streak. To cap the season off, compLexity spent the final 48 hours playing without rest and ultimately secured a spot in the Championship.

Following the online qualifiers, compLexity traveled to Dallas Texas and participated in MLG’s Winter Championship, where they had a mildly successful run through the open bracket that ended in an 0-2 loss to EnVyUS, and put on a gutsy performance in the lower bracket that included wins over fellow Championship qualifying teams Quantic and OpTic Gaming.  compLexity finished the tournament in fourth place following a 2-3 loss in the semifinals to vVv. Through 12 matches at the Winter Championship, the team amassed a 27-6 map score (10-2 open bracket, 17-4 champ bracket), earned $4,000, and perhaps more importantly, identified several weaknesses in their play.

“Since the Winter Championship we have been focused on fixing our weaker game types like CTF and SND,” said Aaron “TuQuick” Chang.  His teammate Ian “Crimsix” Porter added, “I felt like we were so under prepared for Dallas but now it feels like the opposite.  I am extremely confident in our game play going into the COD Champs.”

Despite Porter’s confidence, the Championship boasts several factors working against compLexity including a recently released title update from Treyarch that required the team to make a handful of weapon and play style changes. It also doesn’t help that since the release of Call of Duty Black Ops 2, compLexity has yet to play an international opponent; however, none of the players saw that as an issue. 

“From past experiences, the European teams play a lot more reckless and aggressive than the North American teams, so we need to make sure to take that into account,” offered Polchow.  Chang added, “I feel like the European teams rely mainly on their personal gun skills rather than team work, an area where the North American teams seem to succeed.”

When asked their thoughts on the tournament’s unique format, the players were quick to respond with praise however Porter felt like the competition in the group phase would be more than worthy.

“It is debatable that we have the toughest pool with SoaR, Millennium, and the #2 Southeast Asian team,” suggested Porter.

The Call of Duty Championship looks to be a memorable weekend as players battle for pride and a their stake of the $1,000,000 prize pool. With tournament favorites Fairko.Impact coming off consecutive wins at the MLG Winter Championship and EGL9 a tough uphill battle awaits compLexity if they want to claim top honors.

“I believe we are the only team that can truly match up and counter Fairko.Impact’s play style on the respawn game types, so I am really excited to play them on LAN,” said Polchow. “It should be a fast paced and entertaining game to watch.”

When I asked how the team would spend the money if they were to win the tournament, every player spoke about saving to some degree (including Chang who discussed investing the money) however my favorite response came from Porter who promised to go on a vacation, relocate somewhere in the southern United States, and buy a Ducati.

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Stay tuned as we will be providing full Call of Duty coverage over the course of this weekend!

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compLexity Gaming: YOUR source for professional gaming news and entertainment!

In the eighth week of the League of Legends Championship Series coL.LoL will be facing another three teams. This week the will go up against CLG, MRN and Vulcun. Today, coL.LoL will have a rematch against CLG and then play their third game against MRN.

compLexity

4-14

VS

10-10

CLG

Post-Game

This week, coL.LoL was able to overcome CLG for their fifth win in the LCS. To start off the game, coL.LoL decided to invade into CLG’s jungle where they picked up four kills for only one death. This gave them an extremely large early game advantage. In the top lane, coL.LoL was able to successfully shut down HotShotGG with frequent ganks, and the new addition to the team Pr0lly was able to keep Link at bay in the middle lane. Overall with superior teamfight coordination and constant pressure on different objectives coL.LoL took a victory, making their head to head record with CLG 1-3.

Pre-Game

Last week, CLG was able to barely overcome coL.LoL in their third game together. Knowing that they can beat CLG, coL.LoL is ready to make their head-to-head record 1-3. Recently, coL.LoL had a roster change that replaces their mid laner Chuuper with newcomer pr0lly. This can either bring the team a new fresh look to the game and can result in overall better gameplay, or can hinder their performance due to miscommunication. Even with a new player on their team, going up against HotshotGG (Top Lane), Chauster (Jungler), Link (Mid Lane), Doublelift (ADC), and Aphromoo (Support) will surely be a challenge. The match is set to air at 1PM PDT / 4PM PDT.

League Championship Series Week 8
compLexity		CLG
Vayne	Ban	Ban	Rumble
Malphite	Ban	Ban	Zed
Lulu	Ban	Ban	Caitlyn
Shen	Pick	Pick	Twitch
Varus	Pick	Pick	Thresh
Zyra	Pick	Pick	Lux
Ziggs	Pick	Pick	Jarvan IV
Kha Zix	Pick	Pick	Udyr

compLexity

4-14

VS

6-12

MRN

Post-Game

Despite gaining an early lead, coL.LoL again fell victim to Team MRN. After picking an unconventional team with new player Pr0lly in the middle lane as Jarvan, coL.LoL were able to get ahead of MRN in the early game. The teamfight capabilities for MRN were far superior and were so they were able win a couple of teamfights putting them back. As the game carried on, coL.LoL were unable to regain a lead, and MRN were able to win a final fight to secure the win, making their head to head record 1-2.

Pre-Game

A victory was secured the last time coL.LoL met MRN making their head to head record 1-1. With both teams trying to get the all important wins this far into the season, both teams will have to play at their best to earn one. Although MRN and coL.LoL know each other and scrim frequently, the new roster change for coL.LoL may work to their advantage. With MRN not knowing what to expect, coL.LoL may have the upper hand. Playing against the roster of MegaZero (Top Lane), ClakeyD (Jungler), Ecco (Mid Lane), Nientonsoh (AD Carry), and Heartbeat (Support) will make this game one to be watched. The match is set to air at 4PM PDT / 7PM EDT.

League Championship Series Week 8
compLexity		MRN
Renekton	Ban	Ban	Zed
Twisted Fate	Ban	Ban	Amumu
Shen	Ban	Ban	Zyra
Thresh	Pick	Pick	Kha Zix
Caitlyn	Pick	Pick	Lulu
Jarvan IV	Pick	Pick	Malphite
Cho Gath	Pick	Pick	Vayne
Rumble	Pick	Pick	Evelynn

compLexity is happy to announce that we’ve been added to MOBAFire’s pro League of Legends featured guides as a “special guest team”. The team will be writing (and recording) guides each week to show you exactly how they play champions at the highest levels of League of Legends.

MOBAFire is the largest League of Legends strategy website, giving users the ability to theorycraft and learn at all levels of the game. It provides hundreds of indepth guides for everything in League of Legends, from how to ward to how to play each individual champion.

LoL fans are encouraged to explore their vast library of user generated champion build guides to enhance their battlefield strategy. Learn new, effective, winning strategy from players dominating the field. 

compLexity’s Call of Duty team will be taking on Quantic Gaming in a RivalCaster best-of-11 showmatch. The showmatch is scheduled to start at 6:00pm PST / 9:00pm EST!

Our COD team and Quantic Gaming are two of the many teams to have qualified for the Call of Duty Championships this upcoming weekend. You will be able to watch the showmatch on RivalCaster’s Twitch.tv stream or the embed below.

RivalCaster will be also be giving out prizes during the showmatch such as a custom GamerModz controller.

Today compLexity Gaming is announcing a roster change for our League of Legends squad.

Sam “Chuuper” Chu will be stepping down from the starting roster, though his time with the team has been filled with some outstanding League of Legends moments. Throughout this LCS Season 3, Chuuper has maintained a 2.4 KDA ratio, as well as 313 gold per minute, on average.

In his place we are happy to announce that we have signed Neil “PR0LLY” Hammad, formerly of Velocity eSports. We’re confident Neil’s strong play will enable the squad to reach new heights in 2013 and we are excited to have him on board.

coL.LoL captain Tyler “Lautemortis” Nicholls had the following to say about the change:

In the NA LCS we have come extremely close to pulling out victories for several weeks now. It is the belief of both the team and I that picking up PR0LLY will bolster our competitive experience, our mechanical skill and push us over the top in future games. We are extremely happy to have him on board and look to finish the season as strong contenders.

As we welcome PR0LLY here today, we’d like to wish Chuuper the best of luck. Thanks as always for your support. Stay tuned for lots of exciting LoL action coming your way!

compLexity Gaming: YOUR source for professional gaming news and entertainment!