Resident of Charleston, South Carolina, Andrew 'Irukandji' Timmerman, previously known by the alternative alias of dRew, is the leader of the current compLexity side. In their past as x3o they established themselves as US #1s with a 2nd place at the EM American continental finals and victories over Gravitas at the x3o winter classic. In this interview Irukandji goes back through his career in reverse-chronological order, starting with the most recent events such as the ESEA-i season 3 finals and heading back to his team's time as x3o and before that PoV. We even briefly make mention of his debut against an international side as an unknown back in 2007. In the latter part of the interview we discuss his love of chess, comparisons of his team-mates to top international players and the state of the American CS scene right now.

Your team took a pounding in its first match of the new ESEA-i season at the hands of hazard's j1n on dust2. Comments were made that perhaps your team was unable to execute the strats. What did you think of the way that match played out and what thoughts can you offer on hazard for those not intimately acquainted with his game? Is he a player on his way to becoming a significant LAN player or is his forte the online game right now?

He is a very strong player who plays better online, but is in no way bad on LAN or not a good player on LAN. He needs time and experience to become a great LAN player and if he keeps working, I'm sure he will get there. We did not lose to j1n because of not executing strats, not trying, or anyone on the opposing team cheating. It was simply a case of us not being prepared for the mix style that they approached T side with as we've prepared more heavily on being ready to play teams, not mixes. With that said, we have no excuse for being 16-2'd; they were simply better and it was a tough loss, but a loss we can learn from nonetheless.

With your 2nd at the ESEA-i season 3 LAN finals fresh in your mind let's turn to the topic of that final.

After struggling back from the lower bracket beating Gravitas and convincingly putting two wins on EG.usa the nature of your last two losses had to be a very bitter pill to swallow. The nuke game was in the palm of your hand to the extent that you saw 11 game points without winning while EG.usa never led until the second overtime when they won on their second game point. What thoughts do you have on the way that map played out and EG.usa's ability to claw back round after round?

Only one word really comes to my mind when I think back to it: embarassing. I think a lot of it had to do with us not all being on the same page as Terrorists and when you combine that with them having a strong defensive side, we just couldn't seem to get much going after we lost pistol. The nail in the coffin, though, was definitely giving up 4 rounds on our CT side after we went up 4-1 on T side in that first OT. We've tried to go back through the demos and figure out exactly what went wrong to stop it from happening in the future, but it still hurts really badly when you feel like you should have taken the map easily. Kudos to them for not giving up and battling back, though.

In the train match against EG.usa your team managed to get rolling on T side to where you had a stretch winning 8 out of 9 rounds only to give away a few at the very end to let EG.usa back in the game. On CT side it become a war of attrition as rounds went back and forth with no team looking like clear winners right up until the last round. What did you think of the dynamic of that map and was the fatigue of having played additional matches in the lower bracket a factor in the outcomes of those final maps?

That match was really a lot of fun to play and was extremely close the entire time. I don't think mental fatigue had anything to do with our loss because once you're in the heat of the moment, strain and stress just disappear. As far as coming from the lower bracket (outside obviously having to win twice), I don't think that's an advantage or disadvantage as it has its own pros and cons. In one sense, you're on a roll and in good spirits because you've just won a best-of-3 while the team waiting in the upper bracket has to play the match cold. On the other hand, that match did use up energy while the team while the upper bracket is fresh and ready for a long battle.

With that victory at ESEA-i s3 finals and some meagre showings at international events Gravitas and yourselves have been noticeably absent from it seems as though EG.usa by default would be considered the best American team right now. How significant do you think those factors are and how would you stack up the top 3 American teams right now?

I have to admit Mr. bds, you've got an editor-in-chief who doesn't skimp on the hard questions in interviews - I like it. No prescripted, easy to answer, bore-me-to-death questions! Well, to be honest, when we've beaten EG, we've crushed them by large margins, and their wins over us have been marginal, at best. However, how can I say we're the better team if we're letting them come back from 13-2 deficits? Obviously, they have the grit and determination to claw back in matches while we weren't able to close them out when we needed to do so. As far as the international scene goes, I agree that's a valid point and from that standpoint you'd have to put them as first place Americans, but I think it'd be better to wait until all three of us with our new lineups have a chance to shine (numerous big events coming up in November for American teams).

As of right now with what I've seen from the other teams lately, I would put us as number 1, EG at number 2, and Gravitas at number 3. However, if Gravitas (under their new sponsor) regains their fire and determination, I could see them getting to number 2, if not number 1.

Thanks to the Kode5 US bureaucracy debacle which saw you and Gravitas passed over for EG.usa coupled with your absence from events EG.usa has attended fans have developed a feeling that EG.usa is being unfairly favoured due to their sponsors and higher profile. To counter this EG player lurppis recently came out saying that coL could have attended Kode5 with the right paperwork, Dreamhack had you applied, GameGune Mexico and EM Chengdu had you not declined. This goes along with having declined to play at ESWC Cheonan. What reasoning has been behind these decisions that outsiders are unaware of and what prevents coL from competing internationally?

I answered a similar question to this on a forum and it basically comes down to real-life taking precendence over Counter-Strike for us at the moment. Dboorn and I both attend universities that have extremely strict attendance policies (I cannot miss more than a few allotted days in most of my classes except for two reasons: death in immediately family [required obituary] or illness [doctor note required]). To start, I will go through each event listed and try to clear the air on why we could not attend.

Kode5 - They contacted us when Gravitas was unable to go due to Impulsive losing his passport and gave us 1 day to give them all our information. As dBoorn was in the process of getting his passport renewed, the best we could do (as we told them) was have the information in a little less than a week, but they told us that would be too late with Russian Visas. We were actually going to pay our own way to Russia as X3O had no money to send us, but Kode5 wouldn't give us 5 days so he could drive to Washington DC and get his passport.

Dreamhack - X3O, our team at the time, was not given the opportunity to attend, nor would we have had the funding at that time. We joined compLexity about a week before the event and coL management notified us that they had recieved an invite for their old team, but declined and the spots were now full.

GameGune Mexico - As of September 1st GameGune had told us of only two other top teams who had confirmed attendance at the event. As we have to be careful about where we "spend" our attendance days, we decided to save that time and money in preparation for events with a better showing (i.e. WCG China / Dreamhack Winter).

ESWC Cheonan - X3O had no money to send us to Korea, not to mention it conflicted with my Final Exams

The bottom line for me right now is that American CS just isn't where it needs to be for us to be able to attend all these events. Sure, I'd love to be on Fnatic, SK, or WeMadeFox where I could sacrifice my life for professional gaming and at least be compensated a very substantial amount, but the sad truth is gaming in America (outside the push of CGS) has nothing in comparison for Counter-Strike like Sweden does for CS or Korea for StarCraft. Now, yes, coL does pay us and we appreciate the salary and everything they've given us, but it in no way is compensation enough to stop focusing on our respective futures (I know the salary of every CS team in America and I can guarantee you none of those salaries are worth giving up your future).

I don't want this to sound like a rambling of excuses though as our fans deserve much better so please don't take it as such.

There's nothing more in this world I'd rather do than attend every single CS tournament across the globe, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my future well-being for it. I have a hard time dealing with my last international tournament being in March, especially seeing as we did terrible compared to what I expect out of my teams. Unfortunately, in this game called life, I find myself playing by the rules and trying to further my future by attending school and hopefully getting a good degree. I understand as spectators, many people want to see us attend and succeed (or as people who hate us, attend and get stomped on by some Euros!), but I can guarantee you our hunger and passion to want to attend is one million times more than anyone else can even imagine.

My final comment would be to just reiterate that lack of funding has not been a problem for us in attending any events as through Creative, XFX, and PureTrak we've had plenty of funding for all events under the compLexity name. The decisions to miss these events has been due to unlucky circumstances and to put it bluntly, it sucks, I hate it, and I hope to attend all we can in the future.

At the Kode5 USA qualifier in March it seems looking back that your upset loss 14-16 to Pandemic on train after being up 10-5 first half potentially cost you big in the outcome of the tournament. After making it to the final and beating Gravitas big on the first map they returned the favour beating you by a similar margin to win the event. Do you feel as though things would have transpired differently had you remained in the upper bracket? Was Gravitas the best team there beyond purely the results?

The Pandemic loss was completely straight up that, a loss. Their CT side was far and away better than our T side and we didn't deserve to win that match. As far as playing GG coming from the lower bracket, yes and no. Sure, we would have won the tournament as our inferno was a lot better than theirs, but at the same time, no, since we weren't really better as it was clear their nuke was much better. Overall, I can definitely say 100% that Gravitas was the best team at that event and the best team in US at that time (they should have done really well in Germany minus a couple unlucky breaks). Only thing that sits sour with me about that tournament was that they didn't get to go to Europe and it hurt not having the best American team represent us.

Following the effect the EM III global finals had had on the hierarchy of American teams it seemed everyone was eagerly looking forwards to the Kode 5 USA qualifier to see who would emerge on top as the #1 team. Do you feel like the aftermath of that event with the winners not attending the grand finals and the 5th-6th placing team ending up the US respresentatives spoiled that qualifying event?

Hands down, Gravitas was the best American team at that time and sending EG was an embarassment to the American scene - not because EG was bad or anything along those lines, they just weren't the best North America had to offer at that time. Some would say it was Gravitas' fault that they could not attend, but I know that Impulsive was expecting his passport in 1-2 days before Kode5 pulled the plug on them attending (due to Russian visa time concerns). It's a tough situation all the way around, but EG wasn't really 5th-6th in America at they time, they were definitely 3rd/4th so it's not as bad as placings made it seem I guess.

From an outsider's perspective the chief rivalry of a region will always be between the #1 and #2 teams. However, your team seems to cite your Gravitas as your key rivals. Results certainly support this assertion when one considers the inordinate amount of big overtime games the two teams have played. What do you think it is about the two teams that means it such an exciting matchup and how do you see that dynamic having changed with roster shakeups across 2009?

Well, before goodfornothing went away for hiatus and the team started to lose focus, they were, in my opinion, the second best team in the USA. I still think if they play with full passion and dedication they can be #2 in the USA so that's why I always see them as a big challenge and our biggest rival rival. Like you said though, on LAN it always seems to be a close game between us regardless of it one team is tearing up the tournament or not so that just fuels the fire we have to win each and every time we play them. It's nothing personal against those guys as they're all really nice outside of CS, but in-game I just want to crush them everytime we play them.

The only reason that coL vs. EG is now the main rivalry in most people's minds is that there is that animosity between our organizations which adds a bit extra when we play them.

Being as you've little experience playing overseas how did you find the experience of playing at the EM III global finals? What thoughts did you have on the opposition you faced and did you feel any increased expectations in light of your team becoming the #1 US team by popular consensus?

It was a really neat experience in that we got a good first-hand view on exactly what it's like to travel and play in an environment that most of us had never competed in outside ESL LA / Philly which were domestic with few international teams. We had a few close losses at the start which we were never able to rebound from which resulted in blowouts at the hands of fnatic and eStro. I never really felt any outside pressure from expectations as, to be honest, being the best team in America means little to nothing at this point in CS. It was tough for us to adjust to the different playstyles presented to us at the tournament as nowadays it's hard to find a TEAM scrimming in the US, much less a PREPARED TEAM to scrim against. I don't want to make excuses though as to why we lost as I really feel it came down to us being underprepared for the calibre of teamwork and chemistry that we faced. During our three month bootcamp this summer, we've tried to remedy some of those problems so we're eager to get back on the international stage and see if we've progressed.

I feel as if I played decently well individually, but as an in-game leader, I don't feel as if I led my team as I needed to for us to get wins. At the end of the day, my teammates are trusting in me to control them correctly in-game and I definitely feel like I dropped the ball on that in Germany.

From November 2008 with your 2nd at the EM American continenal finals through to January's victories over Gravitas at the x3o winter classic and up until the EM III global finals took place your team were widely considered the US #1s. Looking back at the teams with thoMz then mehLer and now the team you have with dboorN and evolution how do you compare those sides both objectively and relevant to the competition of the time? Is this team better now but facing stronger competition making it more difficult to ascertain or was the competition weaker in the past or some other varient?

We are definitely a stronger team now as we lived together over the summer and have worked out a lot more kinks. It was a pleasure playing with Tom and Mehler, and they both made us a very strong team back then, but we just didn't have the potential that we needed (I saw a lot of potential with Tom but Gravitas made him a much better offer). There's a lot of parity in CS these days and even back then so it's hard to say objectively where each team stands but I'll 100% take our current team over our former teams. Furthermore, I think even the USA scene is stronger now with EG, Loaded, and other teams that have potential to beat us unlike before when it was mainly us and Gravitas after the unraveling of the former EG (with steno, che, and company).

By the latter half of 2008 PoV had risen to the fringes of the 3rd to 5th best team in North America. Then in October came an upset win over mTw.dk at EM III LA as well as a victory over the old x3o team in the bracket stage. How did that transition period into being contenders occur and were you already at the level you displayed at the EM American continental final but only beginning to show it or was there distance still to be covered until then?

We had put in a ton of practice and preparation before both of those events so I think that was key in us transitioning from a middle-tier American team to a top-tier American team. I don't necessarily like to list the mTw win in a list of accomplishments, though, as they were quite a bit off form after not praciticing before the event. Those tournaments were, however, the spark that has enabled to rise to where we're at now as part of compLexity.

Let's head back, for a moment, into the mists of time to early on in your career when you played with d2x at WSVG Louisville in 2007. This was long before anyone knew your name but by attending you had the opportunity to play against the miniwalle-face edition of NiP. Was that your first LAN with bigger competition in attendance and how did you find that experience? Did it make you feel like you were going to continue up the competitive ladder and how did good did you feel your team was in relation to the rest of the field?

Yeah, that was my first tournament with international teams and it definitely made me hungry to continue to grow in CS. It was just really nice being able to see teams like SK and NiP who were playing as true professionals, a dream I still wish that I could have. I really enjoyed seeing the game I loved played in such a big atmosphere, and WSVGs were even small in comparison to events like CPL, ESWC, and WEG. Overall, that event truly put gaming on the map for me as something to take serious, not just a convenient hobby anymore. Only problem is that it has been a bit tough juggling college and gaming, but it's been a fun journey and no complaints so far!

When we played NiP, I felt like I'd stepped into a server that had sv_cheats set to 1. It was unreal. Two-shots here, one-bullets there. I was just happy when I made it a few feet out of spawn...nah, it wasn't that bad, but I could definitely tell that the Europeans were much better than my team at that time. We were way out of our league, but, hey, at least I'm in a lot of frag movies now? (albeit on the wrong side of things vs. Walle!)

From my research I gather you're an aficionado of chess and that carries over into how you think about CS. Which top Counter-Strike players do you enjoy watching in terms of having a good chess approach or possessing characteristics which make up a good chess player?

Yes, I do enjoy dabbling on the 64 squares (tried to teach NineSpot, but there's probably a better chance of aliens landing tomorrow than him ever being good at chess - just kidding spot, but really..). From a CS sense, I'd say a playstyle like Neo's would work extremely well in chess. He always seems to have opposing teams on the defensive and he does an extremely good job (especially when he's on CT) of not letting other teams/players get comfortable and execute.

My second favorite would probably be Alex from TyLoo, formerly of wNv. He would be one hell of an annoying chess player to play against. I can't imagine the crazy stuff he'd be doing on the chess board - probably playing moves I didn't even know were legal. It seems like whenever I watch a demo of his team, they're always doing something innovative that no other team would ever think of or try to replicate.

And finally, the ultimate chess player and legend of them all would have to be elemeNt. He's not the best aimer, he's not the most strategic, and he's not the most emotional player out there, but there's something so mentally tough about that guy that I wouldn't want to face him over the board. Anyone who can win while clan-hopping and Brett Farve'ing it (retiring and coming back) is a person who you know would have a knack for a mental game like chess.

With the exceptions of one or two players your team is largely unknown on an individual basis by the wider CS audience. Certainly relative to the players you compete against your successes have not yet translated into many household names. How would you describe each player in coL in terms of their style and in comparison to more well known players?

Myself - I would say I'm the thinker, but I try to also put up frags when I can. I would say I would be most like ave or Alex.

Hero - He's confident, a bit cocky, and our best overall player. Similar to a Neo or Element (not sure of their personalities, though).

Evolution - Extremely confident and aggressive player - similar to cogu's AWP with really aggressive playstyle.

Dboorn - Runs around and headshots, most aggressive player I've ever seen - similar to f0rest when he's killing everything in sight.

NineSpot - Brains of the operation, calm, cool, and collected - similar in playstyle to zonic or gob b.

From the moment of the CGS teams leaving the scene the constant drone from all corners has been that American CS is dead, dying or can never reverse its downfall. Looking at the quality of online competition, which structurally is at a high, how would you respond to these assertions? Do you see up and coming teams developing into genuine threats or are they flashes in the pan from whom a few players will move on but many will fall back upon getting frustrated/bored?

It's tough to say. There's more teams competing online (and much better online leagues than in the past), but not as many players going to local LANs so I think it's going to hurt the scene in the long run. We haven't had nearly as many good domestic LANs and I think that is a part of the reason that CS is slowly dying in North America. The only way to truly revive the NA scene in my opinion would be to have an MLG type league show up with multiple stops across the USA each year.

I think the USA has potential to foster some really strong up-and-coming teams, but without a true LAN scene to nurture their growth, it's going to be really hard for any new teams to compete with the top-tier teams domestically and internationally. As of right now, there are tons of lower-tier teams with the drive and passion to reach the top, but they won't be able to make it without more LANs to attend (and sponsors to send them) unless a drastic change occurs in the NA scene.

Combining a little realism and visualisation where do you see coL one year from now?

I think we'll still be a team, hopefully with the same lineup and the same motivation towards CS. I will have graduated by then so hopefully we will be able to attend more international tournaments and prove ourselves on an international level.

Final thoughts?

Big thanks to SK-Gaming for taking the time to interview me. This was by far the most in-depth and intelligent interview I've ever gone through and if a medical school interview is anywhere near this invasive, I'm sure to not get in! Other than that, a special thanks to compLexity and our sponsors: Creative, XFX, PureTrak, G8 Clothing and Fame Servers.