Jason Lake: I just failed as a manager

Jason Lake is a familiar face to professional and casual Counter-Strike players alike. Lake founded his Counter-Strike team, Complexity, in 2003 after a career in real estate law. The team achieved great heights under his leadership through winning multiple championships. As a result, Complexity quickly became a popular team with a fervent online following. Their fame eventually led them to become one of the six North American franchises of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS).

The second season of the CGS did not go well for the Los Angeles-based team. Complexity finished the season in last place with a sobering 2-10 record. GGL sat down with Jason Lake after his team’s last match of the season to discuss where Complexity went wrong and his role in the franchise.

GGL: You recently moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles. How is the transition going for you?

Jason Lake: The last nine weeks of my life have been incredibly difficult. We had a 9,000 square foot house in Atlanta that we had to pack up ourselves. That took weeks to do. Then I drove across the country with my two dogs and cat. I had to fly back to Atlanta for a meeting, and then fly back to L.A. The moving truck showed up, dropped off our boxes, and then I came down to the CGS. So I’ve been in L.A. for around a month and I haven’t even lived in my house. The move is a positive thing. We’re really excited about it for Complexity and for my family, but it’s been a really difficult few months, especially considering our 2-10 record.

GGL: Was the decision to move to Los Angeles primarily based on the CGS?

JL: My wife is originally from L.A. and since the day we were married she has always wanted to come back. When I sold Complexity to the CGS, one of my requirements was that we’d become the L.A. Complexity. I always hoped and dreamed that I could move out of law and do this full time. Real estate started taking a downturn, so I took a gamble based on making my wife happy and moved to the west coast to run the L.A. Complexity. After going 2-10, I’d be lying if I wasn’t questioning myself and thinking it was a mistake. But I’m a long-term thinker and despite how horrible this summer was, I still believe in my heart it was the right move for my family and me. We’re going to try to make the most of it.

GGL: There was speculation after season one that you would be leaving Complexity. Is it safe to say you will remain as the head of the franchise for the foreseeable future?

JL: To be completely frank, I’ve received some very intriguing job offers since I arrived a few weeks ago. But number one, Complexity and the CGS have my loyalty. Number two; I would never leave the brand that I started on a 2-10 season. I can’t promise that I would have returned next year if we had won the World Finals. But we came in last place and unless the CGS throws me out I will never leave Complexity when we’re on the bottom.

GGL: Complexity had a bittersweet comeback with victories in its last two games of the season. Most notably your franchise triumphed over New York, which currently holds first place amongst the North American franchises. To what do you attribute these wins?

JL: If you study our season, especially the second half, we should have had four to five wins. A bad break here, a choke there, and we found ourselves with only two wins. The Carolina Core made the playoffs at 4-8. I strongly believe we could have had five wins, but we couldn’t get a break and nobody stepped up to the plate. The bottom line is that it was a very tough season, but there are no excuses. We should have done better. I need to do better and I accept 100 percent of the blame. At the end of the day it all rides on my shoulders and regardless of what excuses I may have, I give them zero credence. We’ll try to do better next year.

Our wins were not flukes or mistakes. It just happened to be that my team decided to be the team that I drafted during the last two games of the season. But to me it speaks to a team’s character when they never give up despite a horrific record. It speaks to the players that come out every day to battle and put their hearts on the line despite being so far behind it’s mathematically irrelevant. To me that speaks to the heart and soul of Complexity. Whether we’re in first place or last place, we play every match with everything we’ve got.

GGL: Why do you think Complexity placed last this season?

JL: We placed last because of the inability of very talented people to do their jobs. This includes myself because at the end of the day I take 100 percent responsibility. The three squads that were supposed to really carry us were actually our biggest problems. Counter-Strike, FIFA, and Perfect Legend (Complexity’s Dead or Alive 4 male player, Carl White) all didn’t show up this year. I’m proud of them for never quitting, but our biggest problem this year was that the people who needed to show up didn’t do so.

GGL: Do you feel that it was a mistake to retain such a large number of players from season one?

JL: I’d be a fool if I didn’t say yes, because we’re 2-10. But that leads to one of the most frustrating things about the CGS. I’m a coach and coaches draft players based on gut feeling and potential. Then they train that potential to become world champions. That’s exactly how I built Complexity. But the draft is the king in the CGS. You grab people with talent right now, because there is no time to develop them. You show up, and you’ve got four matches in five days. It’s so quick and you have no time to make adjustments. There’s no time to be a coach. With all due respect to my colleagues, general managers (GMs) are not coaches, we’re talent scouts. We just sit back and watch what happens. In the old school I could take potential talent make them into champions. In the new school, I’m just a talent scout. That’s the biggest thing I learned this year.

GGL: If you had to change something about the CGS, would that be it?

JL: I truly love the CGS and believe it’s the future of gaming. But having players compete in so many matches back to back is really tough, especially when you’re losing. There’s really no other sport that plays that many games so quickly except maybe baseball and basketball. The difference is that their seasons are so long that you still have time to make adjustments. As a GM in the CGS, you throw your kids into the fire and there’s no time to fix anything because every day you wake up you’re back on that stage playing. It’s tough to bring this many gamers out to California, pay for everything, and have a longer season. But in a perfect world, the season needs to be longer and more spread out so true talent and coaching can rise to the top.

GGL: How do you improve a team’s morale when they’re falling behind?

JL: This season has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced as a leader, coach, or business owner. Driving back in the van with my kids after getting our faces kicked in or losing by a fraction of an inch has been one of the most painful experiences of my life. I just did my best to keep them positive. I told them that if we are going to go 0-12 this year, we’re going to go into that twelfth match and fight like it’s worth a million dollars. When the scoreboard doesn’t favor your side, you display your character and your heart by how hard you fight. I tell my kids to never lie down, never give up, and never say quit. Fight, scratch, and claw for every square inch.

GGL: You keep saying that you bear 100 percent responsibility. What do you think your biggest mistake was this season?

JL: I honestly haven’t been able to absorb the situation enough to make an intelligent answer. Some of the people I expected to be weak actually did well, while some of the people I expected to be strong weren’t. I just failed as a manager and it’s going to take me some time away from the players’ village to figure out why. I pride myself in really caring about Complexity and E-Sports, but this season has really kicked me in the head. It’s been incredibly difficult, and quite frankly I may need to go home and cry for a few days to figure out where I screwed up. But I won’t quit. I’ll figure it out.

GGL: You said once that you believe we have different seasons in our lives. What season do you feel Complexity is in its life cycle?

JL: I believe we’re finishing the first one-third. We’ve got the most loyal fan base in the world and we just got dealt a giant dose of humility by the good Lord. Ironically I think nothing could have been better because this franchise needs to show people again why they love us. They don’t love us because we win world championships. They love us because we try every day to define the better traits that human beings strive for. We’ll keep trying to do that, win or lose, but obviously the goal is always to win.

GGL: Has the fan base been very supportive through this season?

JL: The 15-25 private messages I get a day on our website are, some days, the only reason that I can keep going. The real Complexity community members have stood by us through thick and thin. It’s almost refreshing to get rid of the bandwagon kids. It’s like taking a long, hot shower. We want our fans that live, bleed, and die with us because that is what we try to deliver to them. Good riddance to the bandwagon kids who like whoever is number one at that moment. You were never a real fan to begin with, you never understood what Complexity stands for, and we’re glad you’re following another team right now.

GGL: Complexity recently announced that it would be returning to Counter-Strike 1.6 competition. What is the impetus behind this decision?

JL: I’d be lying to the community if I didn’t say we always preferred 1.6. I’ve come out publicly and said point blank that it is a better game when it comes down to the game play. Unfortunately, the graphics don’t keep up and Valve refuses to update Source’s game play.

My guys love 1.6. They’ve come to really enjoy Source, but they love 1.6. Our loyalty as professional gamers will always be to the big show. The CGS is the big show and I believe it’s the future of gaming. So we’d much rather play Source, than not play Counter-Strike at all. But we’re very excited that the CGS gave us permission to play 1.6. As a manager I’m very worried our fan base will compare our 1.6 playing level to that of 2004-2006. In reality my players haven’t touched this game for a year and a half. We’re playing this because we love the game. I don’t think we can beat EG or X30 because our loyalty remains with Source, because we’re businessmen. My deepest fear is that our fan base will expect great things when we’re just playing for the love of the game.

GGL: In what future competitions might we see Complexity?

JL: We’re going to do the WCG online qualifiers. We’re also speaking with CEVO about playing both Source and 1.6. We’d also be happy to play in any events that GotFrag might have in the future. As long as we can afford to go, we will show up at any future qualifiers. We’re not LAN dodgers, but at some point when you’re playing a game for fun money does come into the equation. We’ll do out best to keep our fans entertained with as much Counter-Strike we can humanly provide. They need to understand that toward the end of the year we’ll have to stop playing 1.6 to get back to playing Source full-time because that’s our bread and butter.

GGL: This year you instituted the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) program with Complexity. Most recently your franchise visited the Ronald McDonald House here in Los Angeles. What was your inspiration for instituting this program?

JL: Being a businessman and running a company like Complexity on the Internet, I really don’t get into things like religion and politics. But I believe very strongly in the Christian religion. The impetus for the random acts of kindness comes straight from the Bible. When I was reading one day, I realized that Complexity had a global stage and perhaps we could make a little bit of a difference by starting a movement that helped people we’d never meet. That’s why I began RAK. I strongly believe that doing little things for people you don’t know is a way to make the planet better place. I volunteered in Israel for six months with orphans, I volunteered with Eskimos for a summer, but when I had my family my free time is so limited that it’s very rare that I get to volunteer. So when I had the team out here in L.A., I spent three months trying to organize something. I told my team we need to do something positive for the Los Angeles community because we’re the L.A. Complexity. We were blessed enough to stumble upon the Ronald McDonald House. Quite frankly what we did wasn’t a very big deal, but we tried to do our part. Today’s society is so driven by self-consumption, that if we just all look outside ourselves a little bit and try to do something positive for someone else I think the world would be a much better place. That’s why Complexity does it and will always do it.

GGL: What do your hope your players will get out of participating in charity work?

JL: The players were very supportive of the concept. You could tell they were tired that day and only going because the boss said so, but by the end of the day everyone had a smile on their face and swore it was the best day we had all summer. Often times you go somewhere to help someone in need thinking you’re going to help them, but when you walk away from your volunteer work it actually helps you just as much if not more so. It was the happiest day Complexity had all summer and we really bonded and it was one of those things its hard to put words on. It’s what everyone should do and all my players were thrilled and are super excited to do more volunteer work. It was a great day.

GGL: Mike Luxion recently wrote a feature about your team called, “Right the Ship.” In it he suggests the possibility of Complexity trading current players like Rambo to increase its strength in other areas. Would you be open to the idea of trading players?

JL: I’m open to absolutely anything to getting us back on top. I’ve blatantly expressed to my players that Complexity is a blank chalkboard regardless of your reputation or who you are. We’re going to analyze the entire team starting from the bottom up and start over brand new and fresh. No one is safe, no one is sound everyone is up and they need to show me before next January what they can bring or I won’t look at them in the draft. That being said I have no hard feelings against any player. But they will have to compete in the open pool of talent to re-earn their place in the Complexity squad and I’ve made that clear to them.

GGL: Thank you for talking with us. Would you like to give any shout-outs or thanks to anyone?

JL: First and foremost I’d like to thank my wife and kids for putting up with this crazy dream of mine. Second I’d like to thank our fans because more than any other organization in the world, we think of you 24 hours a day and we’re doing our best. I apologize sincerely for this disaster of a season, but know in your hearts that 24 hours a day we’ll be working to get back on top to make you proud of us again. Thank you for your loyalty. Thank you to the CGS for the opportunity to play these great games, and thank you to our players for bringing everything they had each match. Thank you very much to GGL for the interview. We appreciate it. Peace out.