When compLexity released their whole Counter-Strike 1.6 team on March 18th, 2010 – Andrew ‘Irukandji’ Timmerman was left without a team. This is because two of his teammates were chosen for the next compLexity roster which was announced later that same month while Drew remained visibly absent. Without a place to call home (other than ESEA), Drew has been associated with Vigor and High Rollers Gaming, as well as iDemise. Max ‘mki’ Kieturakis sat down with him to discuss his “new” surroundings.

Welcome back to the team Andrew! I for one am thrilled to see you back after the long separation from the team. How did this move come about happening?

After Arbalet Dallas, the current players of compLexity approached me asking if I’d be interested in possibly playing again. I jumped at the opportunity to play with some of my former friends/teammates who I’ve competed with together for most of my Counter-Strike career.

You mentioned that the players approached you after Arbalet Dallas. Did compLexity feel like they didn’t play well at the tournament, or were there internal issues within the team?

I don’t think Arbalet was necessarily a bad tournament for them, but at other events (ESEA, IOL Sweden, ESWC, etc.) I think they realized they hadn’t played to their full potential. The line-up is stacked with talent and ability and if it can get on the same page with the right tactics it could be quite scary.

Up until this point compLexity hasn’t been doing a bad job with Xp3 leading the team. You were the in-game leader of the previous compLexity line-up which leaves the question: Who will be the in-game leader, Irukandji or Xp3?

I will be the new in-game leader, but David is still the leader of coL.cs regarding anything outside the game. His role is going to be even more vital as he’ll be in control of making sure we are all focused, confident and calm while playing.

During the time you were released from compLexity, you had been associated with a few teams, however you never played an official match. The first team was Vigor which arguably only got into ESEA Invite because of you being on the roster. Were you ever planning on playing for another team during this time?

Nah, I decided to shade the community out and I just got Vigor a spot in ESEA Invite and then went inactive. Just kidding. My computer broke about a week after I joined Vigor and I had a ton of projects/exams as it was my final year at college, so I decided to just step away from the game for a bit. When I finally got a new computer about two months ago, I started playing again and HRG offered me a spot. I had every intention to play for them this upcoming ESEA season.

When David became the in-game leader, he was expected to bring in a fresh European approach to strategies which many stated he did successfully. With you replacing him now as in-game leader does that mean that this didn’t work out for coL? What will be the major difference with you being the in-game leader as opposed to David? Will we see a style more similar to the old coL before David joined?

I think it’s going to be a good mix of both influences. His style has made coL dangerous when they play fast and aggressive and now I hope to bring back a little bit of that strong, smart tactical side so that we can attack the other team from a variety of angles. The best teams in the world learn to adjust to your style of play so you always need to be able to mix it up to keep them off guard.

This coL line-up is starting to look more and more like the old one before the roster changes started. This brings up questions about activity into the spotlight, as last time around you guys had school and work issues holding you back so to speak. Is the situation different this time around and are you looking to attend all major events, or will there be conflicts like in the past?

I graduated in May so I’ll no longer have any conflicts attending events. I know that Jeff (hero) has decided to not work as much in the coming years (think he may go back to school) so I don’t really see any conflicts stopping us from attending major events. Derek is still studying at the University of Kentucky, but he’s always been able to travel to any of the big events.

The last coL bootcamp has seemed to help coL a lot. Do you guys plan on chasing the competition by trying to play more on the international scene? Do you have any bootcamps planned?

From a player’s point of view, we want to attend every single international LAN possible, but even other major teams (EG included) have pulled out of some events due to the financial strain that flying around the world can put on a team. I’d love to be able to do a European bootcamp and attend all of the events, but we definitely need to prove ourselves domestically first. We are thinking about doing a two week bootcamp in Charlotte, NC in the near future, but we’ll just have to see if we can work out a location and time that will fit all five of us.

Having experienced the American edition of Arbalet first hand, do you feel like it can become the new CPL (so to speak)? By this I mean, do you think the tournament has a future in America and could possibly bring more high profile teams back to the states?

Honestly, it’s hard to believe Arbalet will feature a lot of events in America because most of the top teams, sponsors and organizations are in Europe where “Mr. Arbalet” lives. In the old days, it made sense for European teams to fly to Dallas to play in CPLs because CPLs had the largest prize purses and existed virtually as the World Series for CS. Unfortunately with so many high-prized events in Europe now, I think it probably makes more sense for Arbalet to host most events over there. With that said, I’d love for Arbalet to have at least one major event over here each year because it was awesome!

Where will we see the compLexity Counter-Strike team next?

We will be competing at WCG USA on September 10th-12th using a stand-in for Xp3 and then following that we will be attending the IEM US Finals (assuming we qualify) in New York sometime also in September. In the meantime, we’ll be playing in the next ESEA and CEVO seasons along with EG’s Masters Cup.

Any shoutouts?

I’d like to thank coL’s sponsors Creative, XFX, QPAD and G8 Clothing for giving me the opportunity to travel and compete with such a great team. Also, a shoutout to my boy Matty S. for helping me turn to gambling when things get tough in life…oxymoron? I think so.