The International 2 Teams: coL

The International 2012 is almost there! And with it, we also have today's team profile belongs to one of the strongest North-American teams, compLexity Gaming.



Major Achievements:

1st - Infused Cup (2012) - hardware + gear
2nd - The Premier League (2012) - $3,000
2nd - Dota2Replays Brawl (2012) - $1,500
1st - Fnatic PLAY RaidCall Dota 2 Cup #2 (2012) - $500
2nd - ItsGoSu Montly Madness - May-July (2012) - $500
1st - Fnatic PLAY RaidCall Dota 2 Cup #4 (2012) - $500
1st - ECAL: America (2012) - $2,000
1st - The Defense 2 (2012) - €6,000


History:

The organization known as compLexity Gaming is not new to the whole eSports thing. In fact, it had already tried to create a Dota team, back in the days of DotA: Allstars version 6.2x. To our more recent readers and Dota players, the DotA: Allstars versions 6.2x happened around the years 2005 to 2006. Spectre and Witch Doctor were added in these versions. As for the DotA scene, it had gained a widespread popularity over Europe and North America while China was still on the early stages of competition. The North-American team PluG gained enough renown to gain a sponsorship with compLexity Gaming and played under their banner for a couple of years before being disbanded.

Meanwhile, as all of this was happening in 2007, a certain youngster named Brian 'FLUFFNSTUFF' Lee picked up Warcraft 3 in order to play DotA and surpass his friends. While spending most of his free time pubbing, he often met Tony 'HANNAHMONTANA' Talavera and despite early conflicts, both decided to team up. As time passed, both of them decided to try new waters of the DotA genre. It was during these experimentations that they met Jio 'Jeyo' Mayadag, forming a team named Final Style which was later sponsored by MainLine Gaming. They almost completely joined the competitive scene, but sadly their team leader could not play anymore and motivation was lost.



The team kept playing, however, and met another active player of the North American scene: Michael "ixmike88" Ghannam. Seeing his capabilities as a Dota player growing, he was quickly included in the team. The last but not least member of future coL joined when Dota 2 came along, invigorating the community. During its early stages of the beta, Tyler 'TC' Cook came into their attention and feeling an equal hunger for competitive games, they all joined together and formed the team FIRE, which was also known as Fight Fire with Fire and became a prominent team in the North-American scene.

Despite all their experience, however, when FIRE hit the scene, they were considered freshmen who just came out of nowhere, accompanied by the helpful manager Brian 'chappy' Chapman. And just like that they brutally invaded the Dota scene. Due to that amazing performance, they caught the attention of a well-known organization that was looking forward to come back to the scene after years of waiting. On Thursday, February the 16th of 2012 at 10:24am came the official announcement that team FIRE was acquired by compLexity gaming.

Not everything was roses and chocolate cake for the team, however. During their time as team FIRE some controversies happened, but this didn't bar the team from making progress. And we are thankful for that, because now coL has one of the strongest North-American rosters to date, winning many competitions including the latest season of joinDOTA's The Defense!




Roster:
(Clicking on the individual hero icons will take you to that hero's profile in our database!)

FLUFFNSTUFF (Captain)
Brian Lee

Calm, hard-working and experienced, FLUFFNSTUFF has been around the DotA scene as long as many other veteran players. During their FIRE days, FLUFFNSTUFF was much more aggressive, but as time passed by, he became more defensive and analytical. He often contemplates and observes plays in order to train and is one of the driving forces of the whole team. Some say his biggest challenge to date was waking up his entire team as early as possible in order to train during their recent boot camp. FLUFFNSTUFF is a great jungler and ganker, making his move with perfect timing.




Signature heroes:

HANNAHMONTANA
Tony Talavera

Jokingly seen as a possible lost brother to Beastmaster, HANNAHMONTANA actually became FLUFF's DotA brother. The two have spent a great deal of time together, playing the game as much as the team's captain. Sharing the need to work hard with others in the team, HANNAH often plays solo, especially during trilanes. His specialty comes in the Dire side. By picking Beastmaster, he was one of the first people to use the Hero's axes to stack the Ancient camp next to the bottom lane without even leaving the lane.




Signature heroes:

ixmike88
Michael Ghannam

Polite and well-mannered, ixmike88 isn't only a good example to Dota 2 players, but also a helpful instructor with over 6 years of experience. Producer of some guides, such as the Dark Seer guide which can be found here, ixmike88 provides knowledge and wisdom to the team. He plays support and utility for the most part and has landed many decisive spells at perfect timings or survived many trilanes by himself without much hassle.





Signature heroes:

Jeyo
Jio Madayag

If you ever considered yourself good at pubbing because you started at an early age of, say, 13 years old, this man might humble you. He has been playing Dota ever since he was 10 years old. A powerful support, semi-carry and solo player, he helps execute the plans that ixmike88 and FLUFF create. Despite living in Canada, he carries with him the genes of the Phillipines as well as their game play quality. Talented, experienced, modest and quick on his fingers, he has often helped to carry his team to victory.




Signature heroes:

TC
Tyler Cook

The quiet guy in the team, TC has been known for occasionally streaming when playing and often steamrolling over his enemies as a carry. Perhaps his quiet nature is a hint to a deeply focused nature, many great teams fell when TC had just a breach large enough to farm. Extremelly handy with the Lone Druid and claimed to be one of the best Dota 2 players in the scene by Jeyo himself, TC is simply good at what he does and doesn't brag about it.





Signature heroes:



Chances at The International:
Very high. They have frequently shown us their capabilities and their individual skills are frequently outshined by their team fight capabilities. compLexity Gaming offers a tough choice for their opponents when drafting - You can either let coL get the heroes that they are comfortable with and ensure a very hard to win match, or try to deny their favorite heroes in order to open more dangerous choices to them.

A prominent force between the other teams, coL seems to be less recognized than they should. They will most likely be one of the top teams of The International 2.


Any opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the editor's, and do not reflect joinDOTA as a whole.

Credit and thanks to the guys over at DotA Academy for their amazing statistics!

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