Interview with Brian ''FLUFF'' Lee from compLexity gaming

Aaron on 2012-09-30

Few weeks ago, Valve has released its second The International Dota 2 Tournament that trended on every gaming blog and social networking sites. In a total of $1.6million prize pool and the Aegis of Champions shield that made the games more interesting and thrilling with16 teams from different nations gathered for the most prestigious event of the year.

One of the 16 prominent teams is compLexity gaming from North America with mix Canadian and American players, which is a part of the infamous G7 Team. G7 Team is a respected successful gaming organization has joined forces to form the G7 Federation, created for gamers by gamers. They are also one of the top teams get in the Winners Bracket of The International.

Today, we will bring you the captain of compLexity gaming, Brian Lee, also known as FLUFF.

Name: Brian Lee
Nickname: FLUFFNSTUFF
Age: 20
Date of Birth: August 2nd 1992
Country/State: United States, California
Game(s) Played Competitively: DotA 2
Year when gamer started competitive/pro gaming: Competitive 2009, Pro 2012
Major Tournaments Won/Ranked In (Please list name of competition, country and ranking):
• 1st - SECS Playoffs Season 1 (2012) [US]
• 1st - Infused Cup (2012) [EU]
• 2nd - The Premier League (2012) [EU]
• 2nd - Dota2Replays Brawl (2012) [US]
• 1st - Fnatic PLAY RaidCall Dota 2 Cup #2 (2012) [EU]
• 2nd - ItsGoSu Montly Madness - May-July (2012) [US]
• 1st - Fnatic PLAY RaidCall Dota 2 Cup #4 (2012) [EU]
• 1st - ECAL: America (2012) [US]
• 1st - The Defense 2 (2012) [EU]

Brian "FLUFF" Lee

RGN: Hello Fluff, can you introduce yourself to the readers?

Fluff: Hi, I'm Brian "FLUFFNSTUFF" Lee, captain of compLexity Gaming and I specialize in support. I live in California and I'm working on college when I'm not gaming.

RGN: So, how you've started playing Pro/Competitive DOTA 2?

Fluff: One day I decided to stop playing public games and focus on clan wars only. I was constantly forming and joining teams to do this. From there, all I wanted to do was play competitive DotA. DotA 1 died in the USA, with many players quitting or moving on to HoN or LoL. I decided to wait for DOTA 2 and played LoL and HoN in the meantime. My goal was to quit immediately and transfer to DOTA 2 as soon as the beta came out.

I got very excited after I heard about The International 1. During that time, I decided that I would try my best to play in The International 2. When I got my beta key, I started finding old and new friends in matchmaking. Secretly I was evaluating everyone I played with in the hopes that they would join my new team.

I found players that I was comfortable with and saw potential in. From there, we formed Team FIRE and participated in a lot of smaller tournaments. We got recognized for winning 100% of our matches for about 25-32 games. This allowed us to break into the competitive scene and sign up for higher skill tournaments.

RGN: When did you join compLexity gaming?

Fluff: We signed with compLexity gaming somewhere around February of 2012.

RGN: So, compLexity gaming DOTA 2 team is just 6 months old from now. How have you trained with your team for The International 2?

Fluff: We've been taking our practice very seriously for a couple of months before TI2. I would say that we started a grueling practice schedule starting in the middle of May up until the event. We would wake up very early in the morning almost every single day and practice for 6-9 hours. There were virtually no US teams to practice against, so we had to wake up early in the morning to play with Europeans. The difference in time zones is about 9 hours for us. We did a lot of fine-tuning and small experimenting during our practice. I would often draft very similar team compositions and we would work on our teamwork and communication mainly.

We began our bootcamp (LAN) starting on August 9th, which gave us two weeks to prepare for TI2. During this time, we worked on adding heroes into our strategies and testing different strategies. We had a lot of success during our practice, placing highly in almost every tournament. All in all, it was a very long and tiring process. Everyone dedicated a lot of time and we were feeling very confident and strong.

compLexity gaming vs. EHOME

RGN: Before the championship, who is your bet for the $1million place?

Fluff: My feelings before the event were very mixed. I felt like each and every single team of the tournament could take the win. The competition was so fierce and everyone had been very focused on practicing. Firstly, we were confident in ourselves to place well. Our goal was top 3.

I believed that Na`Vi, even though they weren't performing well, were the best out of all the EU/US teams. I expected Na`Vi to either win or place in top 3 as well. The Chinese teams were a mystery. The only information that most people confirmed was that iG and LGD were very strong. Personally, I admire team DK and I believed in their success.

Zenith was also one of the favorites because of their performances and their surprise factor. I heard that they had been practicing for a long time and that they were one of the teams to beat.
It was too hard to tell who would win. I believed that every single team could've gotten far in this tournament. The level of skill was extremely high.

RGN: Any strange or funny experience in The International 2?

Fluff: Everyone thought it was very funny to watch PGG always walk around drunk. A funny moment would be when our team had a media day. During the media day, we had makeup artists fix our hair and put makeup on everyone's faces for pictures. It was very funny to see everyone with makeup on and do awkward poses for the camera. Our manager added the "I'm too sexy for my shirt" song on a video of that day and posted it on Youtube.

The strangest thing about TI2 was how mysterious Icefrog was. Every Valve employee would say that they could be Icefrog. We heard "Icefrog is within is all" a lot. Nobody would tell us who he was and everyone wanted to find him. Ixmike invited Icefrog to his hotel room, but he ignored him!

RGN: What we can expect more in compLexity Gaming DOTA 2 team?

Fluff: I would love to attend The International 3 next year. We'll try our best to continue with our form and improve upon it. I've grown as a leader in the past couple of months and I will continue to grow. Complexity will still be a force to be reckoned with.

RGN: Any shoutouts?

Fluff: Shoutout to my friends, family and fans! Thank you to our sponsors: Sound Blaster, PNY, Origin, Creative, QPAD, and Gamma Gamers. Shoutout to Jessica.