With all the buzz surrounding the recent 5th place CPL finish by Complexity, even more may result from their recent addition of popular Counter-Strike player, Justin “Sunman” Summy. Anger was a popular emotion in the United 5 camp after the recent signing of Sunman by Complexity. coL’s acquisition drew major heat from United 5’s team leader, Michael “Hare” O`Toole.

“We found out that Justin had signed with coL via email today,” said O`Toole, “We were all kind of shocked. We are starting to get news of sponsors and events then one of the core/local players decide to leave.”

As the entire team is currently living together, a dispute between teammates was a key reason for the departure, according to O`Toole. The departure of Summy has to be a blow for u5; he is currently their statistical leader. He averaged over 20 frags per match in all but two games of the six at Winter CPL 2004.

Highly talked about Complexity team Manager and Owner Jason “1” Lake refused to comment on the signing. For coL, the addition of Sunman will help a bolster a roster that was carried statistically by Danny “fRoD” Montaner. His 0.938 FPR was a full 0.200 higher then any other member of Complexity. He also led the team in ARF, Average Rounds with a Frag, and DM, Domination statistics.

The loss still doesn’t spell doom for United 5 who still has plans to attend CPL Turkey according to O`Toole. “This will be a perfect event for us to get some experience under our belt,” said O`Toole, “On top of that one of the main reasons we initially did this local merge was so we could attend the events of the CPL World Tour. I would like to thank NVIDIA, United 5's Head Sponsor, for making a trip to Turkey and other events possible.”

With only four members local though; Charile “cBz” Pyo, Erik “da bears” Stromberg, Josh DeRosa, and O`Toole – he confirmed that United 5 would be looking for an additional member. The team also has Josh Sievers and Rajan “Destroyer” Mahajan on their roster.

Along with a new player, u5 could also be headed towards a new playing style. O`Toole explained that u5's previous high level of teamwork would return. After the acquisition of three members (Sievers, Pyo and Summy) from the highly skilled TSG last summer, u5 went to more skill based strategies moving away from its very highly developed timing based plays from before the roster change.

“I think it is time to bust out the old u5 teamwork again,” said O`Toole, “I will be calling our Terrorist strats and Charile will be calling our Counter-Terrorist setups. We are going to take advantage of my in game on the Terrorist sense and Charlie's Counter-Terrorist sense which was most evident in TSG.”

Ironically Summy’s move to coL will link him up with two former members of the old u5. Corey “tr1p” Dodd and Montaner both played with O`Toole and u5 during their teamwork emphasized period before the old TSG players join, a break up that caused many problems on both sides. Also Tyler “Storm” Wood played with Summy during his days with the old TSG; leaving the possible starting lineups of coL and u5 consisting of seven of the original 10 starting players from u5 and TSG teams.

Lake is scheduled to appear on TsN's In The Crosshair program next Thursday night for an in-depth interview where he will be giving the coL perpective on today's big news.

Sunman by the numbers

ICPLAYER=363,CAREER
An interview with Hare

I asked a few additional questions of Michael “Hare” O’toole, a prominent member of the United 5 Counter-Strike team.

When was it decided that Sunman would be departing the team?

To be completely honest I found out a couple minutes ago. Last night our team found out that we were invited and will be attending Turkey for the first stop of the CPL world tour. After that we had a big meeting & pep talk with all 5 of our guys sitting down at Xactek LAN Center. We were planning on starting our practice today (Friday) at Xactek with all 5 of us here. I left the house this morning saying aight justin see you there.

Then when we got here, derosa got a PM from someone saying something about a u5 member joining complexity. None of us believed it but then Charlie messaged Sunman on aim and asked him if hey knew anything about it. This is when the truth really started to come out - we found out that Justin had signed with coL via email today.

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What is the reaction of you and your teammates to this move by Sunman and obviously it wasn't expected?

We were all kind of shocked. We are starting to get news of sponsors and events - and then one of our core/local players decides to leave.

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I think everyone wants to know how this really happen, and were you guys from u5 in slightly aware something like this might happen?

Ok here’s the thing. When Justin (Sunman) moved in and the merge started up, him and I were like the late night guys - going to bed at the same time and hanging out on the Xbox together. Then sometime around September Justin started seeing Chrissy - he asked me (because I was his room mate) if Chrissy could move into the apartment with us and share the room, blah blah blah. I said yes because I knew that this was one of Justin’s first relationships and it seemed like he was pretty happy.

These last couple weeks Charlie really started being open about his feelings and what he thought about Chrissy (which is good from an honesty standpoint). So it was getting to the point where Chrissy would have to move out at some point whether she couldn’t take it or if the 3 of us (Me, Charlie, and Charlie's GF Melissa) couldn’t really handle it. Justin got word that Chrissy would not be living at the apartment much longer and from there I don’t really know what happened. Maybe Justin talked to coL, maybe coL talked to Justin at the right time, maybe even Chrissy was talking to coL the whole time...I don’t know.

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The question I have now is where do you guys look to go from here?

Well we have our 4 local players - cBz, da Bears, Derosa, and Myself! Sunman and Chrissy will be moving out the of apartment sometime soon, and in which case I get my new roommate DA BEARS! Since we only have 4 players right now, that obviously isn’t enough people for a match, so we will have to recruit a new player. Last time we recruited our criteria was a local player which would make 5 for us. This time we are just looking for a player that is at least 18 years old, can attend all upcoming events, and is ready to put in more practice in the next 4 weeks (before Turkey) then they ever heave in their entire life.

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So u5 will be attending CPL Turkey as a team for CS?

Yes, this will be a perfect event for us to get some experience under our belt. On top of that one of the main reasons we initially did this local merge was so we could attend the events of the CPL world Tour. I would like to thank NVIDIA, United 5's Head Sponsor, for making a trip to Turkey & other events possible.

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It will be tough to replace a player like Sunman, according to Gamesense he led your team in frags and a lot of statistical categories. What do you have planned to do on a strategic level in order to compensate; will we see flashes of the old u5 teamwork again?

Yes - I think it is time to bust out the old u5 teamwork again. I will be calling our Terrorist strats and cBz will be calling our Counter-Terrorist setups. We are going to take advantage of my in game Terrorist sense & Charlie's Counter-Terrorist sense which was most evident in TSG.

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How do you feel about coL's actions inside of the community and do you think their goals/plans will be harmful in the longer run?

Hopefully I will be able to hop on TSN whenever Complexity decides to announce their big pickup and answer that question.