The New Era of Nexus
With an influx of top “professional rated” teams returning to the Call of Duty 4 North American scene, it is no doubt that the return of Nexus Gaming is one of the most exciting. As they return, many of the teams are aspiring to reach the success that teams like Evil Geniuses, Pandemic, and Loaded have reached, having been given the opportunity to travel to Europe and compete in top LANs against some of the best teams in Europe.
The new Nexus team has similar goals and plans to do their best to achieve them. I had a chance to sit down with 
Jeff "Gnome" Anderson, the leader of the Call of Duty 4 team for Nexus Gaming, and was able to talk to him about the new era of Nexus and what they hope to accomplish in their return to Call of Duty 4.
Brief History
Nexus Gaming had a successful, but short, history in Call of Duty 4. Ultimately Nexus Gaming's accomplishments boiled down to three events. Those three events were the TGL tournament, which they placed 3rd, the first season of CEVO-Professional, where they placed 2nd, and a 1st place finish at NERV 1. Outside of Muse, the four players from Nexus Gaming are now spread across three teams. These teams being: Legends, Loaded, and Nexus Gaming.
Ultimately, Gnome quit playing the game for personal reasons, which he feels was a mistake. After leaving Nexus he felt that he let his team down and lost an opportunity to travel across the sea to Europe. His drive for success and his hope to travel to Europe are two of the main reasons he has returned and brought an all star lineup of players with him back to Nexus.
After sitting down with Gnome here is what he had to say about what he feels the future holds for him and Nexus.
What do you and your team hope to accomplish in this upcoming CEVO tournament?
"The team’s most obvious goal is to win the Zowie Call of Duty 4 tournament hosted by CEVO. Granted a lot of work will need to be done in order to be able to achieve that goal, we won’t be happy with anything less because I have never really been a person to aim for 2nd or 3rd place. Obviously it would be nice to earn a top place in the tournament, but my personality wants the team to strive for first place and nothing less."
Do you feel that the competition coming into this "new era" of CoD4 for North America is fiercer or less fierce then when the team originally played?
"To be honest, since I just returned, I really don't notice the difference yet. Back when I played the top teams were Nexus Gaming, Pandemic, and Evil Geniuses. Our matches were known to be epic and very close. I have not seen many of the new teams now, but I'm sure the competition is still as good or close to what it was then. The reason for this is mainly because players have become more seasoned since the beginnings of Call of Duty 4, and obviously over time players will get better.
When I played CoD4 people were still learning the tricks, spots, and certain play styles. With teams like Loaded, Vision.Valor.Victory, Legends, and MoB Gaming I'm sure the competition will be tough, but at the same time extremely enjoyable."
Who do you think will be your top competitors going into this CEVO tournament and the fifth season of CEVO CoD4?
"I expect teams like Loaded, Vision.Valor.Victory, Legends, and MoB Gaming to be right up there. I do not know many of the other “dark horse” teams, but I am sure there are many other teams who will be a surprise in this tournament. I will even give a shout out to a team called Makeshift, they also just returned previously and back in the early days of CoD4. Although we would win, they gave Nexus troubles because of how they played. To the other teams I do not know currently I am sorry, but I am sure there are some other teams out there who have a great amount of skill."
What will you and your team be focusing on mostly?
"Like any other team, we are pretty much trying to do whatever we need to get prepared, such as strategizing maps, practicing set nades, and building teamwork. The one thing about the original Nexus was that we had amazing chemistry. That was one of the big drivers of Nexus's success. We had fun playing the game and it was not a chore like it is for most teams. We enjoyed each others company and trusted one another.
Ultimately I want to achieve that same thing with my current team. If you are able to enjoy playing the game and have fun with each other it makes it so much easier to get everything down and so far it has been pretty good. Strategies are also a big factor, we need to bring something to the table that has not been done before, and that is going to be a key to success. We want to try and be unpredictable and that is something we hope we can achieve."
What sort of success will you need to see in the upcoming CEVO tournament for your team to feel as though that they have accomplished true success?
"For us to feel that we have accomplished something I believe at least placing in the tournament would be some sort of success. As I stated previously though, I am not a fan of anything less than 1st. I believe that we should always strive for 1st place and if we do not achieve that, then we need to bounce back and be hungry to get 1st the next time."
Coming in with your new roster, what do you think your strong points (and weak points) are? Do you feel that this new roster is better, worse, or the same as the past Nexus Gaming roster?
"To be honest, I really do not know what our strong points and weak points are. Right now the weak points we are going to have is learning to play with each other and getting strategies down. However, that will improve with each scrimmage and match that we play in together. The past Nexus Gaming roster was amazing, and I can say that first hand. I enjoyed playing with my teammates Juvenile, MichaelD, Deny and Muse.
At the same time the people I have surrounded myself with have had great skill and I am really looking forward to playing with them. I guess time will just have to tell with that. My hope is that this new roster will surpass the success achieved by the previous Nexus Gaming roster and I do not see why it would not be able to."
What brought you guys back into the competitive Call of Duty 4 scene?
"I cannot speak for the other players on my team, but what brought me back is my drive for competition. I recently played a game called Alliance of Valiant Arms, and this game really got me back into FPS gaming. I even won a trip to Korea for the game, but due to a new born in the house (aka my mom freaking out saying I would get all these diseases), I had to step out and not play; which gave me even more hunger to play FPS games competitively again.
The main goal for Nexus Gaming is to travel to Europe this summer. It has been a gaming goal of mine to travel internationally and I believe that this time myself and my team will be able to achieve that. The Nexus Gaming sponsorship has returned to reestablish ourselves as a top organization. We went down hill for a bit after the Call of Duty 4 team disappeared and sadly got ourselves indulged into World of Warcraft.
Nexus Gaming feels like this CoD4 team is a chance to get the organization back on track and in the right place. I want to give a shout out to Naznoz, the manager of Nexus Gaming. He has been behind me with support throughout my time at Nexus and if it was not for him, some of the things I have done in gaming would not have happened."
Any last shout outs for the community to let them know that you are back?
"I just want to give a quick shutout to Nexus Gaming for having my back for the last few years. Naznoz is a great manager and an awful Boomkin. He pays out of his own pocket for everything and I appreciate everything that he does. Also want to give shout outs to Deny, MichaelD, Muse, Juvey, Keith (kZu), and Snatcch. It is going to be a great experience coming back to Call of Duty 4 and I hope that we will be able to travel over to Europe this summer and compete."
Nexus Gaming Call of Duty 4 Roster Rundown
The roster for Nexus Gaming is the following:
Chad "je$tl0lk" Hansen
Closing Comments
"I know that having Gnome and Nexus Gaming back in the competitive Call of Duty 4 scene here in North America is definitely going to spark interest and excitement in a lot of players and teams. Their past success is a great representation of what they can accomplish and how skilled of a team that they were in the past and can be now and in the future.
I would like to thank Gnome for taking the time to have this interview with me and hope that all of the other top North American teams will follow suite and support the TEK9 coverage of Call of Duty 4 in North America."
Related
www.NxSGaming.com
Next step should be a big lan in the usa somewhere which could interest us europs in coming :)
edited 2010-03-02 02:03:15