"The departure of compLexity's players to Evil Geniuses is pure evidence that the times are changing and that, even in e-Sports, it is all just business."

"...a traitor is a traitor. Alex, you are a traitor. There's no eloquence that can cover factual truth. The knife in our back will not be forgotten, nor ignored. "

Jason Lake's frustration was directed at Evil Geniuses' owner, Alex Garfield, who had allegedly engaged in talks with the LA compLexity's players hours after the collapse of the CGS, all this behind Lake's back.

Despite saying otherwise, the news came as a major blow to Lake's ambition to take compLexity back to the top-flight after watching the death of the CGS destroy everything he had taken years to build.

After all, we are talking about a man that had found himself not only unemployed but also separated from the men he once called his boys.

During his long time at the helm of compLexity, Lake guided his team to heights many considered unreachable, rented a five-bedroom house in Dallas just to suppress the players' practice needs and took the "boys" under his wing during the CGS adventure to give them probably the best e-Sports contract they will ever have.

So it was no surprise to find him bemused when he learned his players had turned their back on him after such a long and fruitful joint spell.

However, their decision to join Evil Geniuses is as shocking as it is predictable, especially because Lake's hopes of holding onto his men were solely based on the assumption that "the players would stick with the organization" even though it could be necessary to start it from scratch as even the now-deceased CGS controlled the compLexity brand.

And when he did this, he lost it all because he was just too imprudent, not to say naive. It was expected that Lake would have done more - such as have the players sign a contract as, according to EG, they were free agents - to retain the services of the team since he knew he would be helpless in case other organizations came in waving their money to give the players food for thought.

That because compLexity had never been a team of big sponsors. In fact, most of the team's funds had come from its owner, so when the CGS collapsed, unemployed Jake could not open his wallet to back up his talk of a coL return.

And "Intel-financed Goliath" Evil Geniuses - who had established themselves as United States' strongest organization when joining the CGS was in vogue - were the ones to make box office when they landed coL's quartet.

Garfield's organization did not have an international winning team; in fact, EG could not even hold down number-one status inside the country, so when the opportunity came knocking, he did not think twice about approaching la crème de la crème.

So what's in the cards for Lake now? From what it seems, he looks utterly determined to bounce back from this setback - that's what one would expect from him.

However, it doesn't look good for Lake when the best Counter-Strike players in the U.S. are already booked. He will either look in the old continent for an opportunity or wait to see what happens in the near future before making his move, and since the credit crunch may well lead to the death or weakening of some forces in 2009, Lake could find a top-tier team available in a matter of just months.

compLexity's future has been the subject of intense speculation, with reports suggesting Lake to be close to establishing a partnership with Jax Money Crew owner Alex "Jax" Conroy in which Lake would take the role of assistant manager, while Conroy would remain calling the shots.

If this eventually becomes more than just "paper talk", then we will witness the birth of something that resembles the Swedish national football team and its two coaches, Lars Lagerbäck and Roland Andersson.

But should Lake be happy with being Conroy's right-hand-man? My answer would be no as I think he should not settle for just that. Both Lake and Conroy have helped turn eSports in the U.S. into what it is today and, as such, they both deserve to be on the battlefront but against each other, not holding hands, much because eSports should also be made with rivalries and that's one big there.

Returning to the main topic, there is absolutely no reason for Lake to react like that over losing his players. After all, he was the one that, for example, raided United5 for Justin “sunman” Summy in 2005 or that, a few months before, had brought Sean "bullseye" Morgan back from retirement after offering the ex-3D star the highest wages in the business.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to who has the deepest pockets. And this time it wasn't Mr. Lake.

Pictures taken from GotFrag.com and eurosports.yahoo.com.