Ground Zero's HaZR on SemperFi's end: 'It was turbulent, but we really tried'

He may have not walked out with the HyperX Intel Nationals trophy, but it's hard to deny Jared "HaZR" O'Bree wasn't a winner last weekend.

His LAN debut with Ground Zero went swimmingly, with the 24-year-old instrumental as the squad exceeded expectations following their win over THUNDERdOWNUNDER in the lower bracket final.

He then joined members of TdU and FlyQuest, representing Australia in the Esports Nations Cup qualifier on Sunday afternoon, qualifying the country for the event in Saudi Arabia later this year.

HaZR had little time to prepare with Ground Zero ahead of the main event. His departure from the beleaguered SemperFi project in early June, plus the need for coach Tyler "tucks" Reilly to stand-in, meant he would need to shoulder plenty of weight in Brisbane.

He's emerged a winner regardless, and as he said to DFRAG after their campaign's end, he's so proud of the squad for their efforts.

ENC spot in the bag for Australia, congratulations on the win. I don't want to jump the gun and say the Aussies have a chance, but you as a team are so familiar with each other's play over the years. How does it feel to represent the country at such an event, and do you feel the same way regarding familiarity with your teammates?

"It's just amazing, I haven't played one of these national events [like ENC or IESF] overseas before. I've been watching some of these guys as well when I was coming up from the lower leagues, so I think it'll be a lot of fun.

"Even sharing the server with them and playing the qualifier together, like these guys have played forever as a core. I don't want to take up too much space for them and let them shine. I feel like kind of the outlier here, but we'll have a great shot."

It wasn't to be in the grand final here for you and Ground Zero with FlyQuest proving too good the whole weekend. While coming off the loss might feel a bit sour, are you happy with the run given the rocky build-up to the event, the limited time to prepare, and that coach tucks has had to stand-in again?

"I'm really happy with how we performed overall. I'm loving the vibes we have as a team, it feels so easy to play and it's some of the most fun Counter-Strike I've played in a while.

"Between having the guys next to me play well too, and mates like Jack [Omichella] with his shit talk, it's so funny and it adds that extra element to the team.

"The scoreline didn't represent the result either, I think. They were some pretty big swing rounds that we should have won that changed the economy and the half as a whole, but honestly overall, [I'm] pretty chuffed as this is our first event together."

Let's talk that lower bracket final too, with GZ finally getting another H2H win over THUNDERdOWNUNDER. You personally had a brilliant performance on Nuke to close out the series. It didn't look like happening seeing you were down 10-2; what was said in the team at the time, and what did you channel to make the comeback happen with such an effort?

"It was just your regular classic tag lines really, 'a round a time, boys', that type of stuff. It was just focusing on the next round at a time; we never spoke about anything bad that happened, we just brushed it off and kept going.

"Individually I felt really locked in, really flowy. I didn't want to knock myself out of that mood by thinking about a mistake I made the last round, or something one of the other boys did, so I kept going for everything I could.

"[TdU] is such an amazing team, very gifted. Particularly Liazz, I think he's their best player. He's so hard to verse, that's kind of his character over all these years. He's such a sneaky guy on T-side, you can't find him, and he's so good in the clutch.

"Getting a win over them means a lot for us, especially so early in this team. It makes me excited for the future."

The SemperFi project came to an end with sliimey, keen, and your departure a few weeks back. It was a team you were involved with for a long time with so much invested, but that goal of a major spot eluded you. Sum up that experience for me, what went right and what went wrong?

"It was very turbulent, but I'll say we definitely were trying our best. We really tried. I'm thankful for the effort from the team and from Benny [SemperFi owner Ben "BenTheLegend" Savage]. He was looking after us as much as he could, and it's not easy trying to make the dream happen overseas."

We had some pretty good highs and some really good days, but I would summarize [SemperFi] as rocky."
Jared "HaZR" O'Bree, Ground Zero

"I'm really sad we couldn't make it look better, but we truly grinded. We spent a month or so in Latvia putting a lot of time in, but pressure and expectations kind of got to us, especially when you're spending that much money and resources to get us over there.

"It was a lesson learned, I learned a lot from SemperFi. I'm really thankful for it."

Since the start of CS2 it's been all over the place org-wise for you, from post-VERTEX and Bad News Kangaroos to the TALON days. It's a weird one to ask so early into a tenure at a new team, but have you looked into where you want to be in a few years time personally?

"I don't think too much into the future, really just more about what I've got going on at the moment. I just want to be in a good spot.

"I still envision myself playing Counter-Strike; I don't know if it'll ever leave my brain, but it's the only thing I love to do, so I'm hoping to still be playing in three years as long as it's doable for me.

"I just want to be better every year, adding and stacking up more experience. I really want to make it, I've worked so hard for this."

HaZR won't be joining the other Australian ENC representatives again until late 2026 at the tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but in the meantime, catch him on the server with Ground Zero as they build their VRS portfolio up ahead of the Singapore Major.

For more OCE CS2 news, stay tuned to DFRAG.