compLexity vs. iBUYPOWER preview

Though not as hyped as the upper bracket final, compLexity versus iBUYPOWER has nearly as much at stake and plenty to look forward to starting at 17:30 .

Counter-Strike teams are known for being very competitive domestically and to value being the number one team in their region a whole lot, even if it doesn't always matter in the grand scale of things.

For North Americans the issue is even more important, as the region is known for extensive shit-talking, bad blood among teams and old issues between players who used to play together.

This is especially true for Sam "DaZeD" Marine and the coL-core that he separated from nearly a year ago, before his short tenured Call of Duty adventure. His teammates' Curse teams have never outplaced coL on LAN, either.

compLexity are known to have disliked the Curse teams in the past, and although they've dropped one series at the last ESEA Finals to them, they have outplaced their rivals at every single event in their history.

Not only that, they've also enjoyed far more success internationally, causing many to question whether a rivalry even exists. However, since iBUYPOWER was founded, especially online, that rivalry has been real.

Below is a table of all the matches these two teams have played against one another under the compLexity and iBUYPOWER flags, basically the entire time they've had these rosters:

compLexity	16-11	vs. iBUYPOWER	de_nuke	CEVO Main Season 4
compLexity	16-10	vs. iBUYPOWER	de_dust2	ESEA Invite Season 15
compLexity	13-16	vs. iBUYPOWER	de_cache	coL 10th Anniversary
compLexity	14-16	vs. iBUYPOWER	de_nuke	coL 10th Anniversary
compLexity	16-6	vs. iBUYPOWER	de_inferno	coL 10th Anniversary
compLexity	13-16	vs. iBUYPOWER	de_nuke	coL 10th Anniversary
compLexity	11-16	vs. iBUYPOWER	de_cache	coL 10th Anniversary

As you can see iBUYPOWER have actually defeated compLexity more times than not, though the last few times coL have gotten the best of them, clearly showing signs of improvement.

Worth pointing out also is that iBUYPOWER's five wins all came in early November, before compLexity's rise to a higher level of play during their bootcamp in Stockholm, Sweden. All seven games were played online.

While iBUYPOWER bombed out of DreamHack, compLexity scored their best placing ever, with a win over VeryGames in the group stage to sweeten the 3-4th place finish.

Asked whether compLexity's international success factors into their domestic match-up, Marine, the in-game leader of iBUYPOWER, told HLTV.org the following:

"It's definitely meaningful due to the amount of confidence their recent DreamHack placing will grant them. They've been through a lot more trials and tribulations as a team and have come out of those situations better prepared wehther they have won or lost. They are really growing and improving with every event."

At ESEA compLexity have looked stronger without a doubt as they had an extremely narrow loss against Titan last night at 1-2 (14-16, 16-3, 14-16), but iBUYPOWER have looked solid as well.

After some player crashes paused the game, iBUYPOWER came back from a 6-12 deficit on de_season to open their series versus Titan with a 16-13 come-from-behind win, though they went on to lose rather clearly 1-2.

HLTV.org also asked Marine how he felt about the upcoming game, and he simply stated he feels they're "confident underdogs" heading into the series, set to kick off at 17:30 .

Key player for compLexity this tournament has been former EG star Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert, who was an absolute monster versus Titan, scoring 1.00 KPR, +28 in K-D and 1.45 rating across three maps.

Both of iBP's stars Marine and Keven "AZK" Lariviere have also had good showings, aside from the all-important Titan match, where especially Marine struggled; something he can't afford today.

Perhaps surprisingly Spencer "Hiko" Martin hasn't been up to his usual, very high level statistically, so for coL it'd be important to get him going in the iBP match, in order to be ready versus Titan.

When asked what he felt were their possible advantages in the all-American match-up, Marine said the following, which correlates well with their map one finish versus Titan:

"I think we have an advantage when it comes to catching fire. If we are playing up to our potential we are very tough to beat. Our peaks are very high, but our lows are also very low. If we can hit our high we can compete versus any team."

Aside from their matches against Titan in Dallas, both teams have looked solid. coL was pushed into overtime versus Homeless on de_cache, while iBUYPOWER had a 16-14 win versus United5.

In other maps neither team had too much trouble, as coL gave up seven rounds on de_inferno and iBUYPOWER had fairly one-sided victories as well across their other five maps.

Expectation wise compLexity are definitely coming into this game with more. They could never accept a third place finish as they're regarded higher than that by just about everyone.

iBUYPOWER are by no means happy with a top three finish either, something Curse had to settle for in S13 as well. Marine went a little deeper in his analysis: 

"I mean top three I feel is respectable, but I think we'd really only be satisfied with first place. There was a very low chance we would place outside of top three, so it is kind of what is expected of us by the community I suppose."

With all of this out in the open, I expect compLexity to come out slinging and finish iBUYPOWER off without too much trouble. They are the stronger team as of late November 2013, and it should show.

Now that's not to say iBP couldn't make it close or even take a map from coL, but I don't think we're going to see Sean "sgares" Gares' side's tournament ever be jeapardy in the series.

Something to point out though is that it will be crucial for coL to score an easy win over iBP and spare some energy for a double best-of-three grand final; they can't go into the Titan match drained.

compLexity will take on Team iBUYPOWER at 17:30 in Dallas, TX, where the ESEA Invite Season 15 Global Finals are on its last day. Winner will play against Titan in the grand final shortly after.