NA derby goes the way of Complexity

In an all-North American matchup, Complexity came up trumps with a strong end to the series.

Complexity kept their faint hopes of progressing to the playoffs alive with this victory over Evil Geniuses, besting their NA rivals 2-1; they lost Inferno 16-10, Evil Geniuses's pick, before taking home wins on Vertigo 16-11 and Nuke 16-10.

Complexity will be hoping that Natus Vincere do them a favour and beat Astralis later on today, because a Danish victory would eliminate the North American side. Evil Geniuses were eliminated before the day's play began, but will be left ruing the fact they held an 11-8 lead on the second map and could have closed the series 2-0.

The game kicked off with the Evil Geniuses pick of Inferno, the squad's most played map with the current lineup, and they set about justifying the pick early; the Geniuses got out to a 6-1 lead on their T side before Complexity started to fight back. A good stint in the middle of the half from Complexity saw them bring the score closer, but Evil Geniuses strung a couple together as their offense came to a close to go into the second period 9-6 up.

Complexity picked up three rounds to start their own offense, bringing the score to 9-9, but once Evil Geniuses got guns up on their CT side they took firm control of the map; predicated on the success of their retakes, Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip and co. ran the score all the way to 16-10, closing map one out with minimal fuss. It was a combined effort that gave Evil Geniuses a reasonably comfortable map victory, but Stewie2K's 9 first kills proved to be a vital difference maker.

Next up was the Complexity pick of Vertigo, but it was Evil Geniuses who started brightly on their CT side, winning the pistol and converting. A back-and-forth half ensued, with both teams putting together streaks of rounds, with the score settling at 8-7 in favour of the Geniuses.

The second half again saw Evil Geniuses winning the pistol and grabbing a second, but once the guns came up it became apparent that the Geniuses had very little to offer on the offense, with 9 of the next 10 rounds going the way of Complexity as they comfortably closed the map out 16-11, sending the series to the decider of Nuke. Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince deserves credit for a huge performance on this map, posting a 1.65 rating.

Evil Geniuses' struggles continued onto the first half of Nuke where, after a trade of several force buys to start the map, they completely fell apart on their CT side, letting Complexity get a monstrous 11 T rounds to make the second half a monumental struggle for the Geniuses.

Stewie2K found an outrageous quick 2k to win the pistol round for his side and give them a chance to mount a comeback, and for a brief period it seemed like they might make it happen; dropping two rounds to Complexity force-buys threw the chance away, and Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou and co. eventually closed the map out 16-10.