Complexity send fnatic home and advance to lower bracket final

William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman's squad has been eliminated from the Polish LAN following back-to-back defeats in Group B.

Complexity are just one step away from potentially securing a spot in IEM Katowice 2023 playoffs after their 2-1 win over fnatic. The latest victory means the North Americans will challenge Outsiders later on Tuesday at 19:30 for the last available spot in the knockout stage.

Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou's men rode the lower bracket in the play-in to qualify for the group stage, and they are in a good position to repeat their feat in the event's second phase. Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli has so far excelled for the Noth Americans and currently boats a 1.26 rating in Poland, his highest LAN score with Complexity.

The Europeans also began their journey in the play-in and advanced with victories over Evil Geniuses and MIBR, which they followed up with a win over Outsiders in Group B. fnatic almost brought Vitality to their knees, but were unable to deal the finishing blow and where relegated to the lower bracket after a close 2-1 series.

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Complexity blew fnatic out of the water in the first half of Inferno with an extremely aggressive T side. The North Americans pushed through smokes and forced the Europeans into uncomfortable fights, which Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley, hallzerk, and Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince seemingly won every time. The Canadian rifler, in particular, won several crucial duels for Complexity, which turned rounds in their favor and helped them secure a one-sided 12-3 scoreline before the break. mezii not only failed to adapt his team's defensive setups to the T aggression, he also struggled to find impact on the server and left the first half with a 0.41 rating.

JT and company claimed the second pistol round and extended their lead to 14-3 before fnatic were able to get on the board again. The European squad looked more focused on the T side and claimed five rounds on the bounce, but the deficit was too large to overcome. Complexity quickly shut down any hopes of a comeback with a dominant B site hold to close their map pick 16-8.

Vertigo began with a slow fnatic offensive, which only found sporadic success on the A bombsite. It took a while for the Europeans' T side to warm up, but they began to threaten Complexity's defenses with a three-round winning streak once they stabilized their economy. mezii was in much better form after the first map, and led the line for his team during their 9-6 offensive success while Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson found impact with several important frags and an ace in the twelfth round.

fnatic stole the second pistol round of the map thanks to a Dion "⁠FASHR⁠" Derksen triple on the B site retake, and despite a short resurgence from Complexity following a force buy, the European squad cruised to a 16-9 victory. Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi had a fantastic CT side with a 1.66 rating, which was followed by mezii's 1.64 score.

Complexity bounced back immediately on Overpass and truly dominated fnatic from the first round. FaNg powered the North Americans to an early 6-1 lead as mezii and his squad seemed lost on the T side, especially as FASHR struggled to find impact. The rest of the half was then taken over by hallzerk and Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery as the duo bullied fnatic all the way to a 12-3 half.

The Europeans' situation only worsened after the break as Complexity doubled down in pistol rounds on the map before sailing unchallenged through their T side. fnatic's could only watch as FaNg and Grim tore through their defense to close the map 16-3 and the series 2-1.