EliGE: "[Complexity's goal] was just to make the Major; my expectations are going to be higher than that"

Ready to embark on a new journey after eight years in his previous team, Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski sat down for a discussion with HLTV.

EliGE leaving Liquid was a monumental moment, the ending of a partnership that lasted for over eight years. One of the most iconic teams in the game would no longer house their signature player, a man who had been the face of the team for a long time.

In Copenhagen EliGE embarks upon a new journey with Complexity, and the North American star is clear that he joined this team because he thinks they have what it takes to win. He also provided HLTV with some insight into how it has been settling into the squad, why he chose Complexity over potentially moving to Europe, and his goals for his new team.

Audio version: If you cannot see the Soundcloud embed below, head over here to listen to the interview.

So my first question is an obvious one: how has it been for you settling into Complexity?

It's been good overall! I think that there's been a lot of good things that I've seen already, and I think that we've been progressing pretty fast from our bootcamp. I'm happy that I'm playing with a lot of really talented players, and we have a lot of potential for the future.

Obviously you have already played alongside Grim, but the rest of the team are new to you. Now that you've had some practice time, does the rest of the team match your expectations?

I would say overall my expectations were pretty in line with what I have seen. I don't think that I came here expecting to immediately be a world class contender team, I think that it's more a case of me looking at the team and saying we have a lot of good talent and potential. The guys have already had really good events with close series against top teams, it's just about adding that consistent element and structure that can get it over the line more consistently.

Are you personally trying to add that consistent element? You have obviously been there and done it, won massive tournaments, are you actively trying to use some of that experience to help the team?

Yeah 100%. I think that main thing I was expecting to bring to the team was structure, bringing the experience of what might work better in this default, for example, or how to make things clearer. When I'm playing a lot of the rounds in practice it feels a little bit chaotic, and that just comes down to having more codewords or more descriptions for what the other team is doing and how we can be reacting. That's going to create a clearer picture overall for everyone on the team so that we can make the right decision in the right moment, and make them more consistently.

You have now left Liquid after over eight years with the team, you were one of the longest serving players at the top of the CS scene. Was it a tough decision to leave?

Well it wasn't really much of a decision honestly (laughs). It was pretty mutual of course, but they made the choice in the end.

Going to Complexity, I just wanted to make sure that I was joining a team that had potential to win, and I think that I made the right choice. I wanted to stay on an NA preferably and bring structure to the team so that they can get to the next level, I think everyone is really talented on this team and I have already seen so many good things. Obviously I have played with Grim, but I hadn't played with any of the others, and I think they are all talented as well, JT is a good caller and has good reads on the game. It's just about bringing that little extra oomph to get us over the line.

You say that it wasn't much of a decision to leave Liquid: does that mean the change was driven by the org, they decided they wanted to move to a European roster and that was it?

It's not that they were saying "we're gonna go EU, do you wanna go EU or not?," it was just from the team side of things they wanted to go a different direction, and I was completely fine with that. Both the team and I didn't feel very comfortable at the end, or feel like it was going to get much better, so I think it just made sense.

Did you have offers from European teams?

Yeah I got reached out to by a couple of EU orgs, but it didn't really go far, I wasn't really interested honestly.

What was the driving factor that led you to stay in NA, rather than going to Europe? Obviously we've seen it happen before with Twistzz, and NAF mentioned in an interview a little while back that he would like to make the move one day, does it not appeal to you?

I think that's something for the future, it was just going to be really hard to be able to make that change so suddenly. I definitely think that going to Europe for the next season is on the cards for Complexity, we haven't really talked about it as a team but I think it's so hard to stay in NA and play.

If I was to join an EU team right at this moment it would be really hard logistically, and since I could get a comparable team to the skill level of any of the EU teams I could have joined, without having to deal with logistical issues, that was preferable to me. I also think culture is a big part of it as well, sometimes when you have so many conflicting cultures and opinions of how you want to do things, the team can look good on paper but it doesn't end up working out. It's really hard sometimes to make that stuff work, and I think that this was the most immediate change that could be the most beneficial to me.

Is part of the desire to stay in NA because you want to drive the region forwards? Obviously NA has lacked for top teams and players in recent years, is there any desire in you to stick in your home region and help make it better?

The main thing for me is being competitive and being able to win, so it's not like I'm going to choose a team that doesn't have that capability. It was more about logistics, culture, making sure the team is skilled enough, and I think that Complexity checked all those boxes.

In terms of the future, I don't really see myself wanting to play for a team just because it's an American team, at the end of the day I want to do as well as I can in my career and I'm going to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

What do you think the ceiling is for this Complexity roster, and do you have any concrete goals and targets set yet?

I think right now, just changing the mentality to "we can make it to the playoff stage" at first (laughs). I was watching one of the last vlogs they posted from the Major, and their goal was just to make the Major. My expectations are going to be higher than that. Getting the guys to have more confidence, that they can make it to the next level, get to the playoffs and top-four finishes at big tournaments, that's my immediate goal. I think anything past that would be a little bit unrealistic for the timeline, because there are a lot of things we need to talk about and work on, get used to each other and everything like that.

I would say being able to get to the playoffs in these tournaments and getting top-four finishes is my immediate six-month goal. I think the team got battered down a little bit by strings of poor results, so just getting everyone in that mentality, that winners mindset, is the other goal.

With regards to this BLAST event, does the team have a set goal in mind or are you viewing this as a bit of a glorified bootcamp?

At the beginning of the year when I was on Liquid, we came into BLAST and the mentality was that BLAST was the bootcamp (laughs). With Complexity, we had a bootcamp coming into the event and so our goal is to get out of groups. I think we can achieve that, I think that our group isn't anything crazy, not to disrespect any of the teams but there's not three top-five teams in our group. We definitely can win, two of the other teams in EG and NIP also made changes, Vitality will obviously be a lot harder as they are a top team in the world right now, but I think that we can win in those games. That's an achievable goal for us.

I want to touch quickly on CS2. Obviously Valve are likely to miss the Summer release date at this point, are you and Complexity thinking about or planning for CS2 at all?

CS2 for me is just a distant horizon. I think that it's not going to be coming out any time soon, there is a lot to work on. Summer was a pretty ambitious goal…

Optimistic?

Optimistic for sure (laughs). There's not really much that we can do right now, it's not like we're going to be scrimming on CS2, I don't even think that capability is possible. At the end of the day CS2 is the exact same game on a different engine, slightly different with the smoke mechanics and the feel, but the core gameplay is how it's always going to be, even the maps are the same. There will be some micro changes here and there, but we know how we want to play these maps, we have been playing them for many years and the main goal for CS2 will be figuring out to do similar concepts with the new smoke and nade mechanics. I would say that's the main thing that will be different for CS2, but it's something that teams competing right now can't put a big focus on.