Grim on EliGE: "He's doing a lot of good jobs in mid-round calling"

Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince was full of praise for his new teammate after a hard-fought victory over Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Complexity have struggled to turn flashes of promise into wins against top European sides in recent times, but their latest signing, Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski, has added a proven winner to their roster.

It didn't take long for EliGE to prove his calibre, as he led the way as Complexity battled to victory over Ninjas in Pyjamas in their opening match of the BLAST Fall Groups. Not only did the North American legend frag out, but according to Grim he was also providing vital mid-round calls.

Fresh from a confidence-boosting win, Grim took some time for a quick chat with HLTV to provide his insight on how his team took down Ninjas in Pyjamas.

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EliGE stars in debut as Complexity beat NIP

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

How does it feel to get that first win with the new lineup?

It feels really good to get a win. We've been putting in a lot of work at this bootcamp, we were at the Astralis Nexus which is really nearby here. We were there for 11 days bootcamping, getting everything down, and I'd say we've improved a lot, like a tonne, over the past week, so I'm glad we could come out here and have a strong showing against NIP.

It was a closely fought series, what do you think gave you the edge in the end and allowed you to take it over the line?

I think it was close because we were losing a couple of dumb rounds at first, losing to pistols in random spots, or going into stacks, or someone was getting one-Deaged. On a pistol round on Inferno k0nfig spammed two of us through a smoke! Rounds like that make the game harder, especially when you are losing pistols, and if they're converting the anti-eco against you then it's really tough.

I'd say in the end we just grinded out the rounds, understood the setups they were doing, and plugged in our strats that would work against that, and ended up closing it out.

Your T-side was really good throughout the series, what do you think made you so potent on offense?

I think EliGE has brought a lot of structure on our T-side, him and Jon – or Johnny… we have this meme on our team about two Jons, Jon and Johnny (laughs)… they were calling a lot of stuff and understanding the defense, which is really good for people like me and floppy who are anchor-type players, we filled the gaps that we needed and closed it out. I think we're doing a really good job of calling and mid-rounding, and finding out what gaps the enemy team have at the moment.

So do you think EliGE is bringing that in-game, mid-round calling and information?

I'd say so, I see in his spots that if he sees something, he will call for us all to come back, or push something, or call for everyone to go back and fake something, and he's doing a lot of good jobs in mid-round calling. I'd say it's helping a lot right now, the calls have been really good and as long as we're sticking together as a team, going and having trade-ability, it's been working out good so far.

EliGE said something in an interview I did with him yesterday, that he wanted to bring more of a winning mentality to Complexity. Do you think it's going to be a little bit easier after a result like this?

Definitely a win is a good start in the right direction. We definitely had a bit of a confidence issue after all the bad losses that we've had in recent games, but EliGE is bringing a winner's mentality, he's obviously a championship player and he's going to bring that mentality to all of us. Honestly, it's contagious, his attitude right now, he's having a really good time and we're always cracking jokes a lot, we're having a good time and the environment is really good. We just have to keep that from here, and I think that everyone is going to feel a lot more confident after that win.

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

What do you think personally your goals and expectations are for the team now? I know it's a little bit early, but a win under your belt gives you a bit of belief. Where do you think Complexity can go from here?

We play Vitality next which will be a very tough game, they're number two in the world right now I think, but they're going to be tough with flameZ. Right now let's just get our mentality good honestly, after the string of bad losses messed it up a little bit right now it's about collecting as many wins as possible, making sure we're playing good as a team. Honestly right now we don't have too many expectations, the only expectation right now is to get the mental in the right headspace and have a really good showing here early, it's still early days.

We're trying to figure out what we need to work on, what's good and so on, so once we get more of a foundation I'd say we can have more expectations. Right now it's just about getting the mentality good.