EliGE drives Complexity to Copenhagen over Liquid

Liquid's old rifler came back to haunt them as Complexity ensured North America will have a representative at the Copenhagen Major.

Complexity are the 24th and final team to qualify for PGL Major Copenhagen after prevailing over Liquid in an intense 2-1 victory (Inferno 9-13, Anubis 13-5, Overpass 13-7).

The North Americans were fighting to be their region's sole representative at the Major after four Brazilian teams secured berths at Copenhagen earlier in the event, and were drawn against Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken's new Liquid project in a do-or-die affair.

But Complexity could count on Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski to deliver another stunning performance in yet another chapter to his CS2 improvement.

Against his former team, the squad he had to declare a conflict of interest with thanks to a tiny minority stake pre-event, EliGE elevated his squad past a Liquid side that had such high hopes after acquiring Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller and Twistzz in the off-season.

"It feels great, 100%," EliGE said when asked about beating his former team. "I feel really bad for them of course, they have a crazy project, but it's crappy seeding. Okay, crappy format. We both had to play FURIA, the strongest team here, and now had to face each other [for elimination]."

While concerns around the format are valid, Liquid can only blame themselves for their lacklustre play in a seemingly shallow map pool, and for allowing Complexity to play their two strongest maps (Anubis and Overpass) in such an important series. They join Falcons and Astralis as two teams that made significant investments in the off-season only to miss the first Counter-Strike 2 Major.

Inferno kicked off the series with Liquid in control over the vast majority of gun rounds on their usual map pick. cadiaN then came up clutch with an AWP ace on B at 9-7 to put the map beyond the reach of Complexity.

The favor was returned on Complexity's battleground of Anubis, with Liquid going on a five-round streak around the start of the map before losing ten in a row as coL made their experience and chemistry show on their preferred level. Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince was in inspired form throughout, an able backup to a consistently excellent EliGE in a sign of things to come on the decider.

That decider was Overpass, and Complexity began proceedings by winning their fifth pistol round of the series. That soon became a 5-0 lead, with EliGE finding multi-kills around Toilets and the B bomb-site holding firm against Liquid pocket strats.

cadiaN's side, albeit unconvincingly, recovered to four at the half but lost their sixth pistol of the series as the side flipped to put themselves 4-10 down and with too much to do.

A CT comeback threatened, but was extinguished by a shocking anti-eco loss, with Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis and cadiaN both overplaying their hands, to Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou's Deagle and a Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli and EliGE 2vs4 post-plant for the map, series, and all important Major spot.