EliGE: "I know I need to perform and show that I still have it"

EliGE says that the freedom to fail on Complexity helped him return to world-beating form.

Complexity came into ESL Pro League Season 19 after one month of inactivity following their heartbreaking Major exit. The Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou-led team secured a 2-0 record in the Legends Stage but couldn't get the final victory needed to reach the playoffs.

Following their exploits in Copenhagen the team has returned with vigour in Malta, beating Natus Vincere in the group stage and breezing past Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov's Virtus.pro in the quarter-final.

After Complexity reached the semi-final, Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski talked to HLTV about his superstar form, the team's expectations in Malta, and his love-hate relationship with Vertigo.

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First of all, congrats. That was quite the game, especially for you individually.

Yeah, I think that we played really well. I'm happy that we started strong against them, instead of having the slow starts that we normally have, so overall a good match.

I wanted to touch on Vertigo. You kept up a 100% win rate on the map in the last three months, so what is it that makes this map such a home map for you?

I honestly have no idea, I actually hate Vertigo. I wish that they took out Vertigo instead of Overpass. But yeah, we're actually really good on it. JT likes it a lot, he's liked it ever since CS:GO, and we just have a good feel on the map.

We understand the timings of how we want to play the rounds and what we can abuse. I feel like we have the answers for everything that we're seeing in front of us and how we want to respond to it. So I think just having that in-depth knowledge of how we want to play the rounds is why we're so good at it.

There's been a bit of food poisoning in your team lately, so has that gone away? Judging by your performance today, it certainly looks like it.

Overall, everyone's feeling good now. Thank god that we had the two days off because people were feeling bad yesterday and the day before, it was coming in waves. But thankfully I've been fine so far, and floppy's been fine, but everyone else hasn't been so lucky. But yeah, overall, I think we're good now.

More on a general note, you haven't played any events since the Major, just EPL. So how have the last few weeks been for you?

It's been up and down for sure, I don't think that our practice was the best before EPL. We had a boot camp beforehand, which was only six days here. That helps, of course, to refocus on what we should be improving in terms of our maps and what we have to keep focusing on.

But I wouldn't actually say it was the best that we had, but that's also always a good thing, too. I think if everything's not going well, you're just highlighting what you have to improve in the hard talks that you have to do. So I think that was probably a good thing for us, even though it doesn't feel the best. It lit a fire under us for this tournament, we've been playing really well.

You say you've been playing well, you beat NAVI, and now you beat VP. So how far do you think you can get here?

I always say it's just one step at a time. I don't think that anyone would have predicted us to go as far as we have even now, but I think that we can beat anyone, we have the players for it. We've shown that level before at Sydney and at the Fall Final.

I think that because our floor has been historically kind of low so far on this team, where we can just lose a lot of rounds, lose to anyone, lose man-advantages and stuff like that. That's why it's been so hard for us. But I think this tournament, because our communication has been so good, we haven't been letting any of those rounds get away from us.

We've had some slow starts, but I think that we've been talking and seeing how we want to be dealing with that. It obviously worked out in this match, so I'm really happy with that, and yeah, we've just got to keep taking it one step at a time. It'll be a hard match next match, but all of them are going to be.

For you personally, 2024 has been your highest-rated year since 2019. So what helped you get back to your highest level?

Well, I would just say it's ever since I joined Complexity. I think that just me having that freedom to fail on the team. That's something that has been really nice, where the team has a lot of belief in me. I have a lot of pressure on myself, and I know I need to perform and show that I still have it.

Having those factors from the mental side of being free to fail and having my teammates believe in me, means I have that going in terms of confidence. I've just been having a good support system, I would say, where I'm making sure that I'm not getting into a mental rut, talking to people, and getting help. I've had coaches help me. Overall, just a really good support system, and the freedom within the team, that's what's been helping me a lot.