Make-or-break: Complexity look to turn around a disappointing year in Shanghai

Inconsistency throughout 2024 comes to a head for Complexity as they look to reach the Major playoffs.

One word echoed across seven interviews with Complexity's players, coach, and general manager when asked how they reflect on the last year coming into the Perfect World Shanghai Major Americas RMR.

"Disappointing."

It hasn't been a complete disaster for the American organization, but disappointment is a fair feeling to describe a 2024 in which Complexity's ranking fell from the core's peak of fifth in December to fifteenth ten months later.

Add to that the failure of replicating a run like their second-place finish at the first Counter-Strike 2 Big Event, IEM Sydney, a handful of group stage exits, frustration showing during matches, and inconsistency from players surrounding the superlative Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski, and you have a team who is at a crossroads upon arriving in China.

Just making it through the RMR should be a foregone conclusion — "not even a question," according to Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli — so it is what they do at the Major proper that matters. Reach at least the playoffs and most of the players can walk away happy. Anything less and it seems the writing could be on the wall. With pressure mounting for results, is it make-or-break for Complexity in Shanghai?

"I would say so," EliGE tells HLTV. "I think that is actually how most of the scene is feeling, honestly. I think a lot of the teams right now feel like they could have done better throughout the year, especially some of the teams that have been more successful than us, where they have had success and then things have hit a downturn.

"That's also kind of how we feel as well, since we did experience it at the beginning of CS2. Everyone wants that taste of success, and if you haven't had it in a while and you've already tried all the solutions, then I think it's just natural."

Complexity have been chasing that rush for the better part of a year, spurred on by a Cinderella run to the final of IEM Sydney not long after adding EliGE that showed a new ceiling for the team in Counter-Strike 2.

A title victory at ESL Challenger Jönköping and semi-final finish at ESL Pro League Season 19 whet the appetite in 2024, but group stage exits in almost every other Big Event meant the team was left salivating for a meal that never arrived.

It hasn't been through a lack of trying; in fact, they tried so many solutions that EliGE described it as "banging your head against the wall," and the problem is that none of the solutions they identified worked.

"This year we haven't been able to get our footing at all," EliGE reflected. "We've been trying a lot of different things, trying to see, 'Is this the solution?' or 'Is this other thing the solution?' like what should we be focusing on?

"We've been trying a lot of things that we think are going to be the solution for us and putting in the time, and none of them have really been working. At times its felt really disappointing and frustrating since we're trying all these different things and none of them are working.

"A couple of times throughout the year we felt that we had found it, that we're working on the right thing, focusing on the right stuff, and it's always just a combination of a lot of things we need to work on. Like Whack-A-Mole, where you fix one thing, another thing pops up, it's another problem, and I think that's pretty normal with any team. It's just been a little bit harder on us since we haven't had any leeway results-wise where things have gone even a little bit better.

"Of course we had a decent showing at EPL and stuff like that, but my goal has always been to be in the finals and be contenders for championships, so anything less than that is always going to be disappointing."

Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou, also at a loss after trying so many solutions, simply said more consistency is needed from his individuals. EliGE's exceptional form can only take Complexity so far without a supporting cast, and though Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince and hallzerk can be that second star, neither come with the stability for the team to rely on day-to-day. Add to that Complexity's reliability to stumble in matches when it matters most, and you have a recipe for frustration.

"We're really on and off because sometimes we will lose rounds that we shouldn't even if we're in the lead, like 12-6, 12-7," the South African captain said. "We have this mental blockage of seeing things go wrong and thinking that everything is over, even if we're winning the match already. We end up playing a lot worse when we start reacting in that way mentally. We've also had a lot of mental struggles this year which I think is obvious to everyone on the outside."

Tiaan "⁠T.c⁠" Coertzen echoed similar sentiments to EliGE and JT about the various problems the team tried to address, saying a key focus in the past month has been on the impact players can have from their positions by reading the game and reacting individually while communicating quickly, something he said the team did well around the Copenhagen Major.

He also admitted the team had a tendency to crumble in high-pressure games and pointed to high expectations within the team leading to frustration when mistakes are being made in those moments and said forgiveness was important to prevent things from snowballing.

"We need to realize we're not always going to be able to play a perfect game and everyone is not always going to be in perfect tip-top shape. It's important to keep each other accountable and to expect big things from each other, but we also need to give a little more leeway to each other and allow each other to make mistakes and grow within the team. Having more of that growth environment where we can help each other and where people feel like it's okay to make mistakes."

It hasn't been hard to spot frustration on the faces of Complexity players during these struggles throughout the year, but none more so than hallzerk and EliGE. Although mostly self-directed, both players admitted that reigning back their reactions has been a focus to stabilize the team emotionally, with the Norwegian sniper taking ownership of how much his emotions got the better of him.

"We lose focus and become too emotional in the game, and when that happens we can lose our focus on the game and that makes us lose. That is something we all are working in the team, especially me of course, but I am one of the obvious ones where if I get mad I can do a table slam or something like that," hallzerk stated.

"I definitely feel like that is something I improved on, that was a period of two weeks where it happened more than usual, and I feel like since then it hasn't happened at all, maybe once since then. That is something that's been very obvious that I need to work on, I don't think it's great and I don't want to do it, so that is something I work on every day. It's for sure been improved and if people can't see that, they're just blind, but there is always something to improve on in that sense and I feel like if we get that in check, we will be more consistent as a team."

As Complexity prepares to take to the server for the RMR, a nearly month-long effort into solving issues — again — will be put to the test. The team needs another rifler to step up alongside EliGE and be that second star, and Grim isn't shying away from that responsibility.

"The firepower definitely should be coming from me and even floppy on some maps," he said. "Something we talked about as a team and what would make us more consistent is it not being 'The ElIGE Show' all the time and him not having to drop 30+ for us to win a map.

"We play our best when it is me and hallzerk showing up on some maps, floppy having great individual performances on his site anchoring, and that is something we talked about. How to get the core of us all more comfortable so that we can help out EliGE, and we play really good when we're doing that."

The core of JT, Grim, and Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery will have played together for three years come this January, but have never made the Major playoffs despite coming tantalizingly close in Copenhagen when they went from a 2-0 record to 2-3 in the Legends Stage. The pressure is on to not repeat that heartbreak in Shanghai, particularly so for the latter two as they face the heaviest scrutiny.

"At the end of the day we can only keep trying to get better until changes are made," Grim said about his mentality with the pressure of a possible change after the Major. "We just need to keep doing what we can do. I don't think there is a timeline or something like that for me, from my perspective, I have to keep trying my best to work on the issues and at the end of the day if something does happen, if something changes, at least I can say I tried my best to work through them to be better as a player and as a teammate.

"That's not something going through my mind, I'm really confident with this five and comfortable with everyone on the team, so I have to keep trying my best to improve on those aspects and whatever happens, happens as long as I tried my best."

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Americas RMR
12/11/2024	Complexity 06:55 BESTIA	Match