Complexity knock Cloud9 out of Shanghai Major

The North Americans survive their second elimination series in China.

Complexity live to fight another day in the Shanghai Major's Opening Stage after taking down Cloud9 in 2-0 fashion in the 1-2 pool. It's the end of the road for the Russian side, who came prepared for the Vertigo pick but then fell short on Ancient, which head coach Konstantin "⁠groove⁠" Pikiner attributed to the lack of stage experience by some of his players.

"We did the minimum, qualification for the Major," the Russian coach told HLTV after the match. "If we compare it to qualification from our region, I guess it's a really good result in terms of Astralis, Eternal Fire, other good teams didn't qualify for this Major.

"When we have only 14 slots, it makes sense. I'm not happy, but I'm okay with this result."

Cloud9 came out looking crisp and limited Complexity to just two rounds in the first half of Vertigo — both coming courtesy of key plays from captain Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou.

Complexity began to show some signs of life on the CT side and easily put together a string of rounds. Kaisar "⁠ICY⁠" Faiznurov found Cloud9's first round of the half with a 1v2 clutch, but the Russian team would not be able to follow it up as Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski pulled off a sensational quad-kill with an MP9.

That round gave Complexity a lifeline and turned the game on its head. Cloud9 would go on to reach map point after another ICY clutch, but the North Americans held on and took the game to overtime, where a flawless CT half set them up for victory.

Complexity carried that momentum into Ancient and picked up eight rounds on the CT side, where EliGE and Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli combined for 26 frags. The North Americans quickly reached map point in the second half off the back of a 1v2 clutch by Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery in the pistol round and then held off a late comeback attempt from Cloud9 to put the series to rest.