Complexity's dire 2025 continues after 11-3 collapse leads to elimination by SAW

The North American team are 0-12 in maps against male opposition this year.

Dead team walking SAW handed Complexity yet another blow

Complexity's new lineup have sunk to new lows after elimination at the hands of dead team walking SAW from PGL Cluj-Napoca.

Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou and company led 11-3 on map one before running out of ideas on T side, losing in overtime, and going on a 5-26 run that ended with a miserable 4-13 showing on Complexity's map pick of Inferno.

The uninspiring finish leaves coL at number 6 on the Americas Regional Standings with time running out to keep them in the all-important top five placings that will secure a direct invite to June's Austin Major on home soil.

Mental fragility was a feature of the team even last year, where Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski's raw firepower could only cover so many cracks, and it was damning how poorly Complexity deal with SAW's João "⁠story⁠" Vieira-led comeback on Ancient.

Fumbling the 11-3 lead was one thing, but the inability to reset for overtime or for map two was what truly put the final nail in the coffin.

Date Matches
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025
14/02/2025
Finished
2:0
Match
15/02/2025
Finished
0:2
Match
16/02/2025
Finished
2:0
Match
17/02/2025
Finished
0:2
Match

Grim and hallzerk are leaving EliGE's boots empty

Life was always going to be hard for Danny "⁠Cxzi⁠" Strzelczyk and Nick "⁠nicx⁠" Lee stepping into tier one LANs with Complexity.

What will disappoint Jason Lake and the team's backroom staff more is that experienced fraggers Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli and Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince have not stepped up more in EliGE's absence. His shoes may have been hard to fill but currently, they are empty and getting dusty in the cupboard.

Both players sit below the 1.00 rating mark in 2025 after 14 maps.

When Complexity were in control on Ancient it was thanks to JT in Middle, with the South African even popping up with a 1v2 clutch.

Grim has retained most of his difficult anchor-lurker positions and has showed some good moments, finding some key openers on Ancient to help JT, but the star we were promised from his time in Triumph has never arrived.

hallzerk, meanwhile, was able to be an inconsistent x-factor and clutch king last year but in a 2025 roster lacking firepower he now needs to evolve into a stable star AWPer that impacts games far more often.

story inspires another fightback to extend SAW's Last Dance

"I would feel bad if rmn goes out with a really bad result," story told HLTV yesterday.

It looked like we were headed that way, and Ricardo "⁠roman⁠" Oliveira even left a mark on his mousepad after hitting his mouse in a moment of fury that left the mouse on the studio floor.

But, inspired by a 21-6 showing on CT side from AWPer story, SAW were able to come back into the game.

Add that to a good showing versus FlyQuest yesterday and story is the one firing SAW's unlikely run through the Swiss gauntlet.

Date Matches
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025
18/02/2025
11:15
Match

The star sniper — the last remnant of the youthful firepower trio that fired SAW to the heights of IEM Cologne's semi-final in 2024 — now needs to do the same against 3DMAX to secure a fairytale ending for roman in Cluj's arena.

Matchpage
0
2
17th February 2025
Portugal
12
Ancient
16
4
Inferno
13
 Complexity K - D Swing ADR KAST Rating2.1
30 - 29 -2.40% 64.4 68.9% 0.91
27 - 35 -2.07% 68.7 71.1% 0.89
22 - 30 -0.75% 66.4 62.2% 0.75
22 - 34 -2.86% 61.9 64.4% 0.74
21 - 33 -3.71% 54.3 53.3% 0.70
 SAW K - D Swing ADR KAST Rating2.1
41 - 24 +6.88% 88.5 88.9% 1.51
32 - 23 +3.42% 75.8 82.2% 1.29
32 - 27 -1.84% 85.5 73.3% 1.20
29 - 25 +3.89% 72.4 71.1% 1.12
27 - 24 -0.56% 62.5 80.0% 1.08
Portugal Ricardo 'roman' Oliveira
Ricardo 'roman' Oliveira
Age:
32
Team:
Rating 1.0:
0.97
Maps played:
1702
KPR:
0.67
DPR:
0.68
United States Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Age:
27
Team:
Rating 1.0:
1.08
Maps played:
2004
KPR:
0.75
DPR:
0.68
Norway Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli
Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli
Age:
24
Team:
Rating 1.0:
1.06
Maps played:
1124
KPR:
0.71
DPR:
0.64
United States Danny 'Cxzi' Strzelczyk
Danny 'Cxzi' Strzelczyk
Age:
24
Team:
Rating 1.0:
1.01
Maps played:
968
KPR:
0.72
DPR:
0.72
United States Michael 'Grim' Wince
Michael 'Grim' Wince
Age:
24
Team:
Rating 1.0:
1.04
Maps played:
1286
KPR:
0.71
DPR:
0.68
Portugal João 'story' Vieira
João 'story' Vieira
Age:
22
Team:
Rating 1.0:
1.04
Maps played:
720
KPR:
0.68
DPR:
0.61
South Africa Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
Age:
25
Team:
Rating 1.0:
0.93
Maps played:
1452
KPR:
0.62
DPR:
0.68
United States Nick 'nicx' Lee
Nick 'nicx' Lee
Age:
20
Team:
Rating 1.0:
0.97
Maps played:
310
KPR:
0.68
DPR:
0.71
#1
Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
kinkybdsm | 
Other MissingN0
I think after twistzz steers liquid down to a cct level, they can merge the best players from both teams
2025-02-17 21:58
42
12 replies
#6
Faceit plus user Faceit level 10  | 
 | 
Turkey tradingltd
EliegE made even this team look viable what a goat that guy is
2025-02-17 22:00
76
2 replies
#11
 | 
Poland Saruman69
you misspelled floppy
2025-02-17 22:15
4
1 reply
he got hit so hard by +elige. dude went from being a workhorse to having to play B site anchor
2025-02-18 07:14
2
There isn't a single col player that would upgrade Lulquid
2025-02-17 22:14
8
7 replies
#19
Faceit level 9  | 
 | 
United States ReignQ
Hallzerk despite being shit rn is still a better awper than ultimate, and jt is a better caller
2025-02-18 00:44
1
3 replies
Yeah... No
2025-02-18 07:29
5
2 replies
#39
Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
kinkybdsm | 
Other MissingN0
Maybe yes?
2025-02-20 22:27
0
1 reply
Yesnt
2025-02-21 22:00
0
#21
 | 
Slovakia Psycho2k
I wanted to say JT,bcz of IGL,but after this result,idk anymore
2025-02-18 01:48
0
2 replies
#24
 | 
Estonia simondoggo
not his fault he’s working with an alcoholic and serial rager for teammates (hallzerk has gotten better at raging but still very little firepower on this team)
2025-02-18 04:18
2
I always liked JT but he's not gonna improve Liquid
2025-02-18 07:30
0
jt is the only player that might improve liquid and thats solely down to removing twistzz from igl
2025-02-18 07:37
0
NA CS LUL
2025-02-17 21:58
4
#3
 | 
Russia _oxyorum_
wasted team, gg go next
2025-02-17 21:59
2
disband
2025-02-17 21:59
2
all the NA CS talent that went to Valorant would do better than this
2025-02-17 22:00
3
2 replies
#8
 | 
Scotland TWGKofi
Complexity Fix - Everyone (Disband) + trent + valyn + leaf + JonahP + jawgemo
2025-02-17 22:10
2
1 reply
#37
 | 
United States F_icetea
imagine leaf didn’t get bullied out of cs
2025-02-19 13:50
0
"Dead team walking" lmao
2025-02-17 22:01
13
2 replies
it was weirdly not really explained in the article, but SAW have announced they'll be benching roman and Shr after this event
2025-02-17 23:51
7
1 reply
Bud, I was just making fun of the Dead Man Walking reference.
2025-02-18 02:17
0
#9
 | 
Argentina UnluckyNN
"against male oposition" is wild
2025-02-17 22:10
31
2 replies
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
2025-02-17 22:39
0
#25
Cooper | 
Europe kuu1
Saying that they can only beat women would be rather...weird.
2025-02-18 04:28
2
No Elige, no team. Was known for a long time that they're useless without him. Changes necessary if want to compete above tier 3 again. Regards
2025-02-17 22:18
4
"The North American team are 0-12 in maps against male opposition this year. " 💀💀
2025-02-17 22:23
28
yet again losing to a dead team is insane. good that Elige dodged this
2025-02-17 22:29
3
#16
TaZ | 
Poland Karti20
Srsly poor Halzerk... but only Complexity can lose 11-3 lead on enemy map.... srsly what the hell is this team outside of Halzerk?
2025-02-17 22:39
3
also, "Life was always going to be* hard" @NER0cs
2025-02-17 22:46
1
go play women's league
2025-02-18 01:28
0
#22
 | 
Singapore rshcaz
This just shows how much worse imperial Fe are if they can’t even win this clown squad
2025-02-18 02:06
5
Juggernaut Jason Lake is proud of his boys
2025-02-18 05:52
0
Elige legit carried harder then donk
2025-02-18 11:12
3
1 reply
I've been saying this
2025-02-18 11:26
0
#33
Faceit level 4  | 
 | 
Israel mcnamaras_EEEdiots
this team loses to FLUFFY AIMERS/BOSS 6/10 times
2025-02-18 12:22
0
"The North American team are 0-12 in maps against male opposition this year." DAMN
2025-02-18 15:31
0
Though they are not performing and none if this is objectively wrong, it just feels kinda mean with how its written. Cant remember reading something this harsh in a while
2025-02-18 20:48
0
#36
Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
 | 
Greece her-1g
Ofcourse elige made us look like a normal team but floppy shouldnt have left. Grim, hallzerk and JT were actually the problematic players. Grim is shit constantly the past 3 years, JT calls fail so fucking hard every time abd hallzerk is basically an fpl player atm. I cant judge nicx and cxzi but adding 2 unproven players to a collapsing team cant and wont work
2025-02-18 21:09
0
Why do some of the HLTV staff and a large majority of their readers seem to get satisfaction from rubbing salt in the wounds of teams and players and kicking others while they’re down? Lots of you people need mental help.
2025-02-19 22:51
0
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