Complexity replace Spirit at IEM Melbourne due to health issues *

12-4-2025 10:16

The Russian side has withdrawn from the tournament.

Update 10:15 : Health issues the reason for Spirit's withdrawal

Upon being contacted by HLTV, Spirit shared that the reason for their withdrawal from the tournament is a health issue.

"We had every intention to play in Melbourne, but health issues unfortunately came in the way and made us decline. This is very unfortunate, but health always comes first," a representative told HLTV.

Original story:

Spirit have withdrawn from IEM Melbourne and replaced by Complexity, ESL has announced.

The organizers have not specified the reason for the Russian side's withdrawal, only sharing that the decision was made on April 4. HLTV has reached out to Spirit for comment.

Complexity came in as the replacement as the highest-ranked team as of the March invitation VRS to accept and be able to obtain visas in time. G2, FURIA, Astralis, Wildcard, B8 and HEROIC were approached before them but declined to attend.

The organizers further announced that 15 out of 16 teams have obtained visas to attend the event, and that only one player's visa is outstanding as of Friday, April 11.

This is the second team change at IEM Melbourne. SAW previously replaced Aurora at the tournament taking place from April 21-27.

SAW invited to IEM Melbourne as Eternal Fire withdraw from event

The updated team list looks as follows:

nice gl

2025-04-11 15:39

ez grand slam for Vitality

212

20 replies

not if ash has a say in it

2025-04-11 16:24

18 replies

xd he can't even win falcons

2025-04-11 16:25

16 replies

it was a close game despite them getting unlucky on the last two maps

2025-04-11 16:29

14 replies

what r u talking about, r we watched the same game, both map went 13-7 and it wasn't even close

2025-04-11 16:30

12 replies

look man, just let me be a delusional fan in peace

2025-04-11 22:07

8 replies

didnt watch the whole game, but i do think that kyxsan got pretty lucky on inferno no?

2025-04-12 12:21

1 reply

I would say so XD

2025-04-12 12:26

Flair doesn't check out, why not Demars Derover?

2025-04-12 20:24

5 replies

wdym?

2025-04-12 21:17

4 replies

Siuhy in liquid so the coach of liquid

2025-04-12 22:17

3 replies

What?

2025-04-12 22:18

2 replies

Broo, your flair is siuhy so you would think u are a liquid fan too now, why say ash that is in gamerlegion where siuhy not is. You don't say the coach of liquid "Demars Derover"

2025-04-12 22:23

I wouldn't call myself a Liquid fan yet. siuhy's on trial with them, we'll see if they're a match. And who says I can't be a fan of multiple teams or individuals? Do me a favor and check out my profile.

2025-04-12 22:37

Bro can't indetify a joke when he sees one xD

2025-04-12 10:34

Good job with spotting one, lad

2025-04-12 11:00

I can't lie, I wasn't joking #112

2025-04-12 11:22

13-7 aint a close game bud

2025-04-11 19:53

how does one win a team

2025-04-12 10:54

good luck...:)

2025-04-12 10:30

nt goatzerk and co are in the server now

2025-04-12 18:48

saving strats for major

2027

2025-04-11 15:41

yep they are repeating themselves, last time they skipped rio to take a break to then win in shanghai. this time tho, im convinced this will not work

2025-04-11 16:04

let em cook

EZ for COL

Event dodgers

bunch of wussies!

2025-04-11 15:51

aussies*

2025-04-11 22:03

Congratulations vitality on winning ESL Grand Slam

Vitality owns spirit. It doesn't matter if spirit participate in this tournament or not

2025-04-15 11:23

Changes before major? pog

6 replies

No, Visa issues

wait, how did u know

2025-04-11 15:53

this is not why, or team spirit would have directly said this. Source: you're a jackass

2025-04-11 16:17

Okay, the real reason is they don't play more than 2 tournaments in a row.

2025-04-11 16:19

also objectively untrue lol source: check event history

2025-04-11 20:04

Hahaha

2025-04-12 16:02

dolba :(((

wtf

cool

Incoming back to back final appearances at Australian events for CoL

That's the plan

2025-04-11 17:35

Maybe Spirit are making some roster changes?? or what may have caused this?

overdrive said that a lot of things are happening but he cant talk about them so quite possible

Yeah, probably they’re going to make some changes before the major or they don’t want to reveal their strats so they won’t play many more tournaments until then

2025-04-11 16:05

if they were legit making a roster change, they would want to give the new player a few events to settle in

2025-04-11 16:26

Not if it is kyousuke. He will be unleashed like a monster at Major for the first time catching every single soul off guard.

2025-04-12 15:36

We already know that Kyousuke is NOT going to Spirit. The only place that he is rumoured to go to is Falcons. Spirit dodging T1 event's isn't anything new. They did that a bunch in 2024.. They skipped an IEM or a BLAST event last year to go to BETBOOM lol. They are 100% lying about the ''health issue''. They just don't want to go to events to hold their ranking because Valve still hasn't done anything to punish teams.

2025-04-12 17:12

Dodging another event wtf?

2025-04-11 15:40

Oh lol qa

2025-04-12 12:13

And the first match will be Vitality vs Complexity (maybe not true)

and complexity will knock them out

2025-04-11 16:07

and then you wake up

2025-04-11 18:48

In the world with beaten Vitality by Complexity. True, true.

2025-04-12 13:09

its possible but not likely

2025-04-12 13:32

kyousuke

visa

no kyousuke

NOOOOOOOOOOO DONK

Donk is afraid to shit his pants in front of nettik. Understandable

I did not spend all this money to watch the French 3-0 mouz to win the Grand Slam.

at least you get to boo Liquid

2025-04-11 16:27

liquid aint even making playoffs

2025-04-11 18:04

DODGING FRAGADELPHIA WHAT IN THE WORLD

2025-04-11 15:42

fat cunt chopper prolly lost his nose magnets

2025-04-12 18:36

Congratulations to Team Vitality for winning the 5th Season of the ESL Grand Slam!

WTFF Whyy

"Unspecified reason" is probably "f that long ass flight & aussie heat"

Melbourne is coldest City in the mainland and it's going to be during their winter aka -2 degrees mornings

2025-04-11 15:55

I think most of the players from Spirit are used to this kind of weather. And this weather is not cold at all

2025-04-11 15:56

Yeah it's a breeze for them Eli from Russia had no issues He said they are skipping because of the heat though

2025-04-11 15:59

Bro, on Sunday it is 30'C, in the middle of Australian winter. That is hot AF compared to Russia at this time of year.

2025-04-11 17:17

Dodging Vita nice

2025-04-11 15:43

good

"unspecified reason" :D

2025-04-11 15:44

"dodging event reason"

2025-04-11 16:48

Lost the last respect I had for them. Disgusting.

2025-04-11 15:45

LMAO WHAT

nt fakeflagging ruski

2025-04-11 16:32

donk come to falcons bro they will not make you skip events

2025-04-11 15:47

Why the fuck any team can withdraw from events and nothing happen to them? it should be at least a fine

2025-04-11 15:48

Everyone's dad could have died and the funeral dates overlapped on iem for all we know, I reckon it's cause it's too hot and that swamp ass feeling at the end of a long flight.

2025-04-11 17:05

Then why accept in the first place, nobody should care about they circumstances, there is impact that they've done and there should be consequences, AT LEAST a fine

2025-04-11 17:22

-5 russians in the tournament, wtf you should have been happy

2025-04-11 17:25

Yeah, you definitely know that you'll break your leg or your father will die 6 months prior. Monkey IQ...

2025-04-12 10:26

USA RAHHH

Dodging lans in big 2025 is mad crazy

if spirit ever dodges a betboom event, i will forgive them.

2025-04-11 15:50

I hope m0NESY rejected Failcons

why do they invite teams that already rejected the invite? if they rejected when they were first invited they shouldn't be invited again, those teams g2, furia, etc have had to reject the invite 3 times, is that aligned with the rules? it doesn't make sense

2025-04-11 15:52

vrs bro they cant do that

2025-04-11 15:57

yeah but it doesn't make any sense

3.2.5 Directly invited VRS Rosters may only accept an invitation for a Tournament if: c) The Roster has not previously declined an invitation to the same Tournament. Those teams you talk about: they only got invited once.

2025-04-11 20:58

that's a new rule, isn't it? that they recently updated if you read this article and the one that saw got invited you'll see that those teams were invited 3 teams, it's that simple

2025-04-11 22:09

I checked and it turns out that got added 2 weeks ago. Good catch. I guess valve also agreed, it doesn't make sense.

2025-04-11 22:12

I guess then the new rules only applies to invites that happens after the rule was updated

2025-04-11 22:44

free money for vitality

kyousuke joining visa issues, heard it here first

faze vs complexity rematch incoming

2025-04-11 15:58

Already no g2 then now EF/Aurora + spirit so free for vita

noooooooooo

2025-04-11 16:01

Spirit too lazy.

Roster changes must be.

2025-04-11 16:13

Or they are afraid of drop bears.

2025-04-11 16:22

Cant blame them. I lived in Melbourne for 10 years and everyone carries around a big stick juuuuuuust in case of those damn bears.

2025-04-11 18:03

This poor reporter almost got viciously attacked: youtube.com/watch?v=KCGUNpzjD6M

2025-04-12 00:48

thats a banger

2025-04-12 12:27

Someone's afraid of spiders it's seems like :) Respectfully

2025-04-11 16:18

are they dodging Vitality or wut

Easiest trophy for MOUZ. Let's go!

2025-04-11 16:21

why would b8 decline an invite

botality will lose this anyway

dont they have MRQ that week?

So It's Happening, They Are Replacing Magixx With Kyousuke And Going For A Bootcamp To Incorporate Him In The Team

2025-04-11 16:36

Maybe

2025-04-11 16:46

Visa issues? ^^,

fuck yes, col way more exciting to watch than boring ass donk carries

2025-04-11 16:50

I want my money back

2025-04-11 16:52

Scared of Zywoo

2025-04-11 16:53

riddle me this: were spirit already LAN dodgers before donk joined? or is it possible that donk has some health or other problem (still enrolled in some kind of schooling? getting his driver's license?) and they are taking these longer breaks to accomodate him?

2025-04-11 17:13

sh1ro has mental problems (device 2.0) and pain in his back, donk doesn't have anything like that, he wants to play the game, while the rest of Spirit don't really

2025-04-11 18:05

interesting. donk will have pain issues soon enough though, just looking at his goofy posture and walk.

2025-04-11 18:38

he won't, he is short, I have even worse posture and never had any issues with my back

2025-04-11 18:43

but shiro is just as short and you say he has back pain.

2025-04-11 19:11

I think shiro is slightly taller. donk is about 4 feet tall, shiro about 5 feet tall.

2025-04-12 00:50

donk change game to valorant, check HLTV

2025-04-11 17:23

Vladimir Putin the russian president came out recently with his recent speech to the russian federation, that he wants Donk back, to join the russian military. He knows he is the best aimer in the server and outside the server.

2025-04-11 17:29

Saving strats to play vs NiP on Astana

2025-04-11 18:10

lmfao

2025-04-13 02:36

I am sure that donk wants play every event maybe 1 week of ogrinding like Aurora. He will pissed off. That is a team decisiin anyway. Lets see how it goes.

2025-04-11 18:17

great another boring tournament

2025-04-11 18:23

Nice this means NaVi can win this trophy.

2025-04-11 18:39

i wanted to see donk live :(

2025-04-11 20:13

The heartbreak is real bro, so depressing eh! Especially having looked forward to seeing donk like for 3 months, then bam! Just under 2 weeks out, Australia/NZ never get any tournaments that’s what people don’t understand, Europe gets unlimited tourneys a year so they can just drive an hour or 2 anywhere to see it, we live literally halfway across the world and get 1 tourney every 3-4 years so this is true heartbreak fml! So pissed off

2025-04-11 21:44

there'll be a next time in 2028

2025-04-12 10:31

We'll take it 💯

2025-04-11 21:18

10 hours of flying from Dunedin NZ to Melbourne, bought tickets and accomodation 3 months ago the day they were announced, been watching the pro scene daily since 2013, NZ will never have an event ever so make the massive track to Aus… Donk pulls out last minute “fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu MF!!!!!”

2025-04-11 21:34

How come a flight from NZ to AU is 10 hrs? They look so close to eachother on the map.

2025-04-12 10:35

I’m in Dunedin which is bottom of the South Island and doesn’t have direct flights to Australia, 2 hour flight to Auckland (2 hour layover) 5 hour flight to Melbourne from Auckland

2025-04-12 22:05

Well that's quite a long trip indeed. Unfortunate if you were planning to see Spirit there :(

2025-04-12 22:54

Let's goooo Complexity

2025-04-11 21:36

Yep, that simplifies things for Vitality. Go clean in group, beat any 2 top 10 teams in playoffs, barring Aurora, and they get the Grand Slam. We eating good this season.

2025-04-11 22:17

That's why vitality doesn't participate any pgl tournament right now😂

2025-04-12 02:21

Vitality also dodge pgl event .

2025-04-12 02:20

ezforvita

meds for spirit players

2025-04-12 10:42

They are unfit to play

2025-04-12 10:44

Cap

spirit really said "yeah imma be sick that day"

2025-04-12 10:55

imo mouz will win melbourne and vita wins the next IEM to get the igs

2025-04-12 11:09

feels like a dodge. well. grand slam incoming for vitality it seems

2025-04-12 11:12

health issues is fake, Spirit gots player VISA issues which is fact

2025-04-12 11:19

i don't see any reason why they should faking it, if having visa issue

2025-04-12 12:36

scared of vita and mouz?

2025-04-12 11:26

Getting a refund

2025-04-12 12:44

Would be a perfect opportunity to let kyousuke stand in if just one of the players got sick. Couldn't get a visa in time I guess?

2025-04-12 12:45

Health issues my ass. Sp0r0t are just scared.

2025-04-12 13:17

Good decision, who wants to fly 20hours god knows where?

2025-04-12 13:28

Typical American...

2025-04-13 09:10

Mentally unfit to vs zywoo in 2025 will have a term in the latest Oxford dictionary Just waiting for a thesis turned PhD to lock in Then said spirit played can be exempt looking back

2025-04-12 13:34

other one xd

2025-04-12 14:26

ok. Now Falcons should withdraw next. They shouldnt be allowed to play in the first place tbh

2025-04-12 14:44

seems like a bullshit excuse. anyone in team spirit could be replaced with a stand in from spirit academy. it would be the perfect time to bring in kyousuke. not like they have anything to lose with VRS.

2025-04-12 15:45

So, if chopper is ill, they should replace him with kyousuke?

2025-04-13 10:55

does spirit academy not have an igl? whats the harm in giving him some experience?

2025-04-13 13:43

Well, answering a question with a question is not nice. As for you question, I think the main roster has too high of ambitions and resources dedicated to them to consider such experiments just for the sake of giving young IGL some experience. It's also would be very high demand of a guy that play in Tier3 where all the tactics and strategy are much simpler.

2025-04-13 14:27

spirit academy has been tier 2 for a while now and beaten good tier 2 teams like betboom, b8 and 3d max. what is this talk about spirit ambitions and experiments? you're acting like this will have a lasting negative effect on them or something. their org and players would make money from playing in the event, it is a job at the end of the day. not much money for the players with the prize structure at IEM melbourne, but the org would be benefiting from it. even a 8th place finish gives the org 40k, which they could get or higher with a stand in. the only valid excuse is that nobody could get a visa in time.

2025-04-13 15:09

Very nice. Now we as a community need VP to choke in groupstage and we have a tournament with no majority russian teams

2025-04-12 16:19

how many times are their players gonna get sick, this is unreal

2025-04-12 17:42

Ez flyquest home advantage

2025-04-12 19:32

So is Complexity doing the NA MRQ online? The only way they come back to NA in time is being the first to get eliminated at Melbourne.

2025-04-12 19:40

"Complexity replace" on the recent activity sidebar is crazy bait

2025-04-12 22:07

JUST WONDERING HOW MUCH MONEY TEAM SPIRIT GOT UNDER THE TABLE, TO SKIP THIS TOURNAMENT :)))) IT IS CLEAR THEY SKIPPED SO MONESY AND NIKO CAN MEET AT THE FINAL............

2025-04-12 22:44