JT: "It's going to take time to get to that [playoff] level consistently"

"Today was kind of a struggle from the get-go," the South African captain said after the loss to GamerLegion.

Complexity have been sent packing at IEM Melbourne following a 2-1 loss to GamerLegion in Group A's lower bracket semi-final. The North American outfit had a favorable veto but surprisingly couldn't get much going on Train and Nuke, two of their strongest maps of late.

"It just wasn't a good day for us, honestly," Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou told HLTV after the match. "I think we played better the other days, and today was kind of a struggle from the get-go."

Date	Matches
IEM Melbourne 2025
21/04/2025	The MongolZ Finished 2:1 Complexity	Match
22/04/2025	paiN Finished 0:2 Complexity	Match
23/04/2025	Complexity Finished 1:2 GamerLegion	Match

After the deep run at PGL Bucharest, the early exit in Melbourne could feel like a one-step-forward-two-steps-back moment, but JT is looking more into the process than the result.

" I'm trying not to put any expectations on us right now," he said. "I think we have the capabilities of making the playoffs again, but I also know it's going to take time for the new guys and for us as well to get to that level consistently."

Read more in the interview below, or listen to it on Spotify.

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A 2-1 loss to GamerLegion and you're out of the tournament. What do you think went wrong today? Because even looking at the map veto, it felt like you had a strong chance to take this one, with Train and Nuke being so good for you lately.

Yeah, I think the veto for us was really good. We just didn't come out well on the T side of Train. We usually have a really good T side and we were just kind of flat the whole game, so we lost that map. I'm happy that we won Ancient. We've been putting in a lot of work on Ancient, and we played it pretty well today. It just wasn't a good day for us, honestly. I think we played better the other days, and today was kind of a struggle from the get-go.

The last couple of weeks were very hectic for the team. You went from Bucharest back to NA for the MRQ and then you flew here.  Do you think that played a role in your preparation for this one?

Yes, it definitely played a role in it. We haven't had a lot of time to actually have practice days and scrim days and stuff like that because we've just been playing matches almost every single day or flying the next day. We're going to have a lot of time now to practice and create these things and review the matches we played. I think that will help us in the next tournaments after the fourth place in Bucharest.

Do you look at this as a setback, or do you think this is something normal and part of the process, with you having two young players on the team that are still getting used to this level of competition?

 I'm trying not to put any expectations on us right now. We're just playing the game. I think we should have won today. I think we have the capabilities of making the playoffs again, but I also know it's going to take time for the new guys and for us as well to get to that level consistently. But I'm happy that we are at least competing at a high level right now and we actually have a chance of making playoffs in general.

Going out of the tournament this early is obviously rough, but what are the positives that you can take from this tournament?

I think the positive is that the team in general had good composure. We still worked hard. We still came to each game with a level mindset, even though we came here like super jet lagged and with bad conditions in general. We still competed pretty closely in all our matches, and I think that's a good sign for the team for the future.

 Next up is the Major, which is obviously going to be a massive deal for Complexity. You'll have more than a month to prepare for that one. What is the plan?

We don't have the exact plans yet, but we will be doing a bootcamp and obviously practicing for the next month. Like I said before, we will review the games that we've played because we haven't really had the chance to do that. And then also just add new strats and create new things because we haven't done that. We haven't really been doing that now. I mean, we have a month, so we have a lot of work to do. Just practice in NA and Europe, I think.

I also wanted to ask about the coaching situation. You still haven't announced a replacement for T.c. Are you still looking into it?  Is it just a matter of not having found the right fit just yet?

 The final decision is not on me, but I think the process right now is that we're still looking into it. It's just a work in progress. We don't know exactly what we're going to do yet.