Complexity had a strong start to CS2 as they finished runners-up at IEM Sydney and made it to the semi-finals of BLAST Premier Fall Final.
However, since then, their form has tapered off a bit, and the North American team will probably be disappointed by the results that closed out their 2023.
With the 2024 LAN calendar about to get underway at BLAST Premier Spring Groups, we sat down with IGL JT to talk about Complexity's form, the new teams entering BLAST, and whether those teams can cause a disruption at the very top.
Complexity had a pretty strong start to life in CS2. Was that the EliGE effect kicking in or is it down to other reasons?
"I think a big part of it was EliGE. He's been playing really well in CS2 and he's brought a lot to the team since he joined but I think it would be wrong to say that the rest of us haven't improved and haven't been working hard since CS2 came around.
For all of us, I think the change of game and change of environment has been very good as It's been a good opportunity for us to just try to outwork the other teams."
You’ve mentioned everyone improving but if we could focus on your own improvements, you’ve been really strong in both an individual level and calling-wise. Do you feel like those two factors have been elevated by the transition to CS2?
"It's hard to tell with the switch or if it’s just the change of the roster. I think with EliGE coming in I'm playing more of the roles that I'm more comfortable with and when I'm more comfortable in the game, it's easier for me to just make the right calls and also just play well.
I think that in my opinion, that's been the biggest thing, but I'm enjoying the mechanics of the utility and stuff like that in CS2 and that’s made it really easy for me to be creative and stuff like that."
There were plenty of complaints about the new smokes when they were first shown off by the developers. Now that you’ve had time to play around with them and see how they play out in-game, what are your thoughts on them?
"I think at the start they were really cool and fun, but I think now it's getting the game to the point that everyone has found out how to use it. It's becoming a thing where It's making a game a little more random, but I think it's in a good way.
I think teams are being super creative and it’s nice that there’s no way I’m being blocked by a smoke for a whole minute like I was in CS:GO. I guess it just depends if you like that or not. In general, the games are a lot more fast-paced there are a lot more things happening at all at the same time.
I think a lot of people just like to see how creative each team can be and how they can work around being able to blow up the smokes and being able to go through the smokes and the fact that there are no more one-ways in general. I think it's a good change in my opinion, but I think we’ll have to wait a few months to see how it all plays out."
Those solid results at Fall Final and Sydney seemed to slow down at Challenger and Elisa, why do you think the team struggled more at those events?
"I think the team in general, at least I believe, is still very inexperienced and we're still trying to work on raising our skill floor in general because I think we're pretty inconsistent right now. I think we can beat any team, but we can also lose to a lot of teams that we shouldn't be losing to.
We're just trying to build ourselves up so we don't keep making those small mistakes that the other teams aren't making, and if we do that, we'll improve our consistency.
But I think right now, we're pretty inconsistent and we know that so we're just trying to build our fundamentals and work on the small things.
Because we didn't make any roster changes like other teams did I'm hoping that we're able to go in confident and on the same page and that we can make sure we play well."
Is returning from a break more difficult when you're in an NA team and you don't get to play EU teams as you're trying to get back up to steam?
"Honestly, I think the NA teams have actually been pretty impressive since we started practising in the last two weeks. We've actually been able to have a lot of teams to practice against and have full days of practice, I think because of the RMR qualifiers a lot of teams are just putting in a lot of work right now.
I think NA is getting a lot better, we've had a lot of good practice while we've been here and obviously we don't know how well the European teams are playing without playing them, but it's been a good time for us."
Are there any teams that have impressed you in particular while you've been in NA?
"I think Wildcard, Nouns, and M80 have all been playing really well. They seem like they're all on the same page now. Nouns and Wildcard are here with us at the Complexity HQ bootcamping and I can see that they're putting in a lot of work. I can't really name a specific team that's impressed me, but in general the NA teams are doing a good job right now."
In terms of BLAST Premier itself, there are some new teams participating this year. How do you think those teams will raise the level of competition?
"Honestly, it's hard to tell. I haven't really put a lot of thought into Liquid and Falcons, I think we'll have to see how Liquid plays and Falcons is basically just ENCE with a couple of changes, so obviously they'll be good.
I think Spirit is a really good team and they've just gotten even better with the signing of sh1ro. It'll be interesting to play them and see how they play against the other teams because I think they're really good and they don't get a lot of opportunities compared to the other teams.
They have a good chance to be a tier one or even top 5 team in my opinion."
With Liquid and Falcons looking like they should be strong on paper, and with you already thinking Spirit are good, are you expecting things at the top to look different in the early months of 2024, or do you think it will be similar to the end of 2023?
"Again, it's hard to tell. I think it'll be mostly the same, it'd be surprising if Falcons, Liquid, or Spirit are able to just beat everybody and be a top one or two team in the world.
I think it will still take time for them to gel together and prove their worth. With roster changes you never know how good a team is going to be until they actually play, so we'll just have to wait and see how they play together and how they play against other teams before we can form real opinions.
But, like I said before, I think Spirit are a really good team and I think they've already shown impressive stuff. They should be even better now so I wouldn't be surprised if they're able to break through to the top."
Now that Liquid have a core from the Americas again, do you think the element of rivalry between the two teams will come back?
"I feel like the rivalry isn't really there anymore since they're not really an NA team like we are. I guess EliGE came to us from Liquid so maybe that's a small rivalry that's still there, but I think they're just a worldwide team now and it's hard to put them against us and have that comparison like we used to.
We'll have to see, maybe we have some big games against them, I don't think you have to be from the same region to have a rivalry. We had some really good matches against FaZe recently and it felt like we had a rivalry there for a little bit."
You've been handed a group with G2, NAVI, and NIP. How are you feeling about that?
"I have a feeling it's a really good group for us. I think we match well against all the teams. That's all I have to say really, it's a good group for us and we should be able to do well. I'm happy with it."
BLAST Premier Spring groups begin on the 22nd of January, and you can watch all the action here on BLAST.tv.
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