Across the history of professional Counter-Strike, we have seen numerous organizations from all over the world become part of one of the greatest games in history in pursuit of leaving their own mark – in pursuit of achieving greatness. However, many have failed to leave a significant mark, and very few are those that have been here since the dawn of the competitive scene and are still putting their best efforts toward making progress. One great example of such a team is the American esports organization and powerhouse – Complexity Gaming.
Founded in 2003 and having joined CS 1.6 in 2004 with a team consisting of US CS legends like Danny “fRoD” Montaner, Tyler “Storm” Wood, Corey “tr1p” Dodd, and Sean “Bullseye” Morgan, CoL laid the foundations of one of North America’s greatest Counter-Strike dynasties. Competing in 1.6, CS:Source, CS:GO, and CS2, depending on when you saw your first CoL match, you’ve probably seen a very different face of the team compared to someone else.
Whether you tuned in to one of their games in 2014, when CoL’s colors were represented by swag, seang@res, n0thing, Hiko, and SEMPHIS, in 2019 when the jersey had names like stanislaw, ShahZaM, Rickeh, and oBo on its back, or in 2021/22, when the international arc of blameF, k0nfig, poizon, jks, RUSH, and es3tag was going on, you probably found a reason to sympathize with Complexity and the love and dedication shown by CEO and founder – Jason B. Lake.
But the main purpose of this article is not to speak about all the changes, the acquisition of a majority stake in the organization by the Dallas Cowboys and John Goff, GameSquare Esports’ mark in 2021, or the fact that, in the end, Jason Lake was able to re-acquire CoL for $10.36 million in 2024 – no. The reason it is important to mention the history of Complexity’s Counter-Strike team, however, is to help better understand one of the main axioms that Jason Lake and his team seem to have followed since day one – and one that CoL was “forced” to go back to after losing NA legend Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski at the start of 2025: “When the roots are deep, there is no reason to fear the wind.”
A Total Rebuild
With Complexity’s disappointing results toward the latter stages of 2024 and not making it past the Challengers Stage of the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, the time for changes had come. On January 1st, 2025, CoL announced the removal of 3-year team veteran Ricky “floppy” Kemery, whose contract was terminated by mutual agreement. But that was not really the big hit the team had to endure.
Across the history of the organization’s CS presence, there have not been many players with the status of NA superstar Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski defending the Complexity colors. A blockbuster signing in June of 2023 saw the now 27-year-old American join CoL in pursuit of his own career’s revival and to provide the necessary experience, professionalism, and world-class firepower that every team needs. So when rumors about EliGE’s departure and potential transfer to FaZe Clan arose, many started to worry about Complexity’s way forward.
The team had just struggled to find good form even with EliGE being one of the best riflers in the world, and losing him would only throw the team into even bigger disarray—which was the tough reality CoL had to face on January 9th, when EliGE officially left the team to follow in the footsteps of ex-Liquid teammate and another NA CS legend – Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken – and leave NA to join Finn “karrigan” Andersen on FaZe Clan.
“To lift trophies, you have to invest a tremendous amount of money in your roster. At the time EliGE was on the team, the team was costing us between $1 and $2 million a year, so it’s not like we weren’t investing. But when you put that in perspective, there are definitely organizations that were investing significantly more than the couple million we were investing. Simply put – Complexity didn’t have the budget for a trophy-winning team with EliGE.”– Jason B. Lake via an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) video on Complexity’s YouTube channel.
But what direction would CoL take after parting ways with both floppy and EliGE? The financial incapability of building a superstar-powered team seemed to leave the organization with two realistic options: following the example of NA rivals M80 and Wildcard and looking for solutions in the European Tier 2 scene, or going deep into the North American scene in search of the next NA talents who could be shaped into future Tier 1 players. But as already clarified, keeping the North American identity and investing in the local scene had always been of utmost importance for CoL. So, at the start of January, Complexity announced the signings of two NA Tier 2 up-and-comers – Danny “cxzi” Strzelczyk and Nick “nicx” Lee.
The addition of cxzi would see the 24-year-old finally get a shot at Tier 1 after years of bouncing between different teams in the T2 NA scene, with Triumph, Strife, Nouns, Forsaken, and Party Astronauts being some of the most notable names. His most recent project made him a teammate of Josh “steel” Nissan in Undone. Cxzi was known for being one of the brightest talents in North America, with his confident and almost reckless style of play perfectly fitting the stereotype of the “NA aimer.”
On the other hand, 20-year-old nicx was a much fresher name in the scene. Having started his professional career in 2023 with Take Flyte and going through teams like LAG and timbermen, nicx was on the verge of joining Tier 2 NA side Nouns at the end of 2024 but ended up being the final piece in Complexity’s American reconstruction.
Growing Pains and Hope
As expected, the start of the year was anything but flawless for CoL. Losing 6 out of their first 7 Bo3s in 0-2 fashion against VP, Eternal Fire, Liquid, The MongolZ, VP again, and SAW, and picking up only one victory over Imperial Valkyries in their first three tournaments of the year had put the team on shaky legs. It would be unfair to say there were no close maps and opportunities for JT and co. in some of those matches—with the team getting 10 rounds on both maps in their first loss against Virtus.Pro, losing Train in overtime against EF, and playing other competitive maps against Liquid and SAW—but as stated by JT in an interview during the team’s run at IEM Katowice 2025:
“We have played some good halves, especially on T sides, but we have to keep working on our CT sides and on the individual mistakes.”
Complexity was going through the motions of adapting two home-grown players to Tier 1 Counter-Strike, where room for silly individual mistakes is incredibly limited. Even though the potential was there, it was obvious that the team could not afford to keep losing because of how relentless the VRS is—once a team gets brushed aside, returning to the list of teams participating in most big events feels like climbing the steepest of mountains. And Complexity were definitely not keen on getting their climbing equipment out.
The crisis was getting harsher for Complexity, and another change was in place. A little over a month after the team’s 0-2 loss to SAW in PGL Cluj-Napoca, CoL announced the departure of 3-year-long coach Tiaan “T.c” Coertzen. For many, that proved the team was ready to change anything to find the right way forward—even if the next coach had yet to be announced.
However, Complexity had one more opportunity to show progress and fight for its place in big events – the North American qualifiers. After returning home from Cluj, CoL finally started showing signs of recovery. Posting 6 consecutive wins, losing only one map across five Bo3s and the Bo5 Grand Final of the PGL Bucharest NA Closed Qualifier against teams like Take Flyte, BLUEJAYS, and Wildcard, CoL was finally shining—with Michael “Grim” Wince (1.28 rating) and Håkon “hallzerk” Fjærli (1.26) taking matters into their own hands and the IGL JT fitting swiftly into space-taking roles on both T and CT sides. Both he and Grim seemed to be taking much more initiative compared to 2024, helping the integration of the cxzi and nicx duo.
Fast forward to the YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025 Closed Qualifier, and it was finally time for CoL to return to international competition and show if the momentum they had built in NA could make a difference against European teams—and it did. Complexity not only qualified for YaLLa Qatar (which later ended up switching from LAN to an online event), but did so flawlessly. Beating Nemiga, Imperial Valkyries, Metizport, 9 Pandas, and Passion UA in Bo1 games while losing merely 32 rounds in 5 maps of CS (an average of 6.4 rounds per map)—but what had changed?
Both cxzi and nicx registered their best events so far in the CoL jersey, but their respective 1.52 and 1.27 ratings were not the most important part of that showing. It was the comfort, the confidence, and the initiative they were taking in opening fights on both CT and T sides. Both cxzi and nicx finally looked deserving of the space and freedom they were given—but they looked more controlled, calculated, and quite frankly, less impetuous.
Of course, 5 Bo1 games cannot act as convincing proof that CoL is on the right track. But with the team taking down both Falcons (2:0) and FURIA (2:1) at the start of their PGL Bucharest 2025 campaign, both Grim and cxzi looking as sharp as ever on the entries, and Complexity posting the best flashes, highest 4v5 conversion, multi-kill, and second-highest 5v4 conversion rates—it finally looks like there might be some hope for North America’s protagonists.
It is still difficult to predict how far this Complexity team can go—or even if they will be able to progress further, or if this current improvement is simply a flash in the pan. But if we’ve learned anything from following the journey of different CoL iterations over the years, it’s that Complexity Gaming will never give up on fighting for North America’s hopes. No matter the adversity or the challenges, this team will keep fighting to stay in the foothills of the Counter-Strike mountain.
