Currently on a six-game win streak, albeit against teams of lesser standards than themselves, things might be looking up for Complexity and North American Counter-Strike. Currently ranked number 25 in the world, according to the official HLTV rankings, Complexity will be looking to prove themselves on the biggest of stages when group d of ESL Pro League Season 18 kicks off later today (September 20th.). 

Whilst Liquid, although international, are still looking like the stronger of the two North American organizations, Complexity are ready to ignite a fire under their new-look roster. Having left the aforementioned Team Liquid to join Complexity, star-player Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski will look to further strengthen the Complexity roster. We spoke with Complexity member Ricky "floppy" Kemery about his new teammate and their chances at the upcoming event.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"complexity-sign-elige","isNewTab":true}]

Whilst there is no doubt about the in-game capabilities of "EliGE", the 26-year-old rifler brings more than just raw individual ability. When asked about the strengths of his new teammate, "floppy" immediately pointed toward his experience as a clear strong suit, both in-game and in training. 

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Optimistic for the future of Complexity, "floppy" has his eyes set on future silverware. With the addition of "EliGE" the 23-year-old rifler has Complexity written down as potential championship winners. 

Whilst currently on a six-game win streak, the level of ability in the North American CS:GO scene is known to be considerably lower than in the EU scene. With ESL Pro League Season 18 containing all the biggest of CS:GO names in the world, "floppy" and Complexity are looking at a completely different beast than usual. When asked about their role in NA CS:GO the American anchor said the following: 

"floppy" and Complexity look to start the ESL Pro League Season 18 campaign with a victory against 9INE later today (September 20th.). The brawl between the two rosters is set to kick off at 19.30 (EST). 

You can watch the exclusive interview with "floppy" ahead of ESL Pro League down below: 

floppy

EliGE

compLexity Gaming

The RMR tournament in Sweden has been a big success for NA Counter-Strike. Four teams are now 2-0 up. Three of them are from North America which guarantees a spot in Rio for at least one of them, when the four teams will be matched against each other tomorrow.

Team Liquid and Complexity were both paired with Brazilian opponents in their second match of the day. It took Team Liquid a series of overtime to defeat MIBR 19-16. Again Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis was pivotal for Liquid, as the Latvian ended the map dropping 30 kills.

For Complexity the job got done in a very convincing fashion. On Ancient Ricky 'floppy' Kemery and the rest of the roster completely shut down paiN in the second half. floppy went 12-0 in the half, where paiN did not win a single round. Complexity won the match 16-7.

The schedule for tomorrow has not yet been made. The matches between the four "2-0" teams will be played as best of three's.

Team Liquid

paiN

MIBR

CS:GO is a game where big changes are rarely made to the game. This is also true for the active maps, for a long time there were no changes in the active official map pool. With Ancient and Vertigo being the most recent additions to the official map pool, some things have changed, however, there are still some iconic maps to choose from. 

With thousands of hours put into the game and only a limited amount of maps in the official map pool, professional players have become more than just accustomed to the different maps, their playing style, and also how they look. 

But how good is your own CS:GO map knowledge? Can you guess the map and location from nothing other than a screenshot? Test yourself against the iconic "shox" and one of NA's best aimers "floppy" in a game of CS:GO map knowledge. 

shox

The BLAST Premier Spring Showdown consists of a Bo3 single-elimination bracket, which means that every match is life or death. The winner will take one of the remaining two spots at BLAST Premier Spring Final 2022.

Here we give you a run-through of the teams, that we have placed in different brackets; Favorites, Contenders, and Outsiders.

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has throughout the last couple of years cemented themselves as one of the strongest teams in the Americas, and as the best team in Brazil. With a combination of uncontrollable aggression and enormous amounts of talent, this squad has proven to be one of the hardest teams to play against. After acquiring "drop" and "saffee" the team has been trending upwards, and if all their pieces are working they will be very hard to deal with.

Player to watch: {cflag:BR} Andrei "arT" Piovezan is by far the most aggressive player in the world both stylistically and statistically. Furthermore, he is one of the most successful players in opening duels making him an extremely exciting, unique, and entertaining player.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/shox_klg49w","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

had a rough start to the year after some big roster changes, but they have started showing why they should still be considered one of the top contenders in America. With "nitr0", who earlier led the team to an Intel Grand Slam, leading a band of star players who are currently performing on an extraordinarily high level, this squad can take on even the toughest opponents. 

Player to watch: {cflag:FR} Richard "shox" Papillon will not deliver the same high numbers as some of his teammates, but the Frenchman is one of the most exciting players to watch when the situations get tough and he can really flex his brain!

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have been together for about three months now, and even though they have not consistently been able to challenge the top-tier teams, they have done exceedingly well against their American rivals. They are a very young team full of talent which means that anything can happen.

Player to watch: {cflag:US} Ricky "floppy" Kernery has been the consistent player on this team. With great fundamentals and an impeccable aim, the 22-year-old rifler is one to look out for.

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is one of the most exciting teams in the world, as they have a very unique approach to the game. It is a team that is hard to play against because you never know what they are going to throw at you. The Brazilian squad has a great track record over the last couple of months, but many of those matches are against lower-tier teams.

Player to watch: {cflag:BR} Jhonatan "JOTA" Willian has been delivering consistently high numbers since he started playing professionally and is right now playing some of his best CS!

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/hen1_lvbgmf","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: StarLadder Igor Bezborodov"}]

went Brazilian a little more than a year ago, and even though the project was a little uncertain the young roster has flourished under the leadership of "TACO". The team recently picked up "HEN1" as the main AWP'er, and if things fall into place with the ex-FURIA star this is a team that can challenge the big boys.

Player to watch: {cflag:BR} Henrique "HEN1" Teles has not found the level he displayed in 2020 yet, but he will need to if GODSENT want to have a chance at securing the Spring Final spot.

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has had a rough go of it in recent times. They have rarely managed to beat tier 1 or tier 2 teams and will have to shake things up to make an upset.

Player to watch: {cflag:BR} Wesley "hardzao" Lopes needs to step up. He has enormous talent but needs to deliver on a higher level than he has.

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 was also one of the teams that made a roster change at the start of the year, but they have not yet had much success. Even though there are several Major-winners from the old Cloud9 that won the ELEAGUE Boston Major 2018, this constellation can not seem to find the winning ticket.

Player to watch: {cflag:BG} Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov was once considered one of the best AWP'ers in the world, and he needs to find out how to get back to that level if the Geniuses are to stand a chance.

are at #114 the lowest-ranked team at the event, and not a lot is expected from them. They did however recently beat Imperial twice, both in a Bo3 and a Bo1.

Player to watch: {cflag:BR} Romeu "zevy" Rocco has been a beam of light for the Sharks. The 20-year-old AWP'er will have to play the tournament of his life to make the Sharks' dreams come true.

zevy

CeRq

hardzao

HEN1

FURIA

Evil Geniuses

GODSENT

The last map, Ancient, did not affect the group, but with a victory over Complexity, the Danes were able to advance with the honor intact. Astralis took the map on Nuke and locked a spot in the playoffs.

The action started with Complexity's map pick of Dust2, where the Americans got off to a strong start taking the lead 7-3. But then Astralis stabilized their defense, began to find their right footing, and secured the rest of the rounds in the first half. The second half started with Complexity winning the pistol round and both teams trading rounds before Grim and company closed the first map of the series 16-13.

Astralis took their second pistol round of the series on the T side, leading to an early 3-0 advantage. floppy came alive on the CT side, finding impact with the rifle and proving as they edged the first half 8-7. Complexity couldn’t win the compulsory pistol on the CT side to maintain their lead and quickly withered as the Danish team ran away with a 16-10 victory.

In the decider of Ancient, the action went back-and-forth with both teams in the early lead. The Danes got used to the playstyle of their opponents and started to dominate at the end of the half, which meant the half ended 9-6 in the favor of Astralis. The Danes won the pistol and the next four rounds before Complexity made a good comeback attempt until, eventually, Astralis closed out the map 16-14.

Astralis – Complexity 2-1 | ESL Pro League Season 15 (Group D)

13-16 (Dust2) | {cflag:DK} ⁠blameF – 1.68 Rating / 28-16 K-D / 98.3 ADR

16-10 (Nuke) | {cflag:DK} k0nfig – 1.54 Rating / 27-17 K-D / 90.5 ADR

16-14 (Ancient) | {cflag:US} floppy – 1.47 Rating / 31-20 K-D / 96.5 ADR

MVP: {cflag:DK} Benjamin "blameF" Bremer – 1.39 Rating / 70-53 K-D / 93.5 ADR

Evil Geniuses – AGO 0-2 | ESL Pro League Season 15 (Group D)

11-16 (Dust2) | {cflag:PL} ⁠F1KU – 2.27 Rating / 40-13 K-D / 143.7ADR

11-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:PL} leman – 1.52 Rating / 27-13 K-D / 89.6 ADR

MVP: {cflag:PL} Maciej "F1KU" Miklas – 1.67 Rating / 61-30 K-D / 109.3 ADR

blameF

k0nfig

F1KU

leman

Astralis

The brand new Complexity roster played their first-ever official yesterday when they took on the dominant CIS team Gambit in the opening round of Funspark ULTI Finals - A true baptism of fire for Complexity! 

Despite playing against the second-best team in the world, the North Americans underdogs showed no fear at all, taking the Bo3 series all the way after stealing Gambit's map pick on Vertigo. Especially one Complexity player stepped up in the match, with Ricky "floppy" Kemery presenting a strong 1.20 Rating / 87.8 ADR, including winning this outstanding 1v4 clutch on Ancient. 

Gambit Esports

Another North American team has confirmed their roster for the upcoming season. Complexity announced today that they have signed the current Extra Salt roster.

With the announcement Complexity and team owner Jason Lake (in picture) underlined their commitment to NA Counter-Strike with the words "We are coming home". The new lineup consists of four North Americans and the South African player Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou.

Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince and Paytyn "⁠junior⁠" Johnson transfers from Team Liquid and FURIA to complete the lineup with three Extra Salt players.

The team will make their debut tomorrow at Funspark Ultra 2021 Finals against no other than Gambit.

Grim

Junior

FaNg

Extra Salt

Ricky “floppy” Kemery has chosen to step back from Counter-Strike but has chosen to continue his career for Cloud9 in VALORANT, this has been confirmed by the North American organization.

The now-former CS:GO rifler got benched by Cloud9 last month after the team was shut down, and this may have been the last step he needed to take the step over to VALORANT.

The American has been playing Counter-Strike professionally since 2015, where he joined ex-Onclicks roster, but Cloud9 was his last organization in this period on CS:GO.

Cloud9

Communication is one of the most important things, that a roster needs to master in order to become a real contender in the professional Counter-Strike scene. With many teams having different approaches to how they communicate it is, seemingly, not only about the way in which the rosters communicate but also the synergy between players. 

Whilst it is very rare that we get to listen in on a roster's voice comms it can give some incredible insight into the roles of the roster as well as the synergy between the players. Most notably is Cloud9's In-game Leader Alex "ALEX" McMeekin, who seems to remain calm and collected in even the most intense situations.

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Take a look at some of Cloud9's voice comms from Flashpoint, DreamHack, and BLAST Premier. They manage to stay extremely composed, focused, and even humorous when facing some of the biggest teams in the world. 

es3tag

ALEX

Mousesports continued their great form with a 2-0 win against Cloud9. The two teams faced each other at BLAST Premier Fall with the same result. mouseports is now through to the Semi-Finals at DreamHack Masters Winter.

It started fantastically for Karrigans’s men, who completely dominated their CT-side on Nuke. Being Cloud9’s map pick, it anticipated a difficult match for the “Colossus”.

Behind 11-4, it was an uphill battle for Cloud9 in the second half. Floppy did his best attempt to make a difference for the NA-team with a ridiculous clutch ace.

[twitchVideo:DreamHackCS/clip/AlertJoyousChickenRaccAttack]

But it was not enough to challenge a well playing mousesports side, who won the first map 16-12.

The match went to Inferno. Here mousesports started strong with a 5-0 lead. But Cloud9 fought back immediately and managed to keep track of their opponents during the first half.

The Estonian player was instrumental in the second half for mousesports who took the victory on Inferno with 16-12, after a nasty knife kill from Karrigan.

Another massive win for mousesports, who look better and better. They will now face the winner of Heroic and GODSENT in the Semi-Finals.

ropz

karrigan

mousesports

The American player showed another brilliant play at the Quarter-Finals between Cloud9 and mousesports.

Two Danish players from Complexity are at the top of the stats as they led their team to a dominating 2-0 victory against Sprout who only managed to gather 8 rounds in total. The two Danes only died 38 times combined while killing 79 in total.

Take a look at the top 8 performers at the single-elimination bracket so far:

1. blameF (Complexity) – 1.85 rating, +25 K/D ratio 

2. k0nfig (Complexity) – 1.58 rating, +16 K/D ratio 

3. ropz (mousesports) – 1.52 rating, +24 K/D ratio

4. frozen (mousesports) – 1.43 rating, +19 K/D ratio 

5. floppy (Cloud9) – 1.43, +18 K/D ratio

6. poizon (Complexity) – 1.43 rating, +16 K/D ratio

7. Bymas (mousesports) – 1.42 rating, +10 K/D ratio 

8. es3tag (Cloud9) – 1.32 rating, +10 K/D ratio

frozen

poizon

Bymas

Cloud9 didn’t manage to get the perfect debut at Flashpoint 2 but have now got a good start to the Showdown event, where they have put together a strong offense on both maps of the series which resulted in 2-0 victory on Nuke (16-12) and Vertigo (16-14).

Ricky “floppy” Kemery dropped a 31 bomb on the last map and was the top player overall with a 1.43 rating, 92.4 ADR, and a 52-34 score to help his team taking the series.

We will have the clash of the Colossus vs. the Juggernaut from Complexity on Saturday at 19:30 (CEST).

Ninjas in Pyjamas

The former Cloud9 roster has completed its lineup with the addition of Gage “Infinite” Green while retaining the services of Josh “oSee” Ohm, confirmed by Dust2.us.

The ex-Cloud9 squad was released from the organization following violations of their COVID-19 contract after a member allowed a guest into the team house. “oSee” didn’t live in the team house, so he remained contracted which left his future in question, but now is clear as he intends to continue playing with the team.

Regarding the addition of Infinite, “oSee” told Dust2.us:

“I’ve played with infinite in the past and I think he’s a perfect fit for our team and plays a lot of the roles that floppy did on our team, so it was a no-brainer to go with him. He has a lot of experience with some of the players on the team so I think it’ll be a smooth process to implement him into the team and I’m excited to see what we can do with our new 5th.” The 21-year-old told in an interview with Dust2.us.

The new roster of ex-Cloud9 will be making its debut at Mustache Master 2020, set to run from November 14-15.

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floppy

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