Complexity took upon Outsiders in the IEM Katowice 2023. The winner of the series advanced to the quarter-finals. The losing team was eliminated from IEM Katowice.  

Despite losing their own map pick, Complexity stood tall on Overpass as their star rifler Michael 'Grim' Wince saved his team with a hero AK-47 when things were tied at 11-11.

Watch Grim dominate Outsiders with the hero AK-17 right here:

Grim

compLexity Gaming

It’s not every day you get the chance of beating NAVI in best of three match, where a qualification spot is on the line. But today was the day for Complexity, who were heavily unfavored at the bookmakers before the match.

But during Anubis, it quickly became evident, that today on the server in Copenhagen, NAVI and Complexity were evenly matched. NAVI played Anubis for the first time in a competitive match, but on the server, it was really only Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy performing. The young Ukrainian carried his team to a close 16-14 win.

On Inferno, it was Complexity’s time to shine. Especially Michael 'Grim' Wince went havoc and dropped 30 kills during the 27 rounds it took the NA team to win 16-11. An upset was lurking.

Overpass was the last map of the tournament for both teams, and here it was again Complexity in the driver’s seat. A 14-8 lead saw Complexity with a golden chance to defeat NAVI and qualify for the Spring Finals on home soil in Washington. But they blew it! Everything went wrong for the team, which looked like a roster slightly shaken by the big opportunity they had within their grasp. s1mple, who had been really quiet during the match awakened on Overpass and secured his team a 16-14 win and a ticket to Washington.

Complexity gets another chance to qualify in the BLAST Showdown event later this spring.

MVP: {cflag:US} Michael 'Grim' Wince - 1.27 rating / 73-57 K-D / 86.1 ADR

s1mple

Natus Vincere

First Complexity failed to qualify for the prestigious IEM Rio Major after a tame RMR performance, and now the North Americans also have missed out on the opportunity to attend BLAST Premier Fall Final.

That became a reality last night when Complexity fell short against the Brazilian underdogs from Sharks with a 2-0 sweep at BLAST Fall Showdown.

After the disappointing result and the early exit, Michael “Grim” Wince took his time with an interview with BLAST where he pointed towards a “limited time of practice” following the loss.

- We had limited time of practice. Hallzerk was flying in from Mexico and JT just came back from South Africa to try to renew his visa, so definitely the circumstances weren’t fully there for us – but obviously still no excuse. We were confident going into the match, honestly, we’re probably all disappointed in ourselves. Sharks had some pretty good reads overall. We definitely could have played better but I just want to give some props to Sharks. I think they played pretty well, Grim stated and continued: 

- I think we have to reevaluate things and take as much time practising as much as we can – maybe try to get a bootcamp in Europe and see how it goes from there.

You can watch the interview in the video below.

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On Tuesday, FaZe Clan eliminated Complexity from the ESL Pro League Season 16 event with a hard-fought 2-1 victory to book a spot in the quarter-finals, where they will take upon Cloud9.

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Despite the loss, Complexity’s Michael “Grim” Wince impressed throughout the entire series, averaging a 1.37 rating across all three maps and doing everything in his power to try and help his team stay alive in the tournament. Unfortunately, his stellar performance wasn’t enough to push his team to a victory, but that shouldn’t hold us back from sharing this insane ACE by the 21-year-old American.

FaZe

Yesterday, karrigan’s troops from FaZe Clan moved past Complexity and eliminated them from ESL Pro League S16 with a hard-fought 2-1 victory after dropping the first map of the series. Karrigan and the rest of FaZe are now through to the quarter-finals, where they will meet Cloud9 in a banger matchup today at 19:00 (CET).

After the match, FaZe Clan’s captain went to Twitter where he gave props to the North American squad, saying they could be proud of themselves for their performance.

It’s worth mentioning Complexity’s Michael “Grim” Wince, who impressed throughout the entire series, averaging a 1.37 rating across the three maps. Grim and company will start to slowly turn their attention to the upcoming IEM Road To Rio Americas RMR, where they will have a chance to secure a spot in the IEM Rio Major 2022.

Watch some highlights from the match between FaZe and Complexity right here:

karrigan

BLAST Fall Groups 2022 is underway and with some of the biggest names going head-to-head in thrilling brawls, there is plenty to look forward to in the upcoming days of CS:GO. 

Today, Complexity took on OG in a battle for survival. Whilst Complexity have recently managed to take down the CIS giants that are Natus Vincere, today was a difficult match for the international roster. Failing to get things flowing, "Grim" and his troops of Complexity had to see themselves bested against an OG roster in form. 

We spoke shortly with "Grim" after the fresh defeat against OG and whilst he had just suffered a substantial blow from OG and is now out of the tournament, the 21-year-old American seemed optimistic for the upcoming future of Complexity. 

When asked about the active roster, as well as the new "hallzerk" signing, "Grim" had the following to say: 

To hear more from "Grim" you can watch the exclusive interview down below: 

hallzerk

North-American CS:GO isn't what it used to be when Team Liquid was once a shining beacon of hope. Complexity, a roster that many thought could be the return of a great North-American CS:GO roster to the scene, is failing to provide the desired results. 

Having just lost their opening Bo1-series against Team Spirit, we talked with former Team Liquid member "Grim" about the defeat and how Complexity is going through a rough patch in recent times. When asked about their performance as of late, the Complexity member answered the following: 

To hear more from the defeated "Grim", you can watch our exclusive talk with him backstage at IEM Cologne down below: 

Complexity did not have much to say as MIBR casually took them down in two maps.

With the first pick of the series, MIBR chose to take the brawl to the likes of Dust2. The Brazilians landed the first blow as they took five rounds on the T-side, before Complexity were able to take a round of their own. The North Americans struggled throughout the entire half where “Grim” was the only one able to make it into double digits on the kill-counter. MIBR led by 11-4 at halftime.

Complexity looked better after the break and were actually able to win some rounds back-to-back. They were never able to make it scary for the Brazilians though, and MIBR safely took the win at 16-9.

MIBR kept their foot on the gas pedal as they took a 6-2 lead on the CT-side of Complexity’s pick: Inferno. This time around Complexity managed to retaliate and actually put some meaningful rounds on the board before halftime. They managed to pick up six out of fifteen in the first half, which was impressive considering that “chelo” was playing immaculately.

Complexity were not able to put up much of a fight in the second half as the Brazilians kept up the pressure all the way to the finish line. With three players below 50 ADR, Complexity struggled massively to keep up on an individual level. MIBR advanced after a 16-10 win.

Complexity - MIBR 0-2 | BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2022 NA

9-16 (Dust2) | {cflag:BR} JOTA - 1.61 Rating / 25-13 K-D / 108.0 ADR

10-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:BR} chelo - 1.59 Rating / 25-12 K-D / 87.0 ADR

MVP: {cflag:BR} Jhonatan "JOTA" Willian - 1.47 Rating / 46-25 K-D / 95.8 ADR

chelo

MIBR

The second game of the day was a clash between the two North American teams in Group D. Complexity and Evil Geniuses were both desperately looking for a victory after a disappointing showing so far.

The Action kicked off on EG’s pick of Inferno, and the “Stewie2K”-led squad got off to a great start on the T-side. Everything was looking good for them at 6-1, but suddenly Complexity woke up and started to resist. After a very slow start, Complexity had to be happy as they went to halftime with six rounds to their name.

Straight out of halftime Complexity equalized the score, and now had a chance to take their first lead of the game. EG denied that chance as they took all but one round from that point, leading to a 16-10 victory on the first map of the North American clash.

The brawl continued on Complexity’s pick of Vertigo, and again it was the Geniuses to go ahead early on. Complexity quickly equalized and looked much fiercer than they did on Inferno. With two winstreaks of three rounds or more for each team, the score at halftime was 8-7 in favor of the Geniuses.

“Stewie2K” was leading from the front this whole game and made sure that his team had a great start to the second half as he picked up an extremely swift 3K to secure the pistol round. Unfortunately for them, they were not able to hold on to the lead that they had found, as “Grim” and the rest of the Complexity squad started cranking up the heat. “JT” and co. won the map at 16-11 after going on an impressive eight-round winstreak to wipe out the Geniuses.

The Bo3 now had to be decided on Nuke, where EG would start on the CT-side after having won the knife round.

Even though they started on the harder of the two sides, “JT” and Complexity managed to outcall EG at every turn, and with “CeRq” being the only one to show up individually for the Geniuses, the halftime score was a very lopsided 11-4.

Surprisingly, EG came out of the break with much more firepower, and it looked like they might be able to make a comeback after having been down seven rounds at halftime. But unfortunately for them, Complexity were able to find the level they had displayed in the first half, and the map ended at 16-10.

Complexity - Evil Geniuses 2-1 | ESL Pro League Season 15 (Group D)

10-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:US} Brehze - 1.37 Rating / 22-11 K-D / 79.6 ADR

16-11 (Vertigo) | {cflag:US} Grim - 1.65 Rating / 27-14 K-D / 103.1 ADR

16-10 (Nuke) | {cflag:US} Grim - 1.42 Rating / 23-17 K-D / 89.5 ADR

MVP: {cflag:US} Michael "Grim" Wince - 1.29 Rating / 64-50 K-D / 86.1 ADR

Brehze

Stewie2K

Evil Geniuses

It's time to begin the much-awaited knockout stage at BLAST Premier Spring Groups! The first of three matchups this Thursday is going to be Complexity against the Brazilians from MIBR. 

You can watch the Bo3 battle right here from 13:00 (CET).

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.

Junior

FaNg

floppy

Extra Salt

The legendary Team Liquid rifler Jake “Stewie2K” Yip has officially parted ways with the North American organization. The confirmation comes after a series of departures at Liquid, with Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and Michael “Grim” Wince both having been released of their duties.

With his exit, Stewie2K closes the door on a spectacular three-year tenure with Liquid, where the dubbed “Smoke Criminal” alongside the likes of  Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and Keith “NAF” Markovic won their iconic Intel Grand Slam in 2019.

A victory, Liquid’s CEO, Victor Goosens also remembers very fondly.

- My favourite Stewie memory is unquestionably when he jumped up the desk when we won the Intel Grand Slam. Winning a Grand Slam as a North American roster in Counter-Strike is beyond my wildest dreams, and Stewie has played a huge part in that. I’m grateful for everything that he has done for Team Liquid and we will always remember and honour that, Goosens said in a tribute video to Stewie2K.

Despite the last year ended up being a bit dramatic filled with internal problems in the roster and with a lot of lacklustre results, Stewie2K looks back at his time with Team Liquid with joy.

- I just want to say thank you to the fans for supporting me over the years on Team Liquid. We had a lot of success here, and we also had some failures that we couldn’t overcome. However, throughout my time here, I feel like we created a lot of good memories together, Stewie2K stated.

Stewie2K has reportedly already found himself a new CS:GO home for the upcoming season, as heavy rumours of him joining Evil Geniuses has circulated the past weeks. Last week, the CEO of EG wrote a Tweet, which looks like a near-confirmation of the transfer. 

If the rumours are true, Stewie2K is set to join forces with his former teammates Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta and William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba, with who he won the ELEAGUE Boston Major in 2018 at Cloud9. The trio will be accompanied by Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte and Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov.

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Team Liquid will field the following lineup following their recent roster moves:

{cflag:US} Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski 

{cflag:FR} Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon 

{cflag:US} Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag (coach)

FalleN

EliGE

Team Liquid

The Funspark Ulti 2021 Finals is shaping up to be a very interesting tournament.

In five days we will get the first glimpse of A-tier competitive Counter-Strike again. At Funspark Ulti 2021 Finals the likes of Gambit, Astralis, BIG, and Fnatic will fight for the title and the $150.000 in first prize.

The North Americans from Extra Salt are also qualified for the event, and despite only having three players on the official roster, the NA team will still bring a strong lineup to the event. Both Paytyn "⁠junior⁠" Johnson and Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince have been announced on the roster for Funspark Ulti 2021 Finals. 

The two players were already rumored to join the Extra Salt trio in a deal with Complexity.

At Funspark Ulti the Extra Salt roster faces tough opposition in the opening round, where the NA team is paired with Gambit. 

Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonkowski – An Intel Gram Slam Winner and arguably one of North America’s most profiled CS:GO players in history. However, 2021 wasn’t as giving and successful for the superstar and the rest of Team Liquid.

The lacklustre year meant that Liquid felt needed to initiate a substantial rebuild of the roster this off-season, with Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Michael “Grim” Vince and Jake “Stewie2K” Yip all leaving the team.

Before BLAST Premier Fall Final, we spoke to EliGE who explained that the Liquid “wasn’t getting along” and there were internal problems not being fixed within the team.

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In a [link:{"url":"https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sru0uh","isNewTab":true,"text":"Twitlonger"}], EliGE has decided to open up about the troublesome year for Liquid but especially also for him personally.

- To begin with, I wanted to say that this year was a really big disappointment for me; not only results-wise, but personally as well. Every year you want to always feel like you're moving forward and improving and I think that throughout my career it has been a constant progression of that (…) This year, however, was the year where it has very clearly been steps backwards, and that has been really difficult for me. 

The 24-year-old star rifler also touches on the environment within the roster, where he openly takes some of the blame on his shoulders.

- It was a year of many ups and downs and looking back, it was easily the hardest year of my professional career. I wish that I handled things better and I wish that I could say that I was a positive mental factor for my teammates during it. However, I can't say that and it was a big disappointment for me to not be able to rise to that standard.

(…) There's no secret the team environment wasn't perfect throughout the year and I definitely was a big part of that. I learned a lot last year from the experiences on the team and how I could've handled it better.

 [image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/FalleN_nayxb8","originalWidth":4096,"originalHeight":2731,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Michael Konkol, BLAST"}]

- I learned a lot during the year, especially from Fallen, on how he handled the year himself. He was always positive, affecting the team in a positive way no matter what was happening. All in all, he is a role model and he is the teammate I am striving to become for the team in 2022 and going forward, EliGE wrote.

Was this the last time, that Michael "Grim" Wince played for Team Liquid? We asked the 21-year-old rifler after the North Americans were knocked out of BLAST World Finals.

- I really don't know how to answer that, but next year will be super exciting for me for sure, and I can't wait to show everyone, what I have got planned.

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The young American can look back at 238 maps played for Team Liquid during the 16 months, that he has spent on the team so far. A time with ups and downs.

-  It was good and rough at the same time. On Triumph, I was more like the starplayer role and had more freedom than I got on Liquid. But someone has to do the job, and I was perfectly fine and willing to do it. But it was definitely hard for me considering, that I started playing the game in 2015, and I did the same roles up until now. So I had to completely change how I played against harder opposition, so I would definitely say, that it was a bit hard and rough for me. But I tried my absolute best to try and make it happen. I wish I could have done more, but I gained a lot of experience, and now I am looking forward to next year.

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While not wanting to confirm his departure from Team Liquid, Michael "Grim" Wince sounds like a player, who is ready to move on, when asked about his hopes for the new year.

- I am just hoping to prove myself as a player again. I know people have their doubts about me now considering how I played a bit under my standards this last half of a year. Whatever team I join, I am gonna make sure, that I am going to be as comfortable as possible, and make sure that I do, what I do best. 

The second elimination match of the day featured Team Liquid and Astralis. The clash of two former titans who now met each other in a lower bracket elimination match.

With the first pick of the match, Astralis unsurprisingly went with Nuke, the map that has looked like the cornerstone of their new lineup.

The Americans got their foot in the door very early on taking x rounds, but always with the Danes making it interesting, and keeping the TL economy in check. Astralis were able to get several bomb plants throughout the first half, but “FalleN” and co. were simply too skilled in the retakes. Astralis had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps in the second half, as they only entered it with 1 round, while Liquid was sitting on 14.

Team Liquid kept their gas pedal down and swiftly finished what they had started, and took the win at 16-1, handing Astralis their biggest loss ever on Nuke.

The second map to be played was Mirage picked by Team Liquid. This was a bit surprising since Overpass was open, and they have a 100% win rate on the map recently.

Astralis started out much better on map #2, showing that they would not be deterred by the battering they took on Nuke. After ten rounds it was split down the middle with no team able to pull away. A very brawly half ended as close as possible with the Americans just barely taking the lead at halftime 8-7.

Astralis briefly reclaimed the lead after winning the pistol, but after several rounds with time troubles, it was again the Americans in front. They kept the lead until the final whistle, taking eight rounds in a row to close out the map at 16-10.

With this result, Astralis is eliminated from IEM Winter 2021, while Team Liquid live to fight again tomorrow versus the winner of the OG vs. NIP matchup.

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Liquid – Astralis (1-0) | IEM Winter 2021 

 {cflag:US} Grim – 1.76 Rating / 18-9 K-D / 123.2 ADR

 {cflag:DK} blameF – 1.45 Rating / 26-19 K-D / 112.0 ADR

IEM Winter 2021 overview – Gambit vs. Virtus.pro (0-2)

While Astralis were getting their asses kicked by Liquid, Gambit was taking on Virtus.pro in the Grop B upper semi-final. Here it was Virtus.pro that ran away with the win after two very long and close games.

This sends Virtus.pro on to the Upper Final of Group B, while Gambit has to fight for survival versus FaZe.

 {cflag:RU} Jame – 1.43 Rating / 25-13 K-D / 82.1 ADR

 {cflag:RU} Jame – 1.32 Rating / 22-11 K-D / 70.8 ADR

blameF

Astralis

There are little to no expectations for Team Liquid for the remainder of 2021. With the internal problems being highlighted in several interviews at BLAST Fall Finals last week, it is only a matter of time, before there will be roster changes on the team. Despite all that, Liquid is part of a very active ending to the tournament calendar year with participation in both of the BLAST tournaments and in this week's IEM Winter.

In the opening round the North Americans were matched with OG. Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen and his teammates got the better start to the match, but Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski kept Liquid in the match with several multi-kill rounds in the first half. And while OG started to slow down, momentum shifted in the direction of the NA team.

The second half belonged to Team Liquid. The entire team started to hit their shots best illustrated by Michael "Grim" Wince, who turned a terrible start to the match to a decent scoreline. On the other side of the server, OG was missing two of their most reliable riflers, Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangs and Shahar "flameZ" Shushan, who did not play up to their best. Team Liquid managed to steer home a 16-12 victory, and will move on in the upper bracket, while OG is one loss away from elimination at the tournament.

Team Liquid vs. OG 1-0 | IEM Winter Opening Round

Mirage (16-12) | {cflag:US} EliGE - 1.34 rating / 26-17 K-D / 94.1 ADR

With so many insane CS:GO plays from each Liquid player to choose from, the people behind their YouTube channel have compiled the very best from their careers. Now it’s time for them to break them down!

Watch FalleN, NAF, EliGE, Stewie2k, and Grim react to some of their own most iconic plays right here:

Liquid got off to a flying start at IEM Fall NA with the North Americans winning both of their matches on the opening day. The great start also applies to Liquid's rifler Michael "Grim" Vince. The 20-year-old rifler has averaged a 1.22 Rating so far, including having made this impressive 1v3 clutch against Bad News Bears. A play we have picked as today's Pley of the Day!

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A deagle headshot, an insane one tap with the AK-47 and an inhuman no-scope with the AWP. This play has it all! 

In a recent stream with other profiled NA players, Michael "Grim" Vince made wonders on the server as he delivered this wonderful quad kill round on Mirage. Something, we decided to honour as today's Pley of the Day. You can watch it down below. 

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

Grim

Player stats

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Pley of the Day: Grim with the hero AK-47

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Liquid release Stewie2K amid heavy EG rumours

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Grim: Whatever team I join, I'm gonna make sure, that I am as comfortable as possible

Liquid blow Astralis out of IEM Winter

Team Liquid turns bad start to victory against OG

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Pley of the Day: Grim 1v3 Deagle clutch against BnB

Pley of the Day: What a ridiculous round by Grim!

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