23-year-old Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli will continue on Complexity after the team last night announced an extension to his contract with the North American team.

The Norwegian AWP'er prolongs his stay at Complexity which started almost two years ago. His future at the NA-based team had been in question after he in an interview with Pley.gg revealed, that his contract was close to expiring and that he needed to perform at ESL Pro League in order to convince the management at Complexity to extend the contract. 

- It’s probably going to be make or break, to be honest, hallzerk explained to Pley.gg.

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At ESL Pro League Season 19, Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli and Complexity made it all the way to the Semi-Finals, which evidently was enough for Complexity to resign the Scandinavian sniper. Complexity will finish the first part of the season in Sweden at the ESL Challenger Jönköping 2024 tournament with the same roster, that has been together for almost a year.

hallzerk

compLexity Gaming

Before the start of ESL Pro League Season 19, Complexity’s Sniper, Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli gave a very open and honest interview to Pley.gg, where he explained that the tournament in Malta would probably be do or die for him in terms of keeping his spot on the team.

In the upper bracket semi-final against HEROIC, the Norwegian played a key part in Complexity turning a 5-13 loss on the first map of Nuke into a victory. Together with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli ended the match as the highest-rated player after two brilliant maps on Vertigo and Anubis for the AWP’er. A good sign for the 23-year-old, who will look to build on his performances in the next stage of the tournament.

Complexity can secure a direct spot in the quarter-finals on Sunday when they face NAVI, who managed to best BIG in their group semi-final.

BOSS and NIP are the first two teams who have been dropped down to the Last Chance Stage of Group D, where they face each other tonight in the first elimination match of the group.

You can see the full schedule of ESL Pro League Season 19 down below.

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Complexity Gaming extended the contracts of Michael "Grim" Wince, Ricky "floppy" Kemery, and Ioannis 'Johnny' "JT" Theodosiou at the beginning of the year. However, the future of the Norwegian AWP’er Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli with the team remains uncertain. We inquired about his contract status in an online interview before the start of ESL Pro League Season 19.

- Me and my teammates have contracts of different lengths, and I signed mine after them. I am not sure if I am allowed to say how long a contract I have, but it’s ending quite soon, so I have to perform to keep staying on the team. That's definitely my goal, hallzerk explained.

When directly asked if he believed his performance in the Pro League would be crucial, the Norwegian responded.

- It’s probably going to be make or break, to be honest. If I don’t perform... I mean, I'm not going to say too much, but yeah.

Complexity is one of the favorites to advance from Group D at ESL Pro League Season 19, where the North American team are paired up with PERA, Ninjas in Pyjamas, HEROIC, BIG, BOSS, FlyQuest, and Natus Vincere.

The tournament presents Complexity with the first opportunity since their early exit from PGL Copenhagen to demonstrate their capability to perform at the level they showcased in the fall of 2023. Similarly, Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli is endeavoring to rediscover his best form.

- I don’t think I’ve been playing as well as I should. I am the AWP’er on the team, I should be one of the best-performing players, and I think I have been quite disappointing at least at the start of the year and at the end of last year. But in the last month or two I have been improving and playing better, and I will keep building on that as well, hallzerk remarked.

With this in mind, all attention will be on the Norwegian player during the upcoming tournament. Nevertheless, the most significant pressure does not originate from external sources but from the 23-year-old himself.

- I won’t say that I feel more pressure from the team or organization, but it’s more that I put that pressure on myself. Because I want to perform, and I want to be one of the best AWPers in the world. And when I don’t play as well as I should be, I get disappointed with myself.

Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli and Complexity will face off against PERA in the opening round of Group D at ESL Pro League Season 19 tomorrow.

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: 

Grim

With Complexity being the only top-tier team in the first NA open qualifier, there were big expectations before going into the online war. With their new AWPer, Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli Complexity had absolutely no problems advancing to the Grand Final, where they will face Gaimin Gladiators in order to determine the seedings.

In South America, paiN and MIBR are among the four semi-finalists, while 00Nation still has the chance to make it to the last four. There are three tickets up for grabs for the Americas RMR in the qualifier.

Paytyn “junior” Johnson is no longer a part of Complexity’s active roster with the young AWPer being sent to the bench, the organization revealed on Twitter. To replace him, Complexity has acquired the Norwegian sniper Håkon “hallzerk” Fjærli.

- Extremely excited and proud to announce that I have signed for Complexity. I can’t wait to get started on this journey and to meet everyone in the organization. I’m packing my mullet and leaving for US, hallzerk wrote on [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/hallzerk/status/1552779137147863040","isNewTab":true,"text":"Twitter"}].

hallzerk was most recently a part of Dignitas, which also featured the legendary Swedes Adam “friberg” Friberg and Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg. Throughout 2022, hallzerk was the highest-rated player on the Scandinavian side.

{cflag:NO} Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli

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Team Dignitas

Dignitas have decided to make all of their players available for transfer effective immediately. The organization states that the results have not been what they expected from the squad and that missing the Major was the last nail in the coffin.

The team are not dismissing the thought of keeping some of the players.

f0rest

friberg

HEAP

Lekr0

Outsiders avoided a big upset after reverse sweeping Dignitas in the elimination match at the European RMR tournament in Bucharest.

For Outsiders, the event has been a massive disappointment so far. With losses against BIG and MOUZ, the CIS team has not been on the same level since they were forced to switch their name and logo due to their ties with the Russian Government.

On the server, it was only Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis, who showed up on the first map of Mirage. The Latvian entry-killer could not do it alone though, and could not prevent Dignitas to run away with the map in the end after a superb finish.

Inferno has been a solid map for Outsiders recently, and against Dignitas, it looked like the CIS team would equalize the score with a good start in the second half. But the Swedes again made a good finish and forced the match into overtime on Inferno. Here Outsiders immediately won the first three rounds and got the job done in the last round of the first overtime, where Jame showed his big value to the team in a 1vs1 situation.

The patience of Outsiders has often been praised. Their perseverance in overtimes and deciding maps are almost unmatched in CS:GO. So when Overpass loaded up as the last map of the day, it was Outsiders in the driver’s seat. Despite a worthy effort from Dignitas it was not enough in the end. Dignitas is out of the tournament, while Outsiders keeps the dream of the PGL Major in Antwerp alive.

Outsiders – Dignitas 2-1 | PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Europe RMR A 

10-16 (Nuke) | {cflag:NO} hallzerk – 1.45 Rating / 24-14 K-D / 95.4 ADR

19-17 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} Jame - 1.46 Rating / 32-17 K-D / 95.3 ADR

16-14 (Overpass) | {cflag:LV} YEKINDAR - 1.61 rating / 26-18 K-D / 111.3 ADR

MVP: {cflag:NO} Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli - 1.26 Rating / 72-54 K-D / 85.4 ADR

Jame

YEKINDAR

Outsiders

Watch today's Pley of the Day right here.

Eternal Fire

One of the most anticipated matchups in the opening round of Blast Premier Fall Showdown was the Swedish – Bulgarian brawl between Team Dignitas and Team Fiend.

The two teams have for a while been sitting outside of the tier 1 scene trying to break in. Today’s match was an excellent opportunity for both to take a step closer.

Team Fiend started the match by picking into Mirage, while Dignitas chose Nuke. A repeat of their latest (and only) encounter, that ended with a Bulgarian victory.

This time around Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg wanted a different outcome. The legendary Swede showed that he has still got it. Team Fiend’s T-side was quickly shattered with f0rest in the center of the action. The 33-year-old former Major winner finished Fiend off with a solid +15 in K-D leading his team to a comfortable 16-9 win.

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Dignitas selected Nuke as their map of choice. Here everything fell apart on their T-side. The Swedes had a huge mountain to climb after being trashed 13-2 in the first half. But then everything changed. In a game of good CT-sides, it was now Dignitas in command. All of a sudden the Swedes had in no time caught the Bulgarians, who could only stare into their screens in disbelief. Pivotal was again Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg, who this time was joined by both Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli and Ludvig 'HEAP' Alonso in making the impossible possible. Team Dignitas won 14 rounds in a row to eliminate Team Fiend from BLAST Premier Fall Showdown.

Team Dignitas will face Heroic in the Quarter-Finals on Friday.

Team Dignitas vs Team Fiend (2-0) | BLAST Premier Fall Showdown

16-9 (Mirage) | {cflag:SE} f0rest – 1.53 Rating / 26-11 K-D / 97.1 ADR

16-13 (Nuke) | {cflag:NO} hallzerk – 1.47 Rating / 26-15 K-D / 108.2 ADR

MVP: {cflag:SE} Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg – 1.41 Rating / 53-28 K-D / 87.1 ADR

Fiend

Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg has been playing competitive Counter-Strike at the very top since the mid-2000s. Over the years, the Swede has won countless titles, impressive individual awards and been such an influential character in the scene that he became an institution within the game itself.

We have sat down with the 33-year-old veteran to talk about what drives him to keep playing competitive CS:GO, despite being one of the oldest and most accoladed players in the circuit.

- My motivation comes from me loving the game so God damn much. I just love playing Counter-Strike, and I still love every single part of the game, even though I have been playing for almost 16-17 years now. No match is the same as the previous one, and it’s still so much fun to play, which drives me to keep on playing.

I still want to win tournaments and attend big events, because I don’t want to end on this note and just say “I did my part”. I want to play at the big tournaments again, especially the LAN events in front of a crowd – Grab a trophy, that’s also what continues to drive me. And I still believe we have what it takes, to do so.

You can watch the entire interview with f0rest in the video below, where you can hear him talk about his goals with Dignitas, CS:GO returning to LAN and how it is playing alongside younger talents on the team.

Dignitas is currently placed just within Top 30 on the world ranking (#30), after two mediocre results at IEM Fall and REPUBLEAGUE Season 2. In the interview, f0rest explains how he believes that he and Dignitas could reach a much higher position if the team is willing to do the “grind”.

- Top 10-15 isn’t impossible – especially not in today’s Counter-Strike. It’s definitely something we can reach, and maybe also deeper. (…) doing a great result here at BLAST Showdown or even qualify for BLAST Finals will be an incredible thing for the team and also something which will place us much higher in the rankings, f0rest said, where he continued to explain some of the difficulties climbing the CS:GO ladder:

It’s very hard to be playing everything online and especially when you have to qualify for every single tournament since we don’t get invited. To reach that top-level is a grind – But as I’ve stated before, you have to do the grind to reach and appreciate that sweet spot.

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f0rest joined Dignitas in early 2020, concluding a 7-year long tenure with NIP - Here Xizt, hallzerk, GeT_RighT, f0rest, and friberg (From left to right)

Dignitas will kick off their BLAST Premier Fall Showdown today at 15:30 (CEST), when they take on Fiend in the Round of 16. A matchup that suits the Swede well, owing to the Bulgarings being “a team that we are very comfortable playing against, so it’s a good starting matchup for us”, f0rest states.

You can watch the match right here on Pley.gg

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Xizt

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Evil Geniuses lost their opening match at Funspark ULTI 2020 after a disappointing match against Team Dignitas. The debut game for Michał 'MICHU' Müller will not go down in history as a memorable one for the North American roster.

On their own map pick, Inferno, the team was handed a devastating blow by an all-around well playing Dignitas roster lead on by the strong Norwegian AWP'er hallzerk. The Dignitas sniper made 17 AWP kills during the map that ended 16-9 in favor of Dignitas.

While Dignitas lately has been on a steady course back into the top of CS, Evil Geniuses has had a difficult 2021. Their latest victory came against Team Dignitas at Snow Sweet Snow, which practically was the only positive thing to take into the elevator going to Vertigo on map two.

Unfortunately for EG, Team Dignitas just continued where they left on Inferno. And despite losing a couple of rounds, they instantly came back with some amazing gun rounds with the Desert Eagles. It ended with a humiliating 16-4 loss for Evil Geniuses, who lost the last round after a team kill on their only player who performed in the match, oBo. EG looks like a team that needs more time to find themselves again.

{cflag:SE} Team Dignitas - {cflag:US} Evil Geniuses (2-0) | Funspark ULTI Europe 

16-9 (Inferno) | {cflag:NO} hallzerk – 1.88 Rating / 29-9 K-D / 109.4 ADR

16-4 (Vertigo) | {cflag:NO} hallzerk – 1.58 Rating / 22-14 K-D / 89.2 ADR

MVP: {cflag:NO} Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli | 1.75 Rating / 45-17 K-D / 94.6 ADR

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Team Dignitas will face another North American team in the next round, where Extra Salt is waiting. In the lower brackets, Evil Geniuses goes head to head with another struggling roster, BIG.

Evil Geniuses

Team Dignitas came very close to eliminating Evil Geniuses from Snow Sweet Snow 3.

On Nuke the Nordic team destroyed the North Americans on the CT-side to win the map. Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli was the key player with an impressive 15-3 K-D ratio and 144.2 ADR! The AWP'er even managed to make a collateral kill during the map.

[twitchVideo:tebtv/clip/FaintVibrantBisonKappa-ZZzNDl5r4qE7v4Zd]

Team Dignitas lost on the third map, after throwing a big lead overboard on Train.

Evil Geniuses became the third team to book their Semi-Final ticket at Snow Sweet Snow 3, after a dramatic 2-1 win against Team Dignitas.

It started well for the NA team. On Inferno the new player on the roster, Owen "oBo" Schlatter once again showed his big potential with a stellar performance on the map. Together with Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte the two of them managed to keep the Swedes quiet in the second half and to take the map win.

On Nuke it looked like another EG win, but in the second half Team Dignitas went havoc! Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli was unstoppable with his AWP, and suddenly a 9-6 lead in favor of Evil Geniuses was changed to a 16-9 win for Dignitas.

The Swedes continued their momentum on Train. "hallzerk" and "Lekr0" was a deadly duo for Dignitas, who could be seen with big smiles during the start of the second half, where Dignitas was again putting in a masterful performance on their CT-side.

At 13-6 it looked like a certain Team Dignitas win, but then EG came alive. Inspired by a wonderful 1vs3 clutch from the in-game leader "stanislaw", Evil Geniuses managed to equalize the score at 13-13, which later was converted to 15-15 and overtime. And another overtime! The drama was real, but in the second overtime, EG finally managed to get into a favorable position with two match points which gave them the win at 22-19.

EG will now face ex-Winstrike tomorrow in the Semi-Finals at Snow Sweet Snow 3.

Evil Geniuses - Team Dignitas 2-1 |Snow Sweet Snow 3

16-10 (Inferno)|Brehze - 1.50 rating / 24-13 K-D / 96.5 ADR

9-16 (Nuke) |oBo - 1.50 rating / 24-15 K-D / 109.1 ADR

22-19 (Train) |Brehze - 1.34 rating / 36-29 K-D / 95.0 ADR

MVP: Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte - 1.31 rating / 81-58 K-D / 91.4 ADR

Brehze

stanislaw

The action started on Inferno where Dignitas took the first blood in the series. The first half of the opener was played with high intensity from both teams. It was OG on T-side who succeeded the most in the beginning rounds and managed to pull off some good executes that secured them a lead by 4-11. As the teams switched sides, Dignitas found their footing and stormed through the European’s defense, winning 12 rounds in a row to lock down the map 16-11.

Håkon “hallzerk” Fjærli | 1.41 rating | 86.6 ADR | 22-13 K/D

On Train there was big improvements from OG. It was only a couple of days ago, that the two teams faced each other in the first match of tournament. Here Dignitas ran over OG 16-3. This time around the European roster managed to win both halves to force the match onto Dust2 for the decider.

Mateusz ”mantuu” Wilczewski | 1.62 rating| 102.9 ADR | 29-15 K/D

Third map was a thriller. OG started best, but Dignitas showed a lot of resilience to end the first half with five rounds in a row. While OG’s players individually had excellent situations during the map, it was mostly Dignitas who managed to win the close rounds. At 15-12 the Nordic team had the chance to end the match, but OG fought back and took the match to overtime. As the match stretched into the forth hour, it was OG who continued the momentum from the end of the regular match to win 19-16.

Valdemar “valde” Bjørn Vangså | 1.51 rating| 100.3 ADR | 30-18 K/D

An excellent ace from Ludvig “HEAP” Alonso

[twitchVideo:Btscsgo/clip/SneakySuccessfulBobaFrankerZ]

OG are through to the playoffs, while Dignitas still has a chance to qualify.

valde

mantuu

The Swedes survive the Last Chance Stage at Flashpoint 2 after a vital victory against the favourites from forZe. Dignitas showed great character by coming back after a defeat on Inferno (16-9) through two strong performances on Nuke (16-4) and Dust2 (16-14) to complete the reverse sweep.

Inferno (9 – 16) - FL1T 29-11 k/d, 108.4 ADR, 1.84 rating

Nuke (16 – 4) hallzerk 22-11 k/d, 105.9 ADR, 1.72 rating

Dust2 (16-14) HEAP 32-16 k/d, 102.9 ADR, 1.61 rating

Watch some of the individual highlights from a well-playing hallzerk.

[twitchVideo:flashpoint/clip/EntertainingSpoopyMuleUWot]

forZe

In a very even match, Dignitas stood on top after a nerve-wracking brawl.

It started one-sided though. On Nuke the Nordic team from Dignitas were superior with Håkon “hallzerk” Fjærli as the dangerman with +14 in K/D. Dignitas took home the map with 16-10.

On Dust2 the roles changed. Lotan “Spinx” Giladi destroyed the Nordic team. With a career high performance, he totaled 40 kills in just 24 rounds in c0ntacts 16-8 win. With an average of 161.7 ADR, the Israelian stole the show!

c0ntact started as the Terrorist side and had success with taking the bombsites. They went into halftime leading 9-6 with Spinx once again putting in the numbers.

After the break, Dignitas took seven rounds in a row! And all of a sudden c0ntact were on their way home after a promising start to the Flashpoint tournament.

Team Dignitas - c0ntact 2-1 (16-10, 8-16, 16-11)

Dignitas will face Fnatic on Thursday in the Consolidation Final in group A.

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hallzerk

Player stats

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Team Dignitas destroys Evil Geniuses at Funspark

Video: hallzerk with a nice collateral

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Dignitas eliminate forZe at Flashpoint 2

Dignitas eliminates c0ntact at Flashpoint 2

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