Complexity Gaming is one of the most famous and oldest multigamings in North America. Founded back in 2003, its rosters are now represented in a few big disciplines, including CSGO, Dota 2, WoW, StarCraft II, FIFA, and others.
We present to your attention the history of the CSGO branch of the organization.
The first appearance
Complexity made its debut on the competitive scene at the dawn of the development of the industry. The first roster was assembled in 2003 and it included:
· Bullseya
· fRoD
· tr1p
· warden
· Storm
They played with this roster a few months, after that Bullseya was replaced on sunman. At that time, reshuffles were frequent because players were not limited by contracts, so they were trying to find better conditions for them.
The period in Counter-Strike 1.6/Source
In the times of Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source, Complexity was a regular guest at big prestigious championships. They often achieved victories at such tournaments. It was in 2005 when Complexity defeated SK Gaming in the final of ESWC 2005 – one of the most titled tournaments in the mid-2000s. Later, CoL continued growing its presence on the competitive scene.
In 2006, Complexity prevailed at GGL/ClanBase Trans-Atlantic Showdown, held the second place at WEG Masters 2006, achieved victories at CPS Summer 2006 and Championship Gaming Invitational 2006. Generally, the year can be considered as successful. However, the situation changed even in a better way in 2007.
That year, CoL became the champions of 6 tournaments. They won CEVO Professional CS:Source Season 3, Stride Xfire Cup 2007, DigitalLife 2007, NewEgg LANfest 2007, CEVO Professional CS:Source Season 4, and CSG 2007 Individual Tournament.
Complexity visited championships way less frequently in 2008. The team came only to two tournaments in one year: CEVO Professional CS:Source Season 5 и CGS 2008 North America Finals. The team placed 5th-6th at the first one and 6th at the second one.
The club decided to catch up in 2009. Complexity started with the 5th-6th place at ESEA Invite Finals Season 2 but it held the first place in the third season of ESEA Invite Finas later and became the champion of the 4th season of ESEA Invite Finals four months later.
Complexity placed 3rd at DreamHack Winter 2009 and 2nd at IEM IV American Championship Finals at the end of 2009.
The upcoming year was very rich in performances, however, their quality was not always satisfying. 2010 began with the 7th-8th place at Intel Extreme Masters IV, the 4th place at ESEA Invite Finals Season 5, and the 13th-16th place at Arbalet Europe 2010.
Complexity held the 2nd position at Inferno-Online League: Season 2 – Qualifier #2 in May 2010, after which they placed 5th-8th at ESWC 2010 two months later. Then, there was ESEA Invite Finals Season 6 with the 3rd place and Arbalet Dallas 2010 with the 9th-12th place. Complexity disbanded its Counter-Strike 1.6 roster after a row of failed performances.
However, it assembled the roster again in September 2010. The organization signed players of the team FireGamers:
· bruno;
· nak;
· BIT
· fnx
· FalleN
The Brazilian five put Complexity back in line for some time. CoL achieved victory at Mouses Cup CS:S in September 2010 and placed 4th at World Cyber Games 2010 in October, and won IEM V American Championship FInals.
Complexity stopped appearing on the competitive scene in 2011. The team held the 5th-6th place at Intel Extreme Masters V and prevailed at TEAMPLAY Summer Cup 2011, which became the last tournament for CoL in Counter-Strike 1.6.
Moving to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
After the victory at TEAMPLAY Summer Cup 2011, Complexity disappeared from the competitive Counter-Strike for one year. They returned in 2013, having signed the roster of Quantic Gaming:
· Hiko;
· n0thing;
· swag;
· sgares;
· Semphis.
The transfer to the new discipline was pretty successful. The team held the 2nd place at ESEA Global Finals Season 14 in August. The team won the qualifiers to MSI Beat IT 2013 – North American Qualifier Finals in September.
Complexity placed 2nd at complexity 10 Year Anniversary Tournament in November 2013. However, the biggest success was just ahead.
That November, Complexity held the 3rd-4th place at DreamHack Winter 2013.
2014 began extremely successfully. The team placed 3rd at ESEA Global Finals Season 15 in January and prevailed at CEVO Season 3 Main a bit later.
However, Complexity played at ESL Major Series One Katowice 2014 in March where the team held the 5th-8th place. Changes began on the roster after that. Initially, swag left the team and his spot was taken by anger. With him, Complexity played three months. They managed to hold the 3d place at CEVO Season 4 Professional and the 2nd place at ESEA Season 16 – Global Invite Division, after which the club faced the dark times.
The period of the long stagnation
Starting from 2015 to 2019-2020, Complexity was in search of a roster and was trying to return its part greatness, which, however, passed into oblivion in the times of Counter-Strike 1.6.
In 2015, the best results of Complexity consisted of RGN Freedom Cup where the team held the 4th place and Northern Arena 2015 where the team placed 2nd.
It happened in November-December after the numerous replacements inside the team.
The situation did not change in 2016. Complexity continued changing players, however, the results remained the same. Over the whole year, Complexity only once managed to win the qualifiers to Northern Arena 2016 – Montreal and hold the 3rd-4th place at International Gaming League 2016 – Grand Finals. The rest of the performances finished in the 5th place in the best case.
2017 brought nothing good for CoL. Endless reshuffles, along with losses at tournaments have already become ordinary. In fairness, CoL proved themselves a bit better in 2017, having passed open qualifiers to DreamHack Tours 2017 and ESL One: Cologne 2017. However, they faced failures in the closed qualifiers.
The performances at World Cyber Arena 2017 – North America Finals and Americas Minor Championship – Boston 2018 were the best results of the year where the team placed 3rd and 4th, respectively.
The situation began improving slowly in 2018. However, we are only talking about performances. It was still too far from a stable roster.
Complexity made it through the endless qualifiers and performances at small championships and advanced to Americas Minor Championship – London 2018. The roster, consisting of dephh, ANDROID, yay, Stanislaw, and ShahZam, managed to prevail at the Minor, which guaranteed them a spot in FACEIT Major: London 2018. Complexity proved themselves decently at the tournament, having held the 5th-8th place. After that, Complexity placed 2nd at MSI Gaming Arena 2018, after which they went down to the depth of bad results again.
Complexity changed the roster at the beginning of 2019, having signed RIckeh and n0thing. In this form, they played at Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Katowice Major 2019 in February 2019. Yay, ANDROID, and n0thing left the team after that. Their spots were taken by oBo, keita as a coach but blameF and RUSH joined the team later. K0nfig and poison arrived in Complexity by the end of the year.
2020 and the period of pandemic
Complexity continued participating in various qualifiers and small online tournaments in 2020.
They managed to hold the 4th-6th place at BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Regular Season in February. With the beginning of the pandemic, Complexity failed ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe and ESL One: Road to Rio – Europe.
The team achieved victory at 4 tournaments in the series #HomeSweetHome in May and became the champion of the premium tournament for the first time in the long years, which was BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Finals. Unfortunately, Complexity has not demonstrated a good play at all after that.
The organization and rewards
Jason Lake is the CEO of the organization, blameF holds the captain’s armband, and keita is a coach.
Complexity works with famous brands, including We Are Nations, GameStop, Twitch, WinStar, Miller Lite, Extra Life, Herman Miller.
Since the creation of the CS branch, the rosters have brought more than 1,349,000 dollars of prize money for the organization
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