by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm
The boys have done it again! The compLexity Gaming.Dota 2 squad had to walk through a valley after the success story that was The International 5 in the Summer of 2015, once more adjusting the roster. The American-Swedish combo can now prepare themselves for another shot at the big time, traveling to the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China to attend the 3 Million dollar event that is the official Winter Major of Valve.
After the loss in the Frankfurt qualifiers, the team had to start from scratch again – but doing so with familiar faces. The American core of Swindle and Zfreek were joined by the Blomdin brothers Limmp and Chessie, former stayGreen and compLexity members in HoN, as well as Swedish support player Handsken.
Early indications of the strength of the new roster were found in the StarLadder qualifier and MarsTV qualifier, but the big test was still ahead of the five coL.Dota pros. The moment of truth came over the past four days, the first real big test of the new year for the compLexity squad. After early jitters against Shazam in the group stages, coL utilized the time in between Day 1 and Day 2 of the group stage to regroup, refocus and revitalize. They cruised through Day 2 without any problems, sporting a 6-0 record with several stomps in their path. The first seed of Group B was secured, but the opponent was not.
That was determined in the early portions of Day 3 with the tiebreaker bout between NA heavy hitters Archon and Digital Chaos. There DC walked away victorious, leaving Archon and coL colliding in the Semifinals – a match with plenty of history. The core of Archon, formerly known as Fire, used to be the nemesis of the compLexity Gaming squad. More than once FLUFFNSTUFF and his boys denied coL.Dota a spot at a LAN final, snatching it away right from under their noses a game away from the promise land. This time was no different, as a marathon session of 130 minutes in Game 1 and a decisive outing in Game 3 pushed Swindle and his crew down to the Lower Bracket with two elimination matches coming up on the all important Sunday.
As Sunday dawned the team got in some unusual prep work with a relaxing round of Bowling, taking their minds and nerves off of the big matches ahead of them The team building exercise worked wonders as coL marched over Shazam with ease, ready to take on DC in the last and final “Winner takes all” game of the Shanghai NA qualifiers.
In epic fashion the two teams went toe-to-toe, swinging for the fences with only one goal in mind – clinching that coveted ticket for the Winter Major. coL got off to a great start, securing themselves the first map on the back of the Blomdin Brothers hitting very, very hard as Mirana (Chessie) and Gyrocopter (Limmp). Emotions ran high with the win, but proceeded to simmer down as coL couldn’t close it out in the next one. DC answered the call, putting on a great showing in Game 2 with Medusa topping the net worth chart throughout the contest. The snake lady was too much to handle in the team fights and so a “GG” was in order. The NA qualifiers came down to the most dramatic way possible – a Game 3 for all the marbles.
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With everything on the line both teams put faith in unconventional “off-meta” picks as coL went with their Brewmaster and Lich combination, DC selecting Kunkka and OD to fight their battles. Good laning, great rotations, spot-on decision making and great team fights, everything came together for compLexity’s Dota squad when it counted the most as they methodically picked apart DC in the final game of the contest with calm, structured play and objective based approaches. After only 30 minutes the base of DC was missing two Melee Barracks and a Ranged Barracks, with Invoker and Viper topping the net worth chart by a large margin. Chessie could have done his best Scrooge McDuck impersonation while being 5000 net worth clear of his brother and 7000 clear of the first DC player.
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This lead proved to be too much, as Swindle marched his team to a large lead, not getting overzealous, pushing it just enough for the squad to come out victorious in the end. A desperation Hail Mary Rosh attempt by DC followed by a 4-0 exchange sealed the deal, sending compLexity to the Winter Major in Shanghai. The Shanghai Major will begin on March 2nd, 2016.