Last night the compLexity Academy went toe-to-toe with team Legion in the ESEA. It was a hard fought match and, despite the Academy’s best efforts, they fell with a score of 1-3. Don’t let the score fool you, it was an extremely close match with every member of the Academy getting at least one win.

The individual scores were:
 Goswser vs Luxuy 2-0
 Nocreativity vs Jimrising 1-2
 Nineteen vs  Chita 1-2
 Brobocop vs Mystic 1-2 

What was interesting about this match was that neither team used a Terran player. It’s also important to note that the games the Academy lost were strictly mirror matches.

This loss is sure to light a fire under the compLexity Academy and will motivate the players to train even harder. Be sure to check back on Thursday as the Academy will be taking on another team in the ESEA.

The MLG Orlando Academy qualifier was a chance for all the players in the academy to punch their ticket all expenses paid to MLG Orlando. In the games below, we have Lizzuma, reigning champion of both MLG qualifiers thus far for the academy, and we have Goswser. Winner of this will be getting the last spot to represent the Academy in Orlando!

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Goswser

1)  Are you looking forward to attending MLG Orlando?

Of course I’m looking forward to participating!  MLG Orlando has one of the most stacked lineups in terms of the Korean players.  Also it will be warm, and I think this will be a nice change, given the recent weather up here in Ohio.  I go to school at Miami University, and when I tell people how cold it is, people are always like “isn’t that in Florida?”  Now I’ll actually be in the sunshine state haha.  I look forward to meeting with the coL team, I saw them when I was at Columbus, but wasn’t in the academy then, although I was planning on joining it at the time!  Hopefully I get some sleep and get to meet with fellow coL academy zerg NoCreativity and of course all of the coL guys.  I also need to get my brother’s EG jersey signed by HuK while I am there, he’ll kill me if I don’t :p.

2) Have you ever participated in an MLG before? If so, how did you do in the past? What LAN tournaments have you been to in the past?

I was at MLG Columbus in June!  That was the only one I have been to but it was an awesome experience.  I had the luck of running into one Mouz.Morrow in the second round of the open bracket, which was a surreal experience.  I beat him in game 1 which was 45 minutes long, then lost two short games due to misjudging how he would play – he 6 pooled me in the decisive game 3 on  shakuras, but then apologized for cheesing afterwards :/.  In losers bracket I got knocked out by destiny, who was on root at the time.  I wasn’t in good condition at this event however.  Before going I didn’t read the rules and overview very well and brought a keyboard and mouse I wasn’t able to use.  I realized my mistake once there and ran up to microcenter the day of the event to get a keyboard and found one for $3.29 including tax which I am using now.  I had a few friends also competing in mlg and just mooched off of a few different mouses (mice?).  Since then I’ve attained a gaming mouse, although I’m still using the keyboard I got.  Maybe I’ll bring a stack of the keyboards with me so I can smash them on the table as a victory celebration.  MLG Columbus is actually the only big lan event I have attended, I am hoping that I will attend many in the future, as Columbus left me with a very good experience as a player.

3) What type of preparation will you be using in getting ready for MLG Orlando? Will your practice schedule become more rigorous or stay the same for the most part?

My friends already wonder how I manage to practice as much as I do, I already have almost 1000 ladder games this season, plus many many many more custom games from practice and from tournaments I have participated in.  However my practice schedule will become both more structured and much more rigorous, I plan on practicing and preparing in all of the time I’m not doing classwork between now and MLG Orlando.  I’m going to be analyzing every aspect of my play that I can, practicing with everyone in coL academy and also other practice partners I have.  I will also be going over every single replay, analyzing everything I can improve on and pushing myself to refine my play as much as I can.  Besides this I’ll be studying replays and vods of pros to figure out how they deal with situations, so I am as ready as I can be, come October 14^th.  I don’t look at this trip as a vacation, rather as an exam, and doing my best is my first priority.

4) Do you think your level of play is up to par to attend an MLG? The open bracket seems extremely challenging with Korean players; does facing up against a Korean frighten you at all?

When playing at my best, my level of play is up to par I think.  My goal is to win MLG, and while this is not realistically possible at the event I don’t like to focus on where I am and how much farther I have to go, but instead to play each game as though my life depended on it.  Facing a Korean does not frighten me, although they play better than most foreigners, I would much rather face a subpar Korean than a top foreigner.  I think that DIMAGA has shown the world that foreigners have just as much game as Koreans through his incredible performances at every event he has attended that has Koreans at it and look to his play for inspiration, because he is the best player in the world at winning important games and tournaments he has prepared for.  Many of the Koreans are playing in smaller tournaments in the NA region all of the time now, and while the players at Orlando are much better than ZenexYong, only a few of the Koreans looked impressive at previous MLG events and I wouldn’t need to face them unless I made it deep into the championship bracket.
 
5) What are your expectations for MLG Orlando? How far do you have to proceed in the tournament to attain your goal and consider the trip a success?

I expect to have a good time and for this MLG to be even better than previous MLGs.  Hopefully they will give us more time in between matches and take better care of players in the open bracket, which has been a problem at previous events.  Performance wise, I will beat everyone who is worse than me and make sure that when I finally fall it is to a top player.  I will consider the trip a success if I conquer issues with nerves and am able to show my best play, and if I can perform at my top level and win against some of the semipros and underperforming professional players.  Everything is relative, you never know if your going to be the guy who plays platinum players for four rounds, or the guy who runs into JulyZerg in round 1.  Improvement, growth, and representing complexity as far into the tournament as I can are my biggest goals, as well as conquering my nerves and thinking clearly even in important matches.

NoCreativity

1)  Are you looking forward to attending MLG Orlando?

I can’t possibly express how excited I am to attend MLG. It’s difficult for me to actually believe the reality, I’m really going. I feel like this is my chance to debut my skills on the big stage and show what kind of champions come out of the Complexity Academy.

2) Have you ever participated in an MLG before? If so, how did you do in the past? What LAN tournaments have you been to in the past?

I’ve never actually been to a LAN before; the experience is entirely new to me. That being said, I absolutely cannot wait to experience it.

3) What type of preparation will you be using in getting ready for MLG Orlando? Will your practice schedule become more rigorous or stay the same for the most part?

I have a fairly rigorous training schedule to prepare for MLG. The open bracket path is a long and arduous one and I absolutely must be prepared to tackle it. That being said I currently play 8+ hours a day to make sure I’m in top form for competition. I’m very lucky to have the Complexity Academy’s awesome management and players to help me prepare.

4)  Do you think your level of play is up to par to attend an MLG? The open bracket seems extremely challenging with Korean players; does facing up against a Korean frighten you at all?

I believe one can never be too prepared. As for the Koreans, I welcome the challenge, I feel unstoppable right now and I certainly won’t let a Korean stop me in my tracks.

5) What are your expectations for MLG Orlando? How far do you have to proceed in the tournament to attain your goal and consider the trip a success?

I expect to make my way out of the open bracket and onto the main tournament. I’m meticulous in nature; I plan on analyzing all my opponents thoroughly and playing the safest game I can to ensure my spot in the pool play.

So far Lizzuma has won two straight MLG qualifiers and Gensulitor earned a trip with a second place finish. Now with new members joining the academy will someone be able to give Lizzuma a run for his money? Or will he remain king and represent the Academy at MLG Orlando?

This is compLexity Academy’s qualification tournament for MLG Orlando and is set to begin on September 28th at 7 pm EST. The winner from this tournament will receive an all expenses paid trip to go play to MLG Orlando. The format of this tournament is double elimination and best of 3 for each game. 

Seed Determination:
Seeding is determined by the points gained from the initiation tournament. Future tournaments for the Academy will use the same format, so accumulating points will be important for all players. The points are given out on an opposite placing x2 scale. So, if you get 1st place you would get 10×2 = 20 points and if you get 10th place you would get 1×2= 2 points.

For this event the #1,2, and 3 seeds will be Lizzuma, Gensulitor and Goswser respectively. All other seeds will be random and points for this class will begin after this event. 

Player list and Seedings:

1.   Lizzuma
2.   Gensulitor
3.   Goswser
4.   Brobocop
5.   Proxima
6.   NoCreativity
7.   Lagragian 
8.   Nineteen
9.   Picnic
10. Fallen

Starting Map:
The starting map will be determined by veto’s. The lower seed veto’s first so the higher seed will get to choose between the last two maps. After the first map is played, all other maps will be playable for each game after and there will be ONE veto for each time a player loses a map. 
Example- Lizzuma wins map one and then he will get to ban 1 map and his opponent can pick from all other maps except the one played and the one veto’d. Lets say his opponent then wins, now his opponent will ban 1 map and then Lizzuma can pick from the rest except from the ones played and banned.

Brackets: http://challonge.com/academyorlando

Map Pool:
MLG Dual Sight
MLG Metalopolis
MLG Shakuras Plateau
MLG Shattered Temple
MLG Tal’Darim Altar
MLG Testbug
MLG Xel’Naga Caverns

View the tournament LIVE on our Twitch.TV stream by clicking here.

This MLG Qualification tourney is sponsored by Origin PC, you can check out their custom made desktops and laptops at: http://www.originpc.com

We also had the privilege of touring their facility you can check out that video at: http://www.complexitygaming.com/news/2989/

The compLexity Academy website is officially LIVE. Here you’ll find up to the minute rankings of the top 10, as well as the latest news, forum threads, blogs and information about the compLexity Academy. To visit the sub-site, click here.

Recently the complexity Academy joined the team league SCLNA. Last week they improved to an undefeated 3-0 by taking down XPn. The games were intense and although starting with a 3-0 lead, the academy was barely able to hang on and win it 4-3.

Some highlights including  Fallen going 2-0 vs Zerg opponenets,  Gensulitor going 1-1 to keep us ahead, and  Brobocop winning the ace match with one of his unique and very effective ZvP builds.

All in all the season is starting to shape up to be a very successful one for the academy, with eyes on winning the league it should be an exciting home stretch for the team. 

We are very excited to have the second class of the academy getting ready to start up. Joining the academy will be:

1.   NoCreativity
2.   Picnic
3.   Proxima

The invite spot has gone to: Nineteen who was knocked out of the recruitment tourney by Proxima. Thank you to all who applied and good luck in the future qualifiers. 

Now that you guys know who will be joining the academy It is time to share with you who will be departing. These players were part of the founding class and really showed us some good games over the past few months. The players who will be departing from the academy are as follows:

Player list and Seedings
1.   Strength
2.   Damncats
3.   Cheec[h]

Congratulations to our top 3 Finalists: 

Picnic, Nocreativity, and Proxima

Today marks one of the most important days in the Academy to date. The recruitment tournament is just a couple hours away so make sure to stay tuned to find out who will be the newest members of our compLexity Academy. Some notable entries include Pride, Avilo, Trump, and RoyalFlush. There are only three spots open in the academy so competition is sure to be fierce good luck to all the competitors today.

Casting the event will be Adebisi (Academy Caster), and Tumba, in replacement of Wombat, who was not able to attened the event today. Today is sure to have exciting matches by some of the best up and coming players, all fighting to keep their dream alive of becoming a professional gamer.

The compLexity Academy frequently changes players and keeps the best, while looking for new talent. To find the new talent on our limited roster of ten, we have to make room. Unfortunately that means some players will have to face expulsion. The bottom three players based on points will be the three that are eliminated. The current point standings are as follows:

Player list and Seedings
1.   Lizzuma [58] (Safe)
2.   Gensulitor [44] (Safe)
3.   Goswser [36] (Safe)
4.   Brobocop [34]
5.   Cheech [32]
6.   Lagragian [26]
7.   Strength [25]
8.   Fallen [23]
9.   Damncats [21]

The players who are not safe will be participating the Expulsion Tournament where, as stated before, the bottom three will be released from the Academy. The players in the Academy have put a lot of time and effort into their Starcraft lives. They all want to be at the top, and this is just another way to prove who wants it more. 

Brackets: http://challonge.com/academyexpulsion

Best of luck to all participants as some embark into their final journey with compLexity, while others will get another shot in the Academy.

Yesterday, the compLexity academy took on Team Binary in the StarCraft League North America. It was their first debut in a team league and they played extremely well. The rosters are as follows:

compLexity Academy
1.   Lizzuma
2.   Gensulitor
3.   Goswser
4.   Cheec[h]
5.   Brobocop
6.   Lagragian
7.   Strength
8.   Fallen
9.   Damncats

Team Binary
1.   Paradise
2.   Risk
3.   Tora_Bora
4.   Candide
5.   Fan
6.   Forbes
7.   Superman
8.   amonkey
9.   sooch

In the first match,  Strength from the compLexity academy duked it out against  Revenge.  He took down Revenge with ease and moved on to his next opponent from Binary. Strength was next faced up against  amonkey. He ended up taking down amonkey as well, going 2-0 in his first team league debut. Strength going 2-0 is huge because he currently resides towards the bottom of the rankings of the compLexity Academy. Although beating players in the team league does not earn you points, it will help boost his confidence and prove his worth to the Academy.

 Lizzuma was the next member from the compLexity academy called up to play. His opponent first opponent was none other than  sooch. Lizzuma could be considered the Academy’s ace. He has won every in-house tournament convincingly. He has particpated in three MLG’s now: Colombus, Anaheim, and Raleigh most recently. He is an all around solid player, with excellent macro. Lizzuma was able to win his first game versus sooch and moved on to face  Paradise. This is, unfortunately, where the Academy dropped its first game as Paradise defeated Lizzuma. 

At this point the Academy was up 3-1, in a comfortable position. Next up for the Academy was a player who had also attended MLG Anaheim,  Brobocop. Brobocop played extremely solid in Anaheim. For the Academy, he is currently ranked number five out of nine. Brobocop faced the player his teammate just lost to,  Paradise. This time the storyline was different as Brobocop defeated Paradise soundly and the Academy moved on to win their first match in the SCLNA.

Next week, the compLexity Academy will be taking on Team SC in the SCLNA. Stay tuned for the results!

compLexity Academy Expulsion List and Recruitment Tournament

The compLexity Academy is a program that features 10 up and coming StarCraft 2 players as they develop their skills in an attempt to become true professional gamers. The members will compete for LAN travel, prizes and coveted pro contracts. They also will need to fight to maintain their status in the academy during Expulsion Tournaments.

For the role of Commissioner Michael “Twixz” Shane, eSports leader and former compLexity.Black star will be returning for a second season. Mr. Shane handles all facets of the academy.

1) To identify and support potential future stars of StarCraft 2 by providing them with the gear, training partners and travel opportunities needed to elevate them to professional status

2) To foster an environment necessary to ensure the continued growth and development of the professional StarCraft 2 eSports scene in North America

1) An internal ranking system will be implemented. The initial ranking will be determined by a Ranking Tournament amongst the players. Every 3 months the bottom 4 players in CA will compete in our Expulsion Tournament with only the winner remaining in CA. The other 3 spots will be filled via an Open Recruitment Tournament (3 spots) and by an invite from Mr. Shane (1 spot).

2) If a player is given a professional contract, his spot will be filled during the next CA Open Recruitment Tournament.

3) One month before each MLG LAN event, CA will hold a Qualifying Tournament from which the Top 1-2 players will be given airfare and hotel to the next MLG event. (In addition, the winning member of each Qualifying Tournament will receive a PNY video card.)

4) Every month a randomly seeded Ranking Tournament will be held to determine member ranks. The seedings for the Qualifying Tournaments will be based off this ranking.

Over the past few months the compLexity Academy has hosted two academy MLG tournaments and a tournament to get into the academy. We have given ten players the opportunity to become professional Starcraft 2 players. A few of them took it and ran with it, while others fell towards the bottom.  

The Current Standings are as follows:

Player list and Seedings
1.   Lizzuma [58]
2.   Gensulitor [44]
3.   Goswser [34]
4.   Cheec[h] [32]
5.   Brobocop [24]
6.   Lagragian [20]
7.   Strength [18]
8.   Fallen [13]
9.   Damncats [9]

There is one tournament left for these players to fight their way above the bottom four. The bottom four players will be expelled and removed from the compLexity Academy.

 The four spots have to be filled so the compLexity academy is holding a tournament to find the new four players. The tournament will be taking place on September 17th at 1pm Eastern Standard Time. The requirements to participate in the tournaments is one must be 18 years of age or older and at least have a masters level account in Starcraft 2. The format of the tournament is a best of three, single elimination.

The top three finishers in the tournament will receive a spot in the academy. One player will be hand-picked by none other than the compLexity Academy commissioner, Michael “Twixz” Shane. The four who are selected will receive a compLexity QPAD Mousepad and a Creative Headset. They will also sign a 9 month option contract.  If said option is exercised, the member will be given a full pro gamer contract and a new gaming computer from ORIGIN PC.

To sign up head over to http://www.z33k.com/starcraft2/tournaments/2884-complexity-academy-qualifier. 

Best of luck to all competitors, and be sure to check out the sub-site of the compLexity Academy is officially LIVE. Here you’ll find up to the minute rankings  of the top 10, as well as the latest news, forum threads, blogs and information about the compLexity Academy. To visit the sub-site, click here.