by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm
While the European scene looks to Kiev and the StarLadder Finals, the North American scene has their eyes locked on Rancho Cucamonga, California with the second installment of the SoCal Revival.
compLexity Gaming is one of the region’s two major teams to make the trip all the way to Southern California, looking to compete for a not so local prize pool – $8,000 USD. It may be a cozy environment with small town flair, but the large chunk of the NA CS:GO scene is in the house with iBuyPower and compLexity Gaming coming to town.
For the boys on coL, the group stage was only a formality, as they encountered no problems whatsoever. A quick 15-0 on the CT side of de_Mirage set the pace for a quick victory, although that euphoria was dampened just a bit when the pistol round didn’t quite go coL’s way. In the end, only that round and the two following ecos were on the scoreboard for awni4ever, leading to a decisive 16-3 rout in the opening contest.
The second match against Astro Zombies on de_Cache exposed some weaknesses in the pistol rounds once more, as the Zombies jumped to a quick 2-0 lead. Rallying back with great efforts on the T side was compLexity Gaming, as they took the important third round, and rolled on from there. The boys in black and red never looked back again, as they completely demolished their adversaries and went to a comfortable two victories in the group. Though some rounds on the CT side started out less than perfect for coL, the players kept their composure, playing for the retakes on the bombsites and executing those with near perfection.
So, it was was down to the matchup against Goblins, a team sporting a 1-1 split record going into the final match of the day. On the other side, coL had their destiny in their own hands, with a victory here cementing first in the group. The factory setting of de_nuke was the site of the final battle, a map compLexity Gaming has had some struggles on in the past. This time no jitters, no hiccups, and no real mishaps – although seang@res committed suicide after a round of trying to jump off cat with low HP. Other than the captain’s folly, the performance of the black and red roster was spot on. Their defensive assignments on the CT side allowed no breathing room for Goblins, denying them a bomb plant for the majority of the rounds. Every time a small weakness was exposed, coL could rely once again on their strength of the retake – a trait they had shown on de_mirage already. A flawless CT side and a won pistol sealed the deal at 16-0, and catapulted compLexity Gaming straight into the bracket stage.
The fierce five can grab some rest with the day off now, since the entire bracket stage will be played on Championship Sunday. Ultimately they can’t take it too easy, since tough tasks are ahead of them and the competition will not bow to the big name and the past accomplishments of the team. Relaxing hours for now, but then it’s back to business on the quest to create a coL impression on SoCal.