by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm
After a disappointing couple of weeks for the compLexity Gaming CS squad, sgares and his team get a chance at redemption in Dallas, Texas. The sixteenth season of ESEA’s prestigious league will come to a global conclusion with a total of $47,500 USD on the line.
That along with the honor attached to the global phenomenon are reason enough to turn the situation around for compLexity’s ailing team. Struggling in the CEVO Professional 4 a couple of weeks ago was the last sighting of the squad, who have been going on a hiatus due to the lack of North American competition. Now Dallas is calling and the best eight teams of the individual qualifiers have answered and boarded their planes to the Lone Star State.
The domestic competition might have gone south for the Black-Red organization lately, but the triumphant days against the best teams in the world from Jönköping, Sweden and Katowice, Poland are still fond days to look at. Since then the roster swapped, the atmosphere changed and results have gone up and down; Time for a reset.
For that restart, the matchup couldn’t be more challenging for sgares and his boys. Waiting in the first round is non other than the Swedish powerhouse of NiP, who have been on a tear recently. The acclaimed team with stars like f0rest and GeT_RiGhT comes fresh off their victory at DreamHack Summer 2014 and are motivated to add another title to the already impressive collection.
When asked about the matchup by hltv.org recently, resident Canadian Semphis praised the overall quality of NiP, Na’Vi and Virtus.Pro, but also emphasized the past exchanges. Those have been one-sided in the overall result, but coL was able to challenge the Swedish giants on several occasions. Now they are familiar with the way NiP are playing- intel that might come in handy this weekend. In the same interview Semphis also outlined the struggle of coL a bit, speaking about the difficulty in getting efficient practice. Individual skill will play a big role – something that coL is blessed with, fortunately.
Another interesting and motivating fact for compLexity Gaming, their fans and CS:GO gurus from North America is also home field advantage. Looking at the most recent big events on LAN, the title always stayed in the country. At DreamHack Winter 2013, fnatic kept it in Sweden, Katowice was the big Polish rally behind Virtus.Pro and DreamHack Summer 2014 saw Ninja’s holding the check. Can the United States keep that streak alive with the sleeping giant coL? We will find out over the course of this weekend when compLexity Gaming meets four teams from Europe, alongside three worthy foes from North America.
| coL.cs | 0 | VS | 0 | iBUYPOWER |
| ESEA Season 16 Playoffs – LB Finals |
| coL.cs | 2 | VS | 1 | Virtus Pro |
| ESEA Season 16 Playoffs – LB Finals |
| coL.cs | 0 | VS | 2 | iBUYPOWER |
| ESEA Season 16 Playoffs – WB Finals |
| coL.cs | 2 | VS | 0 | NaVi |
| ESEA Season 16 Playoffs – Round 2 |
| coL.cs | 2 | VS | 1 | NiP |
| ESEA Season 16 Playoffs – Round 1 |