Complexity are now just one match away from qualifying for IEM Rio 2022 Major.

The squad led by Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou has only improved since the addition of Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli in July. They surprised a few people by taking a win against Natus Vincere at BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2022 and followed it up with a playoff run at of ESL Pro League Season 16 which included a victory over Astralis.

Complexity cruised to a 2-0 record at the Americas RMR before hitting a wall with consecutive losses to Liquid and 00NATION, twice failing to secure their qualification to the Major. A victory against Isurus now has the North Americans back on track, just one match away from reaching Rio.

After a disappointing loss on Inferno (11-16), Complexity came back with a point to prove, blowing the Argentinian squad out of the water with convincing wins on Overpass (16-7) and Nuke (16-1). Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince sat down with us after the match to talk about their struggles in the last three matches, Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery's performance against Liquid, and their approach to the final match on Sunday.

You made it through the game, however, you had a tough start on Inferno, what went wrong?

On Inferno we had a read on what they were doing on our CT side and we were playing pretty well. Our game plan went well, we were playing mid because we knew they came out [from there] a lot. On the T side honestly, the pressure got to us a little bit and we started making mistakes that we don't normally make, and not playing like we usually do. We were lingering in places without taking map control and that screwed us up a bit, but I think we reset after that map and said "Guys, that's not how we play and Overpass and Nuke are good maps for us," and we came out on top at the end.

You successfully recovered in the end with a very strong performance on Nuke, do you think you needed a statement win like that?

I definitely think so because we did not play to our standards in the 00NATION match or in the first map in this game. Stomping them in the last two maps will be good for everyone's confidence, to say "alright, that's how we normally play." we'll try keeping it as the standard going into Sunday's game and we'll bring our top game. I definitely think the last two maps helped us for sure.

You mentioned struggling on the T side of Inferno, you also struggled on the T side of Ancient yesterday, do you have any insight on it?

I think in our scrims we were really really on our T side, but I think in the matches something changes. Specifically on Ancient, because it's one of the most CT-sided maps in the pool right now and if you are not at 100% of your A-game, which we definitely were not in the 00NATION game, it's going to get you killed. I think in the 00NATION game we lost something like six clutches in a row on the T side, it was 10-10, and then all of a sudden it was 15-11. They always had one alive at the end of every round and we lost a bunch of clutches.

I don't think we had a particularly bad T side in that game, but it all came down in the clutch situation and their individuals just played better than us, and they ended up winning a lot of those rounds. I think that game could have gone either way, if we won one of those rounds we would have broken their economy, forcing them to save for two rounds and making us 13-10 up. We could have carried that momentum and won, but in the end, we played poorly in the clutches and the rounds went their way.

We talked about the mistakes after the game and discussed how to follow our protocols and clear the stuff that we need to, like when coldzera killed us on boost once. In the last round, we specifically said to clear him [from that position] but we didn't in the end, and I was sitting in the open for some reason [laughs].

The small mistakes cost us and I felt the pressure that game just because it was the qualifying match for a Major and it was such a close game. Every round was down to the wire and it got to me a little bit, especially on that last round, but all I can do about that is move on.

For the Inferno game all of our plans fell stagnant, we were trying to go to the B site, but their hold was very very strong and were not doing much around mid so they had full info and they kept stacking B and dropping us. I think for the next games, [we are going to discuss] that's not how we normally play Inferno's T side, so we are going to review it and fix things ahead of the next game.

You mentioned Isurus' B site defense on Inferno, was there anything else from them that impressed you?

I definitely think they impressed me because of the way they adapted in the middle of the game. They were using all of their nades early on, but then they ended up dropping more nades because they caught up on us not taking mid, so the A players were dropping their utility. I think that was really good from them, they adapted well and they definitely played better than us on that map [Inferno] for sure. I think they are pretty good, every team here is very good and these RMRs are crazy these days. CS is at such a high level right now, anyone can beat anyone, look at the EU RMR, G2 and Astralis are out, we are struggling here.

I think all these teams are playing with a lot of passion right now and they really want to make the Major, the biggest one in Brazil. Every game is hard, no matter if you are No.10 on HLTV or No.90, everyone is coming for it and we need to be A-game 100% of the time if we want to win more.

You mentioned about all the teams beating each other, it's been pretty tough for you after going 2-0 with two difficult opponents, what were the discussions like after those matches?

So we were just talking about finding ourselves because we have been boot camping for so long in Europe, we got to a point in which we know our basics and protocols really well, but in the 00NATION and Liquid games we were missing some things up. We had some talks after the games like "guys, we know it's hard now and we have to win two best-of-three games, but as long as we think about ourselves and follow our basics and even without the prep against other teams we can take down anyone tomorrow."

You touched on the Liquid game which did not go your way, but on Overpass floppy was just out of control. How has it been to play with him at this event given he has been your top performer at this event?

When floppy is in the zone no one can stop him, even Liquid. They kept going B and he was like "one dead, two, three — the whole team is dead." Every time I kept thinking "what the hell is going on over there." I was not sure if they were buying, they were not even shooting their guns, but they were and floppy is insane. It feels really nice when a teammate is doing that and all you can do is hype them up and make sure that he stays in the zone. For me, when a teammate is playing like that all I can do is drop a game to them when they cannot afford it, I'll make sure they always have a buy.

I want to make sure they are in the best space possible to succeed and I think our team has a really good way of making sure that if a player is in the zone they stay in it. When I have games like that, hallzerk is always dropping me a gun on a round where he would just have a Glock, and this worked against 00NATION on Overpass he did that and I got an ace. Our team is very selfless from the individuals and it's helping us a lot in these games when it comes down to the wire.

You mentioned keeping everyone in the zone and maintaining a certain atmosphere, how's the dynamic between the coaches and JT?

It's really nice because JT and T.c have been teammates and friends for so long now and they do a really nice job of pausing when we need to and making sure we are focusing on the right things. If he [T.c] sees there is a gap somewhere he'd say something like "we can abuse this because they are doing x," and then JT will take that into consideration and call a round because we all respect each other and everyone's opinion. If someone has a good read, it could be me, hallzerk, or anyone, they'll tell, and Johnny will listen to it and try it.

But when he feels something does not feel right, he'll obviously call what he wants. I think JT on the CT side is really good a communicating and calming us down in the moment and I think helps a lot in our games. Even when we are winning he's trying to crack jokes and lighten the mood just to make sure that we are staying on top and playing our game. When we are comfortable we are really good, we can be a top-ten team for sure. If we can play as we did in the Isurus game, we can play aga basically any team.
Our team is very selfless from the individuals and it's helping us a lot in these games when it comes down to the wire.

You will be facing either paiN or Imperial depending on how the match goes tomorrow, how are you approaching the game?

I think we are going to focus on doing our basics properly. We are going to prep like we normally do, but really just focus on ourselves like we did today. As I said, I think we can beat pretty much anyone and just need to build our confidence, like for us is winning a pistol round because we cannot get one to save our lives. Even in this series, we lost so many, but we won one and thought that we had to win the game now.

Winning pistols is really important because they enable us to carry our momentum, but I think we just need to focus on ourselves to make sure everyone is DMing, watching demos, and that we come into the match at 100% of our individual level.

Any closing statements?

Thank you for your support, hopefully, we can make the Brazilian Major — It would mean a lot to me and to us as a team, we really want to go to Brazil. Thank you to all the NA fans for sticking with us through thin and thick because I know the first half of the year was pretty bad, but hopefully, we can make something now.