It’s safe to say that Complexity are the most inconsistent team at the elite level of Counter-Strike 2. Unbeatable on their day largely thanks to the sheer firepower of their star man EliGE, events such as BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024 and the shakiness shown there constantly throws their true level into doubt.

Despite winning their opening game at IEM Cologne 2024 against ALTERNATE aTTaX, Complexity’s inconsistency was again questioned, especially considering the huge disparity between the two teams’ ranks coming into the event.

After the 2-0, we spoke to Complexity star Grim about the inconsistency, his own individual level, how to fix the problems, and the current state of CS2.

“That's why it's a little frustrating when we keep making these little small mistakes, we have the experience and we know better”

Michael "Grim" Wince 

A nice opening game for you guys there, how are you feeling?

It's definitely good to have a strong win off the bat, hallzerk's 1v5 was insane, it was the highlight of the series, for sure.

I'm glad we could stay in it, we had a good game plan on Inferno and we were able to adapt on Anubis once we saw how their style was and ended up winning in the end.

Was it closer than you thought it would be?

Honestly, these days all the teams are so good that anyone can beat anyone so, obviously, we still have high expectations for ourselves and they're a really low-ranked team, but they came here to play, they're a German team and it's their home event so they came out to play really hard. We just needed to match their energy to take it over the line, but it was definitely a little closer than we expected.

Let's go to the 1v5, when you're sat there spectating, at one point do you realise he's winning it?

After he killed the guy swinging him from the corner, the fourth guy, it was like 'wow'. I didn't even realise it was a 1v1 at that point, but when he ran to A with the bomb I knew he was winning it then.

If you get four and you're on for the ace, you've got to secure it.

There's been some inconsistency for Complexity this year but you had a strong end to the last season and you've now played BLAST Fall Groups, how are you all feeling in the team?

We're definitely not happy and in a little bit of a slump right now so everyone is working harder than we ever had before to fix individual plays, as well as having our managerial staff looking at the more macro stuff to work on better strats and how we can improve in individual moments.

Everyone is working really, really hard to fix it and it mostly comes down to little mistakes. We're not making huge errors in terms of teamplay, but it's just when the round breaks down and it's in 5v3s we're just running out and not making sure we're playing optimally. If we stay a little more calm, we should be winning more.

It's the same for post-plants we're just working on comming and dead comming, so I'd expect some improvements because of how hard we're working right now.

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floppy recently told BLAST.tv that he isn't happy with his performances, how are you feeling about your own?

I'm definitely performing way below the level I think I can. It's just something I have to look at and review games to see what I can do better, after every match I've been watching my POV to see what I've been doing wrong, especially on Anubis because I've been having a really rough time recently and I've fixed a lot of stuff as a result. I actually had a really good game on Anubis today so it's good to see it paying off. They might not be one of the best teams, but they played really hard too, so it's good to have a good performance to build confidence from.

For me, it's a mental thing. The mechanics are good but the mental isn't in the best spot right now so I've just got to fix that and fix some small mistakes and I'll be good.

How long does it take to fix something like that and what do you need to do in order to fix it?

It's just a case of watching the games back, mechanics aren't really the problem and it's more a case of your thought process, decision-making, when you're rotating in and how you're reacting.

All of that stuff just requires sitting down and watching the game back to see why someone did something and seeing what made me play or peek a certain position, as well as why I might die in that position and how else I could play the scenario.

Today's opponent was obviously different, but when you look at your team compared to a lot of other teams there's still a degree to where you guys are younger or maybe more inexperienced, do you think that's a factor in some difficulties or do you look at yourself and say you're an experienced player?

I'd say that we definitely aren't as experienced as someone like EliGE, so he's been trying to lead us a lot in these situations, but we definitely do have a lot of experience now.

For most of us, this is pretty much our third year on Complexity and we've been playing tier one since then so we're way more experienced now than when we first joined the team.

That's why it's a little frustrating when we keep making these little small mistakes, we have the experience and we know better, but it's just about doing it in the situation and capitalising.

We've seen a peak from you guys towards the start of CS2 and at various points since such as Pro League and Challenger, but do you think you're far from it right now or is it more difficult at LANs such as Cologne because the field has just become more competitive overall?

The field is a lot more competitive, for sure, when CS2 came out it was a fresh start for every team.

The game has the same mechanics but in terms of smoke breaking and other innovations, we were very ahead of the game back then and were coming up with new strats and just playing really well as a team.

We've had some semi-final runs as a team so we can definitely rekindle that form, we still have the same players, it's just about the small mistakes that we need to iron out now. It will come from more practice and a tonne of review.

You said that back then CS2 was fresh, but now that we're closer to a year since the release, is it still as different or is it feeling closer to GO again?

A tonne changed just because of the smoke breaking. In CS:GO if you got smoked with twenty seconds left you either had to run through it or save, but now if someone has a HE, you can just break it and go. You can just create your own timings on a lot of things which makes it very different because there are so many more strats you can run as a result.

What do you think of the game overall?

It still has a tonne of work to be done on it, as everyone is saying. I know ropz has been very vocal about it and floppy has as well, I agree with a lot of stuff they said and there's a lot to do to be at CS:GO's level but it definitely has the potential because of the smoke breaking.

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What is the difference between LAN and online? Are you having the same issues with dying round corners?

Not as much on LAN, but if you have over 40 ping online it's really bad, honestly borderline unplayable. When we have to pracc from home and hallzerk has 120 ping it's really difficult to practice as a team.

Is that something holding you back as a team?

I don't think so, it's just something we have to deal with because we can only be in Europe for a certain amount of time as an NA team. It is what it is.

What are the expectations for Cologne?

We need to take it game by game because we've been in a bad slump, we need to get some wins on the board to build confidence and see where we can take it.

I'd love to see us in the playoffs but right now we really need to up our game in order to make it.