North America’s Complexity Beats 9INE After Three Intense Maps
After beating 9INE 2-1, Complexity advanced to the semi-finals of the ESL Pro League Season 18 Group D. The mostly American team took the opening game on Anubis (16-11), but they lost to Vertigo (12-16) in Poland, forcing them to win a tough game on Ancient (16-13) to take the series. Thursday, the American-dominated team will face off against Cloud9 in a playoff elimination match.
Michael “Grim” Wince stated, “I think we’ve been playing our best CS since we made the team,” during an interview with HLTV at Group D’s media day. The team captained by Johnny “JT” Theodosiou dominated the CT side of Anubis, and although being down 10-16 early in the Ancient finale, they managed to claw their way back into the game.
The American team, Complexity, will begin preparing for their upcoming match against Cloud9, a victory which would seal the team’s playoff berth. However, 9INE has been relegated to the lower bracket and must now battle Eternal Fire to avoid being relegated to the Last Chance Stage along with them.
Complexity picked Anubis to start the match, but the Poles took the upper hand early. Wiktor “mynio” Kruk and his squad sped to a 9-6 half on the famously difficult CT-side, largely because they did not offer the North American lineup any breathing room.
You might assume that 9INE’s victory on the Egypt-themed map was inevitable in light of this, yet Complexity put up a spirited defensive effort to defend their map selection. The North American team, led by Ricky “floppy” Kemery’s 23 kills and Hkon “hallzerk” Fjaerli’s 25 kills, converted their map pick, 16-11, and sent the two teams to the Polish side’s choice of Vertigo.
🚨 About an hour until America’s favorite CS Squad takes the stage in the #ESL Pro League Season 18 opener.
⚔️ @9INEGG
⏰ 2 pm CT
📺 @ESL pic.twitter.com/jWKycW5ZL3— Complexity ✭ (@Complexity) September 20, 2023
There, 9INE wasted no time in trying to fix their previous mistakes on Anubis. The Polish fivesome routinely dominated their American-majority opponents, with an outstanding performance from Kamil “KEi” Pietkun being the primary factor in granting a 10-5 lead to 9INE by halftime. Threatening in the second half, Complexity slowly but surely cut into 9INE’s lead, eventually closing the map out at 16-12 and sending the match to an Ancient decider.
The Ancient decider got out to a rocky start, falling behind 1-6, but eventually gained momentum. To end their T-side campaign up by one, the majority-American crew went on a seven-round killing spree, and they were especially brutal toward Olek “hades” Miskiewicz, one of 9INE’s better players, holding him to a 0-10 record before he finally earned his first kill in round 13.
When it was 9INE’s turn to go on the offensive, they once again found their groove, but they eventually ran out of steam in the last minutes, losing 16-13 to Complexity.
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