CS:GO squad Complexity was dealt a blow ahead of their ‘home’ event at IEM Dallas on May 29 following visa issues affecting their star AWPer—but fans need not worry, for a South African legend will make a return for the Texas tournament.
Håkon “hallzerk” Fjærli, a major component in the Complexity unit and the squad’s standout player over the past three months, was unsuccessful with his most recent visa application, as confirmed to Dust2.us via team manager Graham “messioso” Pitt.
Visa issues were set to plague Hallzerk’s participation at the BLAST Paris Major American RMR in April, but an emergency exemption permitted the Norwegian sniper from attending and qualifying for his first CS:GO Major. No such exemption was allowed for this week’s Dallas tournament, however.
With just a day out from their opening best-of-one against ENCE, Complexity was forced to make a late call-up to an old friend to the roster—South African legend Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek.
Sonic is no stranger to the core members of Complexity; together with captain Johnny “JT” Theodosiou and coach Tiaan “T.c” Coertzen, Sonic left his home in South Africa and moved to the U.S. with Bravado in January 2018.
The squad started from scratch in North America, ultimately working their way up to a LAN final against ENCE at DreamHack Winter and a victory at DreamHack Mumbai Invitational to wrap up the calendar year.
Over the following years, the South African sniper, alongside JT and T.c, represented the likes of EnVyUs, Cloud9, and Extra Salt, with a smattering of event wins across 2021. Byt Sonic opted to hang up the mouse in 2022, stepping away from professional competition.
He wouldn’t lose his competitive drive completely, participating in various ESEA South Africa Cash Cups throughout 2022 and 2023, before returning to the U.S. in May 2023, thus enabling him to assist with Complexity in Dallas.
Related: IEM Dallas CS:GO 2023: Scores, brackets, results
Complexity isn’t the only team struggling with visa issues ahead of the first tier-one tournament after the Paris Major. Virtus.pro was forced to withdraw from IEM Dallas in April, with Fnatic replacing the Russian squad. A second team—suspected to be NAVI—was also unable to attend the event, paving the way for OG to make an appearance.
Complexity will be replacing NAVI at the BLAST Spring Final in Washington D.C. later in June. It is not yet clear whether Hallzerk will have his visa issue sorted by this time, with Sonic expected to remain with the roster through June.
Update May 29, 6:10pm: An earlier version of this article listed Sonic as the squad’s former in-game leader, this has been corrected.
