One of the most storied organizations in Counter-Strike’s long history has returned to the franchise where it all began.
Complexity has announced the addition of a new team for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The squad is made up of a combination of former Nihilum and Tempo Storm players who have recently played under the Maximum Effort name.
The most notable member of the team is Kory “Semphis” Friesen, who was a part of the most recent Complexity Counter-Strike team which placed as high as the top four at majors like DreamHack Winter 2013. Those successes were the greatest yet had by an American team in Global Offensive.
Friesen will be joined by promising young talents like Daniel “Roca” Gustaferri and Timothy “Autimatic” Ta.
Complexity’s Counter-Strike teams have a history of success, boasting multiple major titles won during the original era of Counter-Strike when American teams were frequent contenders on the game’s biggest stages. But their their former glory is 10 years past. The migration of most of the scene’s talent to the Championship Gaming Series and the later failure of that league fractured the domestic infrastructure, which suffered a further setback last year when members of top American team iBUYPOWER were banned indefinitely by Valve for match fixing.
Complexity CEO Jason Lake was typically optimistic about his new team’s chances to recapture that former glory.
“Dedication, passion, time and patience will lead to big trophies. Bank on it,” Lake said.
A member of the mid-2000s championship teams, Matt “Warden” Dickens, will be returning to the Complexity organization to serve as manager and coach for the new roster. Dickens brings a wealth of experience and played at the highest level of domestic Counter-Strike as recently as this year with Elevate.
The squad’s debut match against Team Liquid was an inauspicious two games to none loss. Lake did emphasize time and patience when announcing the acquisition of the team, and he may well need both if his new team’s goal is to capture the game’s biggest trophies.
