Complexity prevail over EG to survive at BLAST Spring Groups

Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou and company survive the first knockout round without falling to the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown.

Two North American sides played each other in the first round of the BLAST Premier Spring Groups Knockout Stage, Complexity and Evil Geniuses. By the end of three maps it was the former, led by Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince on the scoreboard, who survived their compatriots at the event in Copenhagen.

The heat will now be turned up for the JT-led squad, who tallied their first victory in Denmark after eliminating Evil Geniuses. They will play Natus Vincere on Saturday in the second and final round of the Knockout Stage in a high-stakes game that will see the winner through to the Spring Final and the loser knocked down to the cut-throat Spring Showdown.

Grim posted a strong 1.49 rating in his team's first victory in Copenhagen

The American derby kicked off on Anubis, Complexity’s all-important pick as they came into the eliminating series with an 0-2 record following losses to FaZe and Liquid without a single map to their name. It turned out to be all about the riflers on home turf, with Grim particularly on point in the 11-4 routing of Evil Geniuses on the attack which ended in a 16-7 victory on the CT side.

Evil Geniuses, who looked the stronger of the two in the early days of the tournament after a surprise victory against Heroic in their tournament opener and then took a map off of them in a group stage rematch, had all of their chips on Inferno to keep the match going. Great clutch play from wiz gave Evil Geniuses exactly that hope in a favorable 9-6 half on the attack, which Sanzhar "⁠neaLaN⁠" Iskhakov’s men brought to a close 16-12 in a map filled with blunders on both sides.

Complexity, starting the final map of Overpass on the defense, held strong and steadfast while Evil Geniuses failed to break through as the attackers only managed to pull off a scattering of rounds in the first half and trailed 4-11 going into the CT side. They broke a pistol round loss with a forcebuy win, but even then were too far behind as Grim continued to display individual superiority with a 2.09 rating in the nine second-half rounds to end things 16-8 in his team’s favor.

The other North American squad still fighting for a spot at the BLAST Premier Spring Finals, Liquid, will go up against BIG after the first match of the day to try and knock out the German team, who have struggled to find form so far in 2023 with two straight 0-2 losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas and G2.

BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023Best of 3

Complexity

Matchpage

2

1

27th January 2023

Evil Geniuses

16

Anubis

7

12

Inferno

16

16

Overpass

8

Complexity	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Michael 'Grim' WinceGrim	71 - 42	+29	95.3	1.49
Justin 'FaNg' CoakleyFaNg	58 - 41	+17	80.8	1.29
Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouJT	47 - 43	+4	75.5	1.18
Ricky 'floppy' Kemeryfloppy	45 - 43	+2	77.2	1.06
Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærlihallzerk	45 - 38	+7	62.3	1.05

Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Sanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovneaLaN	45 - 53	-8	73.5	0.93
Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic	47 - 54	-7	70.5	0.90
Jerric 'wiz' Jiangwiz	39 - 46	-7	57.9	0.87
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	42 - 58	-16	61.7	0.82
Jadan 'HexT' PostmaHexT	33 - 55	-22	52.0	0.74