by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm
In Seattle the largest tournament started two days ago – with compLexity Gaming being a part of it. After a long and tough road, the coL.Dota squad managed to come out of the North American region as their champion, carrying the red, white and blue into the West Coast metropolis.
The expectations were low, but the critics loud and once more the compLexity Gaming squad, around captain and drafter Kyle ‘swindlemelonzz’ Freedman, knew how to defy the odds. After two days of the group stage, the team is looking solid in Group A with seven points to their name. Only the tournament favorites Secret and Chinese star team with TI4 winner xiao8, LGD were more successful.
Right from the get-go the team showed their potential against the dark horse team MVP.Phoenix, winning a thrilling opening match against the Korean wildcard team. For the opener, compLexity Gaming support player Zakari ‘Zfreek’ Freedman had a special trick up his sleeve, selling items to get a surprising Refresher Orb, which turned the tide in a clutch team fight, securing the game. The four-man Black Hole out of nowhere not only caught MVP.Phoenix completely off guard, but also managed to confuse ODPixel and Draskyl for a short while.
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That massive play was still on the mind of the audience when coL player David ‘Moonmeander’ Tan went for the next highlight reel with his Clockwerk on the bottom lane, coming out with a sliver of health from a 2v1 engagement. He nearly performed that act twice in a row, only to be denied in the last second.
Sadly that was all the young Dota squad could muster in their TI5 debut, since LGD showed up ready to pounce and punish every mistake. In the two matches, LGD got on the scoreboard 65 times, while the coL boys only answered nine times. The learning experience against the Chinese team lasted less than an hour. When the dust had settled on the virtual battleground, only the five Chinese warriors lived to tell the tale, while coL went from the adrenaline rush of a win, to the agony of defeat.
Regrouping, refocusing and getting back in shape was the name of the game for Day 2. It would prove an important stepping stone on the way to reach the Top 4 of the highly contested group. Both former TI Champions Na’Vi and Invictus Gaming were scheduled to square off with the red and black squad – another big test of strength for the young team.
The match against TI1 winners Na’Vi turned into a marathon session, featuring ups and downs, missteps and big plays. The draft worked out for coL to run a core Naga for Mexican player Luis ‘Zyzz’ Perez, whose ulti’s ultimately ended up winning compLexity Gaming some massive engagements when Na’Vi knocked on the door of their high ground. Adding to the team composition, we had Zfreek’s Tusk punching people in the face and Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik unleashing the power of his Crystal Maiden. Twice the high ground of compLexity was successfully defended and twice Na’Vi suffered heavy casualties bringing coL back into the game. Just like the first day, coL followed up a marathon victory with a quick match to close out the series, pushing them to six points in total with TI2 Champs Invictus Gaming on deck.
It started out as a deja vu of the first day, as iG tore coL apart in the first game, only to get blown up in Game 2. For the first time in TI’s history, the explosive and unstable Techies were put into the trustworthy hands of Zfreek, who proceeded to snowball through the map with Moonmeander causing absolute chaos. A godlike streak on Techies later, the Chinese wall was broken. For the first time the team had broken through the mysterious ways of the Chinese Dota 2 teams, bringing the disruptive force of the Techies and a coL classic in Viper.
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On the back of the impressive comeback performance, compLexity Gaming is now looking stellar in Group A, close to securing a Top 4 spot. Tomorrow the tournament favorites in Team Secret are up. Can the compLexity Gaming team continue to impress? Tune in and support Swindle, Fly, Moon, Zyzz and Zfreek on their quest to Key Arena tomorrow at 11 AM PDT / 2 PM EST / 8 PM CEST on twitch.tv/dota2ti_3 .