Today compLexity is announcing changes to our League of Legends division. With the Expansion Tournament quickly approaching its conclusion, we are making preparations for the 2015 Season. The highly competitive nature of LoL eSports means setbacks are inevitable, but we are committed to maintaining a presence in the thriving League of Legends community, and are in the process of building a team for the 2015 Challenger Series. In addition, we have been working with all of our players to ensure they are moving in the direction of their choosing, whether that be in or out of LoL eSports.

Looking forward our 2015 Challenger Series roster will be centered around the core of compLexity White – Goldenglue, Impactful (MabreyBABY), and Lohpally. These talented, young players are among the most recent additions to the compLexity Family, but we have faith that with continued growth they will be able to compete with the best that North America has to offer. Tryouts for the top and jungle positions are ongoing.

Our remaining personnel will be moving in separate directions in accordance with each of their goals and desires for the immediate and long-term future.

Robert ‘ROBERTxLEE’ Lee – Following nearly three years of competition, Robert will be retiring from LoL eSports to pursue his goals as a full-time entertainer. With his entertaining personality, and propensity for appearing at the top of /r/LeagueofLegends, Robert will be topping the Twitch charts in no time!

Neil ‘pr0lly’ Hammad –  Following his participation in the Expansion Tournament, Neil requested to be released from his contract to pursue other options in LoL eSports. While we are sad to see him go, we are sure that Neil will find success as either a player or a coach.

Jonathan ‘Westrice’ Nguyen – Though he will be stepping back from competition for now, West will remain part of compLexity in a roll as a full-time streamer. For the time being West will also be subbing as a top laner for the new compLexity Challenger roster.

Royce ‘Bubbadub’ Newcomb – After achieving one of his dreams and playing in the LCS, Royce is returning to the ‘real world.’ We’re extremely proud to have been a part of something so special as Bubba’s story, and hope that it inspired fans as much as it inspired us.

Kevin ‘Kez’ Jeon – Going into the Expansion Tournament, Kez had decided that it was likely his last shot at continuing as a professional League player. Looking forward Kevin will be retiring from competition, and allocating some of that time to planning his wedding! We wish the  best of luck to both Kevin and his bride-to-be.

While we are sad to say goodbye to our friends, we hope that they find success in each of their individual paths. We’re proud to call each of you part of the compLexity Family.

For compLexity League of Legends, it has been a memorable year. A story of triumph in the face of less than favorable odds, of adversity overcome by sheer force of will, and blue shells followed by more blue shells. We look forward to creating more memories in the year to come.

compLexity League of Legends

• Greyson ‘Goldenglue’ Gilmer
• Josh ‘MabreyBABY’ Mabrey
• Derek ‘Lohpally’ Abrams

by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm

It’s not all too often that the popular compLexity Gaming featured streamer Noxious is entering a competitive competition. Last time this occurred was all the way in China for WCA, as he was invited to compete in the big Hearthstone festivities. Now he will add another tournament to his resume, as Noxious received an invite for the second week of the ESL Legendary Series.

The first week in that competition ended disappointingly for compLexity’s young Hearthstone squad. Newest player Alchemixt was able to qualify by being one of the most consistent players throughout the entire preseason of ESL competitions, but couldn’t get past the first hurdle when the spotlight was on. With some learning experience and an inherent randomness in the new format over at ESL Legendary Series, Alchemixt found himself in bad matchups several times, ultimately conceding a loss to Romanian tournament standout Rdu.

Now the ball is in Noxious’ corner to turn the momentum for the black-red brand around. As one of four invited players, the Hearthstone enthusiast leaves his comfort zone of the more casual approach to the game. Alongside the compLexity player is fellow popular streamer and TempoStorm member Reckful, as well as known North American tournament veterans Dart and IHU’s own Dtwo. They will compete with the returning Week 1 champion Chakki and Week 1 runner-up pinpingho, as well as the two players making it through the Challenger tournament. Interestingly enough both come from the United Kingdom this time with BlizzCon EU Regional participant Max and fellow Brit Frase trying out their luck against the Yanks.

Catch the action on the official ESL stream over at twitch.tv/esl_hearthstone starting at 6 PM CET / 12 PM EST where Noxious will be fighting off competitors left and right to become a champion.

ESL Legendary Series

You are now being redirected to the Black & Red Christmas coLiday Giveaway!

by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm

DreamHack Winter 2014 is right around the corner and with it a massive Hearthstone Championship with $25,000 on the line. 32 of the best players from North America and Europe will embark towards the adventurous journey that Jönköping, Sweden has in store for them. Included in those 32 players is compLexity’s very own David ‘Dog’ Caero.

The North American player couldn’t secure a direct invitation against stiff competition in that category, but he was able to make a run in the qualifiers. Beating out 527 fellow Hearthstone players, Dog was able to bite down on several opponents, leading him straight into the prestigious competition at the Elmia.

The beloved streamer and high legend player has boarded the plane for his second trip to Europe in his tenure with compLexity Gaming. In October his destination was Krefeld, Germany for the second iteration of the SeatStory Cup in the TakeTV studios, now the Texas native will have to get accustomed with the stiff and cold Swedish winter. Despite the cold weather outside, the Hearthstone competition will heat up beginning today. Accomplished players including all the previous DreamHack Champions Thalai, Gaara, ThijsNL and Rdu will be present, just like SeatStory Cup Champion Savjz, BlizzCon World Champion Firebat, IEM Shengzhen winner Amaz and Viagame House Cup Champion Kolento. All of them and several other top-notch player and beloved personalities will heat up the Inn with elite Hearthstone action.

In Group C the Texas boy will have stiff competition right from the get-go, facing Ukrainian star and new Team Liquid member Neirea in the opener. Other opponents in the group include WEC Champion TidesofTimes, TempoStorm captain Reynad, Finnish superstar Savjz and new myInsanity member Mirarri. With that list he is not only facing strong opponents all around, but also has the top 2 of SeatStory Cup blocking his path to the Quarterfinals of DreamHack Winter 2014.

The Hearthstone action will start on Thursday, November, 27th with Group A and Group B. Dog will enter the competition one day later on November, 28th with all of his group stage matches. The special thing about these groups is, that they are a mini tournament inside the overall Hearthstone Championship event. The eight contestants will enter a Double Elimination bracket to determine who’s moving on to the Championship Bracket on Saturday. The big conclusion with the Grand Finals is scheduled for November, 29th when the field of 32 hopefuls will be cut down significantly and only the last two players will stand a chance to hold up the check and the trophy in the DreamArena. Will Dog only bark or does he bite and avenge the mediocre LAN record so far? DreamHack will provide all the answers when their partner Viagame brings you all the action from the virtual table in the crowded Inn.

Matches will be streamed live on Viagame.

Today, compLexity SMITE is in Atlanta, Georgia, for the first time under the compLexity banner, to compete in the North American Regional Championships! The NA Regional Championship is the last stop before the SMITE World Championship in January. The teams invited are the top 4 from this season’s NA SMITE Pro League, as well as the top 2 teams from the NA Regional Wildcard. The NA Regional Championships will be a 2 day tournament with teams fighting for their share of a $50,000 prize pool. From here, the top 2 teams from the NA Regional Championship will secure their spot in the SMITE World Championship. 

Prizes

• 1st: $25,000 
• 2nd:$10,000 
• 3rd: $5,000 
• 4th: $5,000 
• 5th: $2,500 
• 6th: $2,500

Schedule

Saturday, November 22nd

• 11:00am – Broadcast Starts
• 11:30am – 12:00pm – Pregame Show
• 12:00pm – 3:00pm – Quarter Final #1 (Bo3) – Team Dignitas v Fat Chunks
• 3:30pm – 6:00pm* – Quarter Final #2 (Bo3) – compLexity v The Rambozos

Sunday, November 23rd (Times are listed in EDT)

• 9:00am – Broadcast Starts
• 9:30am – 10:00am – Pregame Show
• 10:00pm – 2:00pm – World Qualifier (Bo5) – Cog Red v Winner of Quarter Final #1
• 2:00pm – 2:20pm* – Intermission
• 2:30pm – 6:30pm* – World Qualifier (Bo5) – Cog Prime v Winner ofQuarter Final #2
• 6:30pm – 7:00pm* – Intermission
• 7:00pm-10:00pm* – Championship Finals (Bo3)

Bracket

Results

Stream

By Jorge Calderon – @CaldoLoL

Round 2 of the 2015 NA Spring Expansion Tournament includes both of the coL squads, coL.White and coL.Black. As the tournament bracket was finalized, coL.Black was able to get a first round bye due to having 3 out of the 5 players which participated in the 2015 Spring Promotion Tournament. The second team, coL.White, went through the open bracket and qualified by being a top Ranked 5v5 team (5th place) on the Challenger Leaderboard. After acquiring their spot in the expansion tournament coL.White was able to advance on to round 2 by taking down Monstar Kittenz in a best of 3 where they finished off 2-1. Now coL.White’s focus turns to Curse Academy for the upcoming round of the event.

coL.White vs Curse Academy

Curse Academy has been a team that is constantly on the edge, almost making it over into the LCS. However, coL.White are looking to stop their journey and attempt to claim their spot in round 3. Curse Academy have gone through a number of changes this year; Impactful was on Curse Academy’s roster as the starting AD-Carry for about 4 months before joining coL.White and filling the same role. Now, Curse Academy’s roster consists of 3 players who were previously on the main roster for Team Curse; Saintvicious, Bunny FuFuu, and Cop (Keane is a Sub for Team Curse). One thing to definitely look out for is the amount of risky plays that may come out of the Curse Academy players. They are confident in their play and are unafraid to take chances.

The player that I would keep an eye on would be Saint, simply because of his experience as a veteran in League of Legends. He has been in the League of Legends scene for a while, playing on teams such as Counter Logic Gaming, Team Curse, and was one of the original members of Team Solomid. He has a vast amount of knowledge and wisdom to give to the other four players. Although he was known as “Smitevicious” because of his timing on smiting objectives, he has improved a substantial amount and is definitely a player to look out for.

coL.Black vs Final Five

Moving on to round 2, this will be coL.Black’s first match in the tournament. Final Five is a team that placed 9^th on the NA Ranked 5’s Ladder in order to qualify for the 2015 NA Spring Expansion Tournament. The team was built around Rhux shortly after he left Team Coast. The players on the roster include Rhux (Top), ShorterACE (Jungle), Gate (Mid), Prototype (AD-Carry), and Rule18 (Support). The players on Final Five are all high ELO players that have fought hard throughout the ranked 5’s ladder. Last week, Final Five played against Zenith eSports in Round 1 where they successfully managed to defeat them 2-1. Now they have their eyes set upon coL.Black. coL.Black are not a team to be taken lightly, however, due to LCS experience.

The player on Final Five to lookout for is definitely Rhux. He has the most competitive experience out of all the players on Final Five. He has played for Curse Academy, Team Curse, and Team Coast prior to Final Five. Throughout his competitive career, he has alternated being a Top and Support player. He was the Support for Team Curse during the 2013 NA Spring Split before being replaced by Edward from Gambit. Afterwards, he returned to Curse Academy and went back to the top lane, where he feels most comfortable.

—

Both of the coL teams are practicing hard and analyzing their opponent’s gameplay, as well as their own. The team that will struggle more will be coL.White. Their match against Curse Academy will be a difficult Best of 3 series for them. With good preparation and a good mindset, I believe the coL.White squad can be victorious against Curse Academy. The road for coL.Black is quite the opposite. They have superior experience and I believe the coL.Black squad is more skilled in their individual roles, as well as in their team coordination and communication.

Tune in and support both of the coL squads as they look to advance onto Round 3, which will be live in the studio. You can tune in on November 22^nd at 11 A.M. PST over at lolesports.com to watch Round 2 of the 2015 NA Spring Expansion Tournament.

by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm

DreamHack is not the only big event on the horizon for the Hearthstone scene. The North American ESL branch is also increasing their commitment towards the game and are launching the Legendary Series this weekend. For the next 12 Saturdays, top competition will square off for valuable points to lead them straight to the studio in Burbank, California for the Grand Finals event.

The players were determined by a mix of invites, qualifiers, and returning stars, so the field of competition will be fresh week in and week out. For the first event two big qualifiers were launched, one open for the public and the other one only open for the best players from the Preseason Cups. Before the Legendary Series was even announced, ESL ran weekly cups and a King of the Hill event to get used to the new virtual card game of Blizzard. To award the players that showed up every week to play, a special Preseason Cup Final.

compLexity’s own Alchemixt was invited to participate in it due to his good ladder seeding, and he was unstoppable. With a clean 3-0 sweep over Luffy and a 3-1 win over zRusher, Alchemixt had already secured himself the top 2 position in the Preseason Cup Finals and therefore a berth in the first week of the Legendary Series.

Joining him from the Preseason event is gcttirth. These two and the two qualifying players from the open tournament, pinpingho and Supernova, will square off with the four invited players battle for supremacy.

These invites are designed to go out to popular players and known streaming personalities with competitive experience. For the opening week none other than TempoStorm captain Reynad, DreamHack Summer 2014 Champion Rdu, former NESL King of the Hill Champ Chakki and Hosty as one of the best NESL ladder players in recent history. They will all try to get the majority of the ladder points to come to a great start into the newly implemented ESL Legendary Series.

For Alchemixt it will be the first major tournament representing the compLexity brand. His strong record online, his experience against the best players in the world and his recent domination of the Preseason Cup make him one of the front-runners to not only be a major factor in the opening week, but also be one of the returning players for next week.

Today, compLexity White will play their first match of the North American Spring Expansion Tournament as they take on Monstar Kittenz in a Best of Three series.

The winner of this match will move on to face Curse Academy, while the loser is eliminated from the tournament. Check out our preview of the match here.

The match is scheduled to begin at 4PM EST.

NA Spring Expansion Tournament – Match #1
compLexity		Monstar Kittenz
Xerath	Ban	Ban	Rengar
Draven	Ban	Ban	JarvanIV
Janna	Ban	Ban	Khazix
Gnar	Pick	Pick	Rumble
Elise	Pick	Pick	LeeSin
Syndra	Pick	Pick	Jayce
Lucian	Pick	Pick	Corki
Thresh	Pick	Pick	Alistar

NA Spring Expansion Tournament – Match #2
compLexity		Monstar Kittenz
Xerath	Ban	Ban	Syndra
Draven	Ban	Ban	Draven
Gnar	Ban	Ban	Rengar
Lucian	Pick	Pick	Janna
LeeSin	Pick	Pick	Khazix
Zed	Pick	Pick	Orianna
Thresh	Pick	Pick	Vayne
Malphite	Pick	Pick	Irelia

NA Spring Expansion Tournament – Match #3
compLexity		Monstar Kittenz
Xerath	Ban	Ban	Rengar
Draven	Ban	Ban	Syndra
Irelia	Ban	Ban	Gnar
Rumble	Pick	Pick	Maokai
JarvanIV	Pick	Pick	Khazix
Orianna	Pick	Pick	Zed
Lucian	Pick	Pick	Corki
Nami	Pick	Pick	Janna

Stream

By Jorge Calderon – @coL_Caldo

Round 1 of the North American Spring Expansion Tournament draws near, and coL.White is set to face off against Monstar Kittenz. For those that do not know, coL.White is comprised of Westrice, Kez, Goldenglue, Impactful, and Lohpally. Their opponents are the Number 8 ranked 5v5 team who are all new to the competitive League of Legends scene. Although they are new to the competitive scene, they are all solid players who should not be underestimated.

One interesting thing about Monstar Kittenz is their AD-Carry Hoofspark; he enjoys playing a lot of Draven and is 5-2 with him throughout the ranked ladder. In addition, their top laner, Big ol Ron, prefers to play Irelia in the top lane, much like Westrice. Throughout their journey to join the expansion tournament, they have been relatively unsuccessful in defeating some of the top challenger teams including Coast and coL.White. In fact, their ranked 5v5 game against coL.White ended up in a 28-11 win in favor of coL.White at 28 minutes. In that game, Westrice went completely hard on Bog ol Ron and ended up leaving him 0/10/1 by the end of the match.

If coL.White are able to take down Monstar Kittenz in this Best of 3, they will advance to the second round to face off against Curse Academy. For now however, they have their eyes set upon their current enemies on the Rift. Overall, I believe coL.White will be able to pull off a clean 2-0 sweep purely based on experience and communication.

Be sure to tune in at 11 AM PST on Saturday, November 15^th over at lolesports.com. 

by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm

As the bootcamp in sunny California draws closer to the end, coL.DOTA is also entering the home stretch in several big online competitions. Not only has the team managed to steamroll the competition in the North American Summit 2 qualifier to claim the first seed, they’ve also advanced in the Battle of America tournament. After the disappointing results during the ASUS ROG DreamLeague North American group this is a confidence boost at an opportune time.

If the team manages to build off that momentum, reaching the intimate environment of The Summit 2 shouldn’t be too much. Overall the team improved and played well for the majority of their matches, despite the setback with team member Andrew ‘Riser’ Bronze stepping down due to health issues. Bloody Nine flew to the team house straight away and has been a serviceable replacement for large parts. With his help the team coasted to the first place in The Summit 2 North American group and a second place finish their Battle of America group. Both times the team only had to concede a total of two maps to clinch the first spot, finishing their The Summit 2 group with 9-2 and their Battle of America group with 12-2.

Now the playoffs call, especially in the all important The Summit tournament. Four teams remain in the chase for only one ticket to the event. Swindlemelonzz and his team will first go up against Team Leviathan in a match ripe for revenge. During the group play coL suffered a bitter and surprising upset loss against their North American team foes. Now they meet again in a match with much higher stakes, a perfect opportunity to settle the score.

The forecast of this match would predict a compLexity Gaming win, given their flawless record against Leviathan during the Battle of America event. Both teams squared off in the same group with coL winning all four of the games. It looks like it’s all set for another match between these two teams with the Winner Bracket Finals as a reward for the victor. In that match it will be either NaVi.US or Peruvian pride Not Today waiting. The first day starts today as compLexity.Dota embarks on the journey all the way to The Summit of the Dota world.

As the online portion of the Summit draws to a close, so too does coL.DOTA’s time on the West Coast. After this week the members will travel back to their respective homes, at least for a short while. The competition however, will only be on hold for a couple days. Tough challenges in Dota Pit Season 2, I-League, Battle of America playoffs and Starladder are ahead.

Especially the Dota Pit Season 2 event has led to coL.DOTA emerging as a serious contender in the Dota scene, fighting off the strongest of opponents. At the moment the team under the black and red banner is on it’s way to a third place finish in a group including top tier teams like Evil Geniuses, Virtus.Pro, Team Tinker, Alliance and 4ASC. The real statement win for Swindlemelonzz and his team in their young history came just in this event, when they defeated their nemesis EG with 2-0 sweep. After that colossal victory the two games left to be played are against former HoN opponents Loda and Akke with their Alliance team and against SingSing and his Team Tinker. Both won’t be easy, but coL.DOTA has improved and rose to the occasion several times – everything is possible.

Tune in to The Summit playoffs as coL.DOTA takes on Leviathan at 3:30PM EST (2130 CET).

Stream