Keita Parts Ways With Complexity

Complexity and Jamie “keita” Hall have parted ways, the North American esports organization announced on Thursday, July 15. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive head coach left after a two-year tenure with the team, which he joined in June 2019.

Lack of Success Leads to Changes

Keita’s departure from Complexity follows the team’s poor showings at the IEM Cologne, where Complexity finished in 13th-16th place. In Germany, Complexity made it through the Play-In stage but were unable to produce a deep run.

During the IEM Cologne Play-In stage, Complexity won against ViCi Gaming (16-10) but lost to FaZe Clan (0-2), who pushed them to the lower bracket. There, Complexity made it past Team LDLC (2-0) to qualify for the main event.

Unfortunately, Complexity’s run through the main stage was short-lived. They lost to G2 Esports (2-0) in their opening bout and got eliminated by Virtus.pro (1-2).

Seeing Complexity crash out of the event isn’t too shocking. The self-proclaimed “Juggernaut” have been struggling to find consistency throughout the last two years.

Complexity initially impressed by beating Astralis and Team Vitality at the 2020 BLAST Premier Spring Series in February 2020 but soon started showing signs of struggle. Despite the talent on the team,

Complexity regularly underperformed during the online era.

They posted a few top-four finishes early into 2020 but struggled to deliver against top-tier opponents for the rest of the year. They showed some life in June 2020, when Complexity won BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Finals but would fail to post strong results in the remaining 12 esports tournaments of the year.

No Signs Of Improvement in 2021

A streak of poor showings led to the departure of Owen “oBo” Schlatter, who left the organization in January 2021. As his replacement, Complexity acquired Justin “jks” Savage, albeit even with the new signing, success was hard to come by.

Complexity kicked off 2021 with a seventh-eighth place finish at BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020 and later added 11th-12th at the cs_summit 7. They would find their form just in time to win BLAST Premier:

Spring Groups 2021 at the start of February but have soon returned to their old ways.

Complexity entered Intel Extreme Masters XV – World Championship as an outsider and finished the tournament as such. They managed only one win against Wisla Krakow (1-2) and were eventually eliminated in 17th-20th by mousesports (2-1).

Since then, Complexity’s only notable result happened towards the end of June, when they won Spring Sweet Spring #3. It was, however, a second-tier tournament, where Complexity faced mostly B-Tier and C-Tier teams.

Complexity Look For Options During The Player Break

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitive scene enters summer player break next week. It will run from July 19 – August 15, giving Complexity plenty of time to find a replacement coach and make needed adjustments.

Complexity have yet to announce who could replace the British esports coach; however, they should have plenty of choices. Keita’s departure comes at a time when several CS:GO coaches announced that they’re exploring their options.

That includes Astralis’ head coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen and former Evil Geniuses coach Wilton “zews” Prado. The Danish strategist is still tied with Astralis but has stated that he might end his six-year tenure with the organization once his contract runs out.

Zews, meanwhile, has been a free agent since announcing his departure from Evil Geniuses at the start of June. Zews has since not found a new team and seems like the most suitable replacement for Keita.

In his post announcing his departure from EG, zews has noted that he will remain in the CS:GO scene and is ready to tackle new challenges. And if there is one team that could present a challenge for zews, it’s Complexity.

Complexity are expected to announce news regarding the coaching change in the following weeks. Meanwhile, the NA esports organization will have their hands full as they look for a fresh start once the CS:GO competition resumes in August.