Complexity's Malta Mission: Can They Bounce Back After Copenhagen Nightmare?

If Counter-Strike 2 tournaments had a soap opera award, Complexity would have cleaned up in early 2024. The North American squad touched the sky at the PGL Copenhagen Major, then tripped over their own shoelaces. By the time ESL Pro League Season 19 rolled around in Malta, floppy and company were not just hungry—they were hangry.

The Copenhagen Major was a masterclass in how to turn hope into heartbreak in under a week. Complexity won their first two matches, looked sharp, and seemed destined for the playoffs. Then the wheels didn't just fall off—they launched themselves into the Mediterranean. Three straight losses later, Complexity were packing their bags and wondering which timeline they had accidentally loaded into.

Ricky "floppy" Kemery did not sugarcoat the situation. On media day before ESL Pro League Season 19, he admitted the failure still stung.

"Not making the Major playoffs is definitely a sting. I think things could have gone differently against Vitality, I think we could have made the playoffs, so it's sadge. The bare minimum for ESL Pro League is to make playoffs. That is the bare minimum. If we don't do that, then we got serious problems, for sure."

That quote felt less like an interview answer and more like a man writing his own performance review in real time. Fair enough.

The frustrating part for Complexity fans was that this team had already shown what peak CS2 form looked like. When the game switched from CS:GO to CS2 in October 2023, Complexity briefly looked like geniuses who had figured out a secret nobody else had read. They finished runners-up at IEM Sydney that month, the first S-tier CS2 event ever. Then they grabbed a top-four finish at the BLAST Premier Fall Final in November. Life was good. The future looked bright. The mouse pads were fresh.

Then the cliff arrived. No playoffs for the rest of 2023. No playoffs to start 2024. floppy had a simple explanation: the rest of the scene started doing their homework.

"When you're winning a lot of games all the time, everyone is watching you, so people just know how to hard counter you. When everyone knows what you're doing, it's always going to be a bit harder to be able to perform. All we can do is just learn from the losses and keep plugging away at it."

In short, Complexity became the popular kid in class, and suddenly everyone wanted to copy their notes and then beat them with those same notes. CS2 is a cruel tutor.

Here is a quick emotional timeline of Complexity's early CS2 journey:

The Malta Mission

Malta did not care about past pain. It had sunlight, seaside views, and a Group D draw that could either revive Complexity or bury them under more tournament salt. The group featured PERA, HEROIC, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, BIG, BOSS, and FlyQuest. That is a lineup with enough plot twists to fill a streaming drama.

Complexity's opening match against PERA was scheduled for April 30. The math was simple. Win games, reach playoffs, restore some dignity. Lose early again, and the \u201cserious problems\u201d floppy mentioned would become the main storyline of the season. The roster had the firepower. The question was whether their playbook had enough new pages to stop opponents from reading them like a bedtime story.

What made the situation especially annoying for Complexity was that teams had begun anti-stratting them aggressively. When a squad wins a lot early in a new game, every analyst and coach suddenly has a folder full of counters. Complexity had become the team everyone prepared for, which is both a compliment and a curse. It means you mattered. It also means you now have to work twice as hard to surprise anyone.

The ESL Pro League represented more than just another tournament. It was a chance to prove that the early CS2 magic was not a fluke. In 2026, looking back, that Malta event feels like one of those pivotal checkpoints where a team either finds its footing or starts blaming the hotel Wi-Fi. floppy had already set the expectation: playoffs were the bare minimum. No pressure, lads. Just the entire reputation of North American Counter-Strike resting on a group stage.

Malta was waiting. The group stage was waiting. And somewhere, a BOSS team name was waiting to cause absolute chaos.