How will EliGE fit in on Complexity?

In an off-season flurry of roster moves, Complexity have made a big move, replacing Justin "FaNg" Coakley with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, only their second change since acquiring the former Extra Salt core. Their last move, Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli for Paytyn "junior" Johnson, is a pretty simple one on paper, just switching out their positions one-for-one. However, changing riflers can often pose a challenge, since the incoming EliGE may prefer to play different spots than the departing FaNg.

Changing a player within a team often results in growing pains, with varying degrees of success and adjustment for the newcomer. In this article, we will explore EliGE's roles on Complexity and how they fit into Complexity's gameplans.

Fits like a glove

There are three maps where EliGE and FaNg's roles perfectly coincide: Inferno, Overpass, and Anubis. There isn't much to say here other than that EliGE won't need to learn any new positions for these three maps, just the protocols that were in place with FaNg that he must catch up on. Something interesting to note here, and that we'll see more of as we go through the other maps, is the star positions that both EliGE and FaNg are given.

On Anubis, the Mid Rifle position is the strongest non-AWP position on either side, a role given to the star players EliGE and FaNg. Every other CT-rifling role on Anubis has an average rating of less than 1.00. The Bathrooms CT-position on Overpass is the highest-rated position in the game bar none, reserved for the elite-tier riflers such as Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov, Benjamin "blameF" Bremer, Lotan "Spinx" Giladi, and Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy. This was handed off to EliGE and FaNg in their previous teams.

Slight Adjustments

Outside of those three maps listed above, EliGE will need to change his style a tad, or the team will need to change to accommodate him. On Nuke, EliGE's rifling indoors clashes with Complexity's established playstyle, where FaNg was primarily responsible for the Outside position, the strongest role on the map, continuing our trend from earlier. On T-side, EliGE prowled Outside while FaNg moreso went to hold Lobby. On Complexity, the Outside duties were split between Michael "Grim" Wince, and Johnny "JT" Theodosiou, while Grim was the A-site player on CT-side. Grim and EliGE occupy the same spaces on these maps, meaning one or both of them will need to change their playstyle on the two halves.

New Horizons and a New Map

On Ancient, while both EliGE and FaNg default Mid on the attacking side, they do so in different ways. FaNg almost invariably goes instantly Mid to take control of the central rotation of the map. While EliGE does that too, he also enjoys defaulting towards B Elbow to grab control of Cave. To keep their default in order, some roles will have to be shifted among Complexity. In addition, they play quite different positions on CT-side. FaNg played Donut on Complexity, while EliGE played Cave on Liquid. If EliGE wants to keep his role on Complexity, that would displace Ricky "floppy" Kemery, who currently plays Cave. Either floppy or EliGE must change positions. We'll see what they decide come their first official on the map.

Now comes the most difficult change for EliGE: a new map. While Liquid permabanned Vertigo with their North American lineup, Complexity has been banning Mirage since they were played under the Extra Salt banner. This means that EliGE will need to pick up a spot on Vertigo, a map he hasn't played an official on since 2022. When Liquid did play Vertigo, EliGE was an A rifler on CT-side and an A Ramp player on T-side, very similar to the roles that FaNg plays now. Nonetheless, EliGE will need to catch up on half a year of Vertigo meta that he has missed out on.

Playstyle

Beyond specific roles, playstyles also play a crucial role in team dynamics. While EliGE and FaNg held similar star positions, it's important to consider their overall contributions within the team structure. For that, we have the radar chart below.

This chart shows where these two are relative to other players, charting their opening kill attempts and support rounds, measures of their roles, as well as their ADR, Impact Ratings, and KAST, measures of output.

We can see that EliGE and FaNg have similar amounts of support rounds, that is, very few. Their teams set them up to get the kills, not the other way around. Their CT opening kills are also quite comparable, as is the nature of playing similar positions. However, it still shows that they take the first engagements more often than the median CT player, highlighting the importance of their areas on the map.

The two players diverge when it comes to T-side opening attempts. EliGE's T-side aggression may come to a head in Complexity where Grim and JT take the plurality of the opening duels. As is with a lot of the overlaps in this article, we'll see what Complexity decide come their first official. Finally, while the three previous metrics show that EliGE and FaNg play fairly similar styles, ADR, Impact, and KAST show that EliGE is getting a lot more out of those roles.

Simply put, EliGE and FaNg were stars on their previous teams. Their teams set them up to take fights and win them, with EliGE being an important prong of Liquid's attacks. But, it's not for no reason that EliGE is regarded as one of the best North American players of all time with five HLTV Top Twenty awards to his name. His output, when compared to FaNg, is simply astounding. It's a no-brainer that if he is able to accustom to slightly different roles on Complexity, then we can expect a lot from North America's now number-one squad.