YNk on hallkzerk's desk slamming: "This is ridiculous for a professional player"

Complexity made it out of the IEM Cologne 2024 play-in today thanks to a scrappy 2-0 win over Eternal Fire, qualifying to the IEM Cologne group stage for the first time in the roster's history. Despite that success, as the analyst desk pointed out in their post-match desk segment, not all was well in Complexity's camp during the match.

In the series against the Turkish team, Complexity's Norwegian AWPer, Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli, frequently slammed his desk multiple times in visible frustration at his poor performance in the series.

While the reel of hallzerk slamming the desk was initially played up for humorous by the analyst desk, Janko "YNk" Paunović and to a lesser extent Lucas "Bubzkji" Andersen focused on how hallzerk's seeming lack of composure is potentially hurting the team.

YNk as a former professional coach and player approached the desk slamming from the perspective of it being unprofessional and disruptive to hallzerk's fellow teammates, stating that "just because you're having a bad game, you don't have to ruin it for everyone else," before stating that hallzerk's inability to relax in game is ridiculous and a detriment to his ability to find success as a pro in high-pressure situations.

Bubzkji concurred with YNk's assessment, stating that he believes the situation is comical and that from his experience as a former pro that mid-round outbursts like this "ruin it for the rest of the guys," while interrupting team communications and creating unnecessary breaks in players' concentration. The Dane did note that hallzerk has discussed in the past on interviews that he is working on his mental game, however Bubzkji closed by saying that hallzerk should be experienced enough and tenured enough with Complexity to work through these issues.

With Complexity qualifying the main group stage of IEM Cologne for the first time, the mental aspect of the game will be all the more important as Complexity are set to take on some of the best teams in the world when they are back in action on August 10th.