EliGE: "This RMR is probably the hardest Americas RMR ever"

Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski secured his fourteenth Major and his second with Complexity by taking down M80 in a close 2-0 series last night to finish the Perfect World Shanghai Major Americas RMR with a 3-1 record. Qualifying to the Major is no doubt a relief to Complexity after months of lagging results and struggles to maintain a consistent form across the team.

Building up the team's confidence and overall form was a big part of the team's recent bootcamp EliGE told Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore in an interview following the win over M80. The duo also discussed the high level of competition shown by NA teams at the RMR, Complexity's recent form, and the return of Train, among other topics.

What's the mood in the team after securing your spot in the Shanghai Major?

Right now the main feeling is relief since there was a lot of stress in the game. It was really important that we qualified because we could've gone down a dark path potentially and made it really hard but we didn't.

All games are going to be hard, this RMR is probably the hardest [Americas] RMR ever and it's the last one. The Americas region is playing a lot better this time around so no game is an easy game and I'm happy we were able to close it out.

Was it sweet to take down M80 after they bested you at EPL and EWC? How do you feel you played against M80 today?

For me it wasn't anything too crazy, I view them as another opponent. They're a very good team and they have beaten us in the past so it does feel nice to win especially at the RMR and to qualify from it.

But we don't have a crazy rivalry against them, they have beaten us in the last two matchups but I view them as any other opponent personally.

You previously mentioned this will be the last RMR event. How do you feel about Valve's change to the Major qualifying process and do you see it as a benefit or detriment to a team like Complexity?

For Complexity specifically as a team I don't have any crazy opinions from the team side, but my personal opinion is that I don't like the change.

The RMRs are something that's really fun to watch as a spectator and that's the high point of the year. I can understand the ranking invites to the RMRs, but removing them completely... the RMRs have been something very nice that we've had in the scene for a while.

You said the level of the Americas RMR has been its highest ever. In general, how do you feel about the level of the NA scene in general heading into 2025?

It has been much better. At the start of CS2 the NA teams weren't playing that great and it felt like we are doing a lot better this time around [at the RMR]. So far it hasn't gone as well which is a little disappointing.

I've definitely expected a bit more. BOSS played really well in our match so I'm surprised they weren't able to keep that up and I'm sure if they had a different game plan that they were less comfortable with against other teams.

Against us BOSS had a good game plan and they played well. M80 has been playing very well overall so I'm hoping to see them qualify and I'm happy to see Wildcard qualify. Any of the teams that mainly play in NA and have been able to qualify that's awesome.

They can show that you can still play in the region, get good practice, and become good enough to qualify. There's so many good teams this time around so it's brutal but we can't all qualify.

When you spoke to HLTV prior to the RMR, they mentioned that you've been very consistent while hallzerk and Grim have struggled to find a consistent level lately. Having qualified to the Major do you still see consistent team performance as a struggle and what do you believe the bottleneck is?

Before the RMR we had a really good bootcamp where we were playing extremely well, definitely the best we have played all year. For me I think it's all about consistency and minimizing mistakes because obviously the less mistakes you make the more games you're likely to win.

We've done a really good job and the more consistent we can be the better we can play and be placed in better positions [to win]. If you're always in a bad position and you have to take hard duels or getting flashed off and getting owned then you're not going to have good stats.

If you're getting owned 13-3, 13-5 every match you're not going to look very good on the scoreboard, that's just how it is. So as a team we needed to level up and have good teamplay between each other. That's the main thing that's going to show more individual skill from everybody and show the strengths of the team.

Looking forward to the Major, how is the team feeling about their confidence level and how has the RMR affected that confidence level?

We have a lot of potential to do really well at the Major even though we haven't won super matches super cleanly at the RMR. We've shown a good level before with our practice and so far we've felt a little bit more pressure in these games and it's making the games a lot closer. We're losing rounds that we shouldn't and we didn't win many clutches, but getting these games out of the way and going through the high pressure moments already is a big plus for us.

I'd rather us experience the high pressure now and improve from it and minimize it now then at the Major where giving up important rounds mean you're going to be smashed against a good team.

I think we had a really good level before this RMR started and we're still playing well, but we're feeling the pressure a little bit and it's good that we went through now.

Tonight we saw Train released to CS2 with many speculating it will replace Vertigo. Do you have any initial reactions to that news, especially with Vertigo historically being a strong map for COL?

It would've been bad if Valve changed it right before the Major so I'm happy they waited until next year after the Major. Anything can happen map pool wise where you can start feeling bad after a break on a map. For example, earlier in the year we went into Vertigo and we weren't playing that well on it but after a month or two we got really strong on it.

But, I am expecting them to take out Vertigo, they've pretty much alluded to it happening. We can hopefully make Train a really good map for us. I know JT likes it and I also liked it when we played it on Liquid. We didn't play it too much heading into 2018 but I've always enjoyed the map and liked playing it and it was one of my stronger maps.

I'm looking forward to it and I'm even hoping they add Overpass back into it and we get two map changes after this Major. That would really help because a lot of people aren't happy with the map pool, myself included.

I would like to see a nice big shakeup in the map pool.

Complexity and EliGE will now prepare for the Major proper when the Perfect World Shanghai Major kicks off on November 30th.