Complexity departs Counter-Strike after 20+ years

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 20/08/2025

Complexity have announced they are departing CS2 for financial reasons after more than 20 years in the Counter-Strike esports scene.

Founded in 2003, the American organisation has been competing in Counter-Strike since 2004 with the odd year missed out.

The team achieved multiple notable results across those two decades, including a $335k (£247k) prize for winning the BLAST Premier Spring 2020 European Finals.

Complexity has competed in various CS2 majors this year, including IEM Katowice, Melbourne, Cologne and PGL Bucharest.

However, the team was never favoured by Counter-Strike betting sites and struggled outside of a top-four finish in Bucharest.

General manager messioso said Complexity should have performed better after the Melbourne major.

Now, Complexity founder Jason Lake has revealed that they are having to leave CS2 due to financial pressure.

“After a real strong ’23 and ’24, 2025 in the esports economy has been challenging for us. Quite simply, we haven’t been able to generate enough revenue to properly support a Tier 1 team,” Lake explained.

Lake suggested that Complexity could have dragged things out longer, but wanted to “do right by our players.”

He also confirmed that they have “no immediate plans” to return until these financial challenges are solved.

Passion UA acquires most of the former Complexity CS2 roster

On the same day that Complexity made the announcement, Passion UA revealed its new roster.

The Ukrainian organisation, founded by Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko, has acquired the core of Complexity’s former team.

Johnny ‘JT⁠’ Theodosiou, Håkon ‘hallzerk⁠’ Fjærli, Michael ‘Grim⁠’ Wince and Nick ‘nicx⁠’ Lee have all joined Passion.

This means they are now reunited with their former head coach,  Tiaan ‘T.c⁠’ Coertzen, who departed Complexity back in March.

The Passion UA roster is completed by Vladyslav ‘Kvem⁠’ Korol, who joined the organisation at the beginning of 2025.

That leaves American pro Danny ‘Cxzi’ Strzelczyk the only one without a team as he has entered free agency.

Cxzi wished his former teammates well and then announced he is actively looking to continue competing:

“For the future, I am looking for NA or EU options.

“My recent performance has me working harder than ever as I know I have shown a good level before and will do what it takes to get back to it.”

Passion UA’s new CS2 roster will compete at its first big event at the StarSeries Fall in Budapest Ladder next month.

The organisation has been directly invited to compete at the event alongside Natus Vincere, B8 and Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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