The manager of Complexity, messioso, shared the reason behind the team’s absence from IEM Chengdu on his personal Twitter.
Recently, ESL announced that Complexity and M80 would withdraw from the IEM Chengdu, to be replaced by Liquid and Wildcard for the event taking place from April 8-14.
IEM Chengdu is a Tier 1 tournament with a prize pool of $250,000, featuring 16 teams, mostly from the Top 20. The 16 teams will be divided into two groups (group details yet to be announced), with the final six advancing to the playoffs to determine the champion.
Sadly, only Liquid’s presence will be seen in Chengdu. Chinese CS fans won’t get to witness the popular bald duo EliGE and Grim, along with top support hallzerk, as they won’t be able to compete in China. ESL’s statement didn’t clarify why Complexity was replaced, sparking community speculation. Following ESL’s announcement, messioso, Complexity’s team manager, took to Twitter to explain the situation.
Here is the explanation provided by Complexity’s team manager messioso:
I’m providing a timeline for those who might not know what happened.
1. We can’t apply for a Chinese visa outside our country of residence.
We received the invitation to IEM Chengdu early in the season, but with just five days before heading to Europe, we didn’t have enough time to get visas.
2. After IEM Katowice, we had a short bootcamp and returned to NA to prepare for the Americas RMR. We had six days in the US to get visas. The expedited visa processing time from the Chinese embassy takes 3-5 days, excluding mailing time back.
3. Our worst-case scenario was not getting passports back before traveling to Mexico for the Americas RMR, which would’ve affected our participation. This wasn’t an option for us.
Meanwhile, hallzerk managed to get his visa in Norway within 24 hours.
4. After Mexico, we had to fly directly to the UK for BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, then to Copenhagen for PGL Major.
We kept ESL informed of our progress, and they were naturally concerned about our visa situation.
5. We realized if Complexity made it to the Major playoffs, we wouldn’t get visas on time. If not, there’d be no issue. Once we advanced to Legends at the Major, we lost one of the three potential stopping points (group stage exit, playoff exit, grand final exit). Yesterday, we took the middle path (playoff exit).
6. ESL informed us 12 days ago that our invitation was revoked due to the high risk of us not being able to attend.
We don’t blame ESL and respect their desire for certainty about our participation.
7. Ultimately, this is a result of the CS ecosystem’s focus on EU and our aspiration to be a competitive team.
Could we have saved some travel time to focus on visas? Yes.
Would it have affected our competitiveness in RMR and Major? Definitely.
8. In the first 85 days of 2024, our players have been home an average of 62 days, some even 72.
In a way, this is a silver lining as the players now get some well-deserved downtime at home before EPL, Dallas, and more events resume.
9. To those looking forward to seeing us in Chengdu, we’re sorry. You’ll have to wait until later this year for Shanghai.