Players Getting Benched After Shanghai Major Elimination

Changes at Complexity

Complexity have moved their rifler Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery from the active roster to the team’s inactive lineup whilst also releasing the team’s assistant coach James "⁠JamezIRL⁠" Macaulay. Despite struggling to move out of the RMR, Complexity fell flat in the Opening Stage of the Major. They lost both of them best-of-one opening games to FlyQuest (13-6) and Passion UA (13-9) before showing some signs of life against Imperial (2-0) and Cloud9 (2-0) in their best-of-three games. However, they were unable to keep up the momentum as their subsequent loss to BIG (2-1) eliminated them from the Opening Stage. 

Complexity has had a tough year in 2024, as EliGE told HLTV: “"This year we haven't been able to get our footing at all. We've been trying a lot of different things, trying to see, 'Is this the solution?' or 'Is this other thing the solution?' like what should we be focusing on? We've been trying a lot of things that we think are going to be the solution for us and putting in the time, and none of them have really been working. At times its felt really disappointing and frustrating since we're trying all these different things and none of them are working.” Benching floppy marks a big change as the original 'Juggernaut' core is now no more.

Changes at Virtus.pro

Virtus.pro has moved their longtime player Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali to the bench after an underwhelming performance from the team at the Shanghai Major, losing to MIBR, BIG and Wildcard back-to-back. Jame was a part of the team since December 2019, when the organization acquired the AVANGAR roster and disbanded their previously Polish team.

The CEO of the organization, Nikolai Petrossian admitted that changes were "inevitable" after the Chinese tournament: “The discussions were long, comprehensive, and very difficul. Ultimately, together with the players and coach, we concluded that at this stage, Jame would not be able to combine the two key roles in the roster, IGL and AWP, and that the best solution would be to bench him and calmly consider all available options for both the good of our team and Jame's personal prospects."