Simon ”Handsken” Haag and his Ninjas in Pyjamas squad got stale and split up.
Together with the Blomdin brothers Handsken has now joined Complexity and the confidence is on top.
– I think we can become one of the most dangerous teams for The international, the Swede tells Aftonbladet Esport.

Simon ”Handsken” Haag is one of the greatest Swedish Dota2 talents. The interest for gaming began in his youth and started taking off as he was introduced to Heroes of Newerth.

In high school he and Kristian ”Kracke” Sörquist, the former Bad Monkey Gaming star that would later win the World Championship of HoN, were in the same class. Handsken says Kracke was much better than him back then and that Kracke became somewhat of a of coach to him. As Handsken entered the higher rankings of the ladder he decided to spread is wings and try his luck in a team.
– And somehow it just kept rolling from there, the Swede tells Aftonbladet Esport.

”It felt great in the beginning”

The esports career started in Heroes of Newerth, but later he switched to Dota2. And on the first of January 2015 one of the word’s biggest organizations announced they had recruited him and his team, which back then consisted of himself along with Joel “Apemother” Larsson, Adrian ”Era” Kryeziu, Jonas ”jonassomfan” Lindholm and Elias ”Sealkid” Merta. Now was the time to prove themselves under the NiP banner.
– We started out great, above expectation I’d say. So it felt good in the beginning, Handsken says.

But from there on out the results were declining. Handsken describes it as they got stale and says in hindsight they’ve might have been a honeymoon period. In December, just about one year after the players first found each other, they split up.
– We didn’t evolve like we wanted, nor reach the goals we desired, and that’s why we split up.

Were you expecting the team split up?
– It wasn’t something we were thinking about for a long time. Some time this fall we felt the atmosphere was a bit too sad. It felt like we didn’t appreciate playing with each other and at some point you just stop believing in the team. I guess that’s when the thought popped up that maybe it would be better to try something else, Handsken says and points out that everyone agreed on the decision to split up.
– Everyone was in on it, but perhaps some pushed it more than others. No one was very disappointed or anything.

Towards the end of the NiP era many rumors and headlines surrounded the organization, especially as the former owners were judged guilty for accounting violations in a court of law. Still, Handsken seems satisfied with the organization.
– I think most of it is pretty exaggerated, he says and continues:
– We were quite pleased in regards to how everything was handled when we left. There were no issues and they took care of us.

Heroes of Newerth all-star reunion

Since the split up, all of the players have found new teams. Era and Sealkid went to Steak Gaming, Jonassomfan to NO-VASELINE and Handsken along with the Blomdin brothers, Limmp and Rasmus ”Chessie” Blomdin went to Complexity.

Limmp and Chessie have previous experience with the other two members of Complexity, the American brothers Kyle ”swindlemelonzz” Freedman and Zakari ”Zfreek” Freedman. They played together back in Heroes of Newerth and were one of the best teams ever – and also Handskens biggest rivals.

The five of them have now formed a new team, which could be described as a Heroes of Newerth All-star reunion.
– It’s much like the recent Alliance reunion, except this is one of the strongest HoN teams.
– Complexity have had a very tough time finding Dota2 players. They got in contact with Limmp and Chessie and they needed a support, so they asked me.

”They are really terrible at talking with the community”

The developers behind Dota2, and also Counter-Strike:Global Offensive, Valve, have recently received an enormous amount of criticism, especially after adding a new, very powerful, pistol to CS:GO. If there’s one thing Handsken would criticize Valve for, it’s their communication.
– I think they are good when it comes to balance and updating the game, but they are really terrible at talking with the community and pro players. From what I’ve heard they talk with some pro’s at The International, but it’s not like they have any open communication or something like that. It seems they like to be a bit secretive.
– You can clearly see they read Reddit and things like that. If someone brings attention to a bug, it’s fixed quickly. They listen, but I wish they would speak more and give statements.

”We can become one of the most dangerous teams”

The Complexity squad has not been together for long, and have had little time to practice. Still they managed to qualify for StarLadder with relative ease. Now their eyes are set on a new challenge, the major qualifier at the start of January – and as 2016 begins team Complexity hopes to accomplish great things.

What do you think your chances are to compete with the Dota elite?
– I believe our chances are really good, perhaps not short-term. We will need time.
– We aren’t going to be the most flashy team, instead our strength will be in team play and strategies.
– I think we can become one of the most dangerous teams until The international. It might be too early to say if we will can bring it for the major, but I definitely believe we’ll be strong in a long term.