Complexity Gaming has announced that star AWPer Valentin “poizon” Vasilev will return to its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive lineup for the first time since undergoing two surgeries in December 2020. In a tweet from Complexity’s official Twitter account, the organization confirmed his return with an epic frag video.
poizon has been absent from Complexity’s roster since December 9 after Complexity revealed that the player was forced to undergo unspecified emergency surgery. The next day, the player tweeted that he had another surgery scheduled for several days later before going dark on social media.
He’s back.@poizonCSGO #WeAreCOL pic.twitter.com/tgCiQozs7H
— Complexity Gaming (@Complexity) February 4, 2021
poizon back, will play against Vitality in BLAST Premier groups
The news that poizon will compete at BLAST Premier’s Spring Groups is a surprise, with both the organization and poizon saying that the AWPer wouldn’t participate during the tournament’s spring group stage. In the first public tweet from poizon since December, poizon told fans that he would be absent for the tournament. poizon did say that he would “return soon” in the tweet, but both Complexity and the player kept his return under wraps until the tournament’s first day.
Hey, like you know I won’t be playing at @BLASTPremier unfortunately, i will be back very soon will full throttle! Missing the game so much already. I will be praying and watching my boys ❤️
— Valentin Vasilev (@poizonCSGO) January 14, 2021
Poizon’s return signals the likely dismissal of his stand-in, former Astralis replacement Jakob “JUGi” Hansen. It’s unclear where JUGi will end up, but several rumors coming before his time on Complexity pointed towards a move to Valorant under Team Liquid.
Complexity’s first matchup with poizon is scheduled for February 8th against Team Vitality. It will be a difficult test for Complexity’s international roster, but it will also be a great indicator of poizon’s true level of recovery. Complexity performed poorly with JUGi, dropping all four matches they played together in 2021. The team went winless in the BLAST Premier Global Finals against Vitality and Natus Vincere before dropping out of CS_Summit 7 0-2. Summit was the more surprising result of the two as Complexity was thoroughly beaten by Fnatic and DIGNITAS in its group stage.
With poizon back in the lineup, Complexity fans will have to wait and see if Complexity can reignite their stellar play from Summer 2020.