Thank You, Kyle

BY Andrew Miesner / March 16, 2018

The following is a statement from Kyle “Beef” Bautista, VP & General Manager of compLexity.

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Earlier today I informed Kyle Freedman that he was being removed from his position in our Dota 2 team and released from the organization. This action is a result of our Dota 2 team’s unanimous opinion that the personality conflicts within the team were too severe to continue. Based on that information, myself and other Complexity management made the decision to move in a different direction.

This was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my esports career.

I recruited Kyle straight from HoN – he had never played a game of Dota before I let him know that I wanted to build a team around him. Introducing him to Jason Lake and Jason Bass we were all inspired by Kyle’s competitive drive, maturity, and his approach to leadership. He signed with us just a few weeks later. It was August of 2014.

Fast forward to present day and Kyle has been part of the Complexity family for nearly four years. We’ve had highs, lows, and many memorable performances at dozens of events around the world. Kyle has been one of our most forward facing players. He is someone that cares about giving back to the community, about building content for the fans, and doing whatever he can to make events better.

During his time here, Kyle has bled Complexity black and red through and through. He is someone that steps up and does what he feels needs to be done if it is going to improve his team or the brand. After TI5 when Kyle was of the opinion that the team’s best chance of success was playing out of a south Florida team house, our organization thought the cost and risk to be too high. Kyle put his money where his mouth was and paid the security deposit, taking that risk upon himself to do what he thought was best for the team.

When in 2016 I informed Kyle and the Dota team that we were going to have to drop the team because we were unable to generate enough sponsor interest to support the division, Kyle stepped up once more. Rather than see his team dropped, he opted to not take salary and defer reimbursement of utilities for months in order to balance the scales as best as he could. His efforts paid off and we were able to keep the team.

Kyle’s time with our organization has been one of determination and self sacrifice. He put others around him before himself and did what he thought gave the team the best chance to win. I am confident that if he finds the right group of players to surround himself with, Kyle will be a world champion in this game. His strategic mind, drive to compete, his tenacity, and his unwavering determination are simply too great to quit without accomplishing that goal.

It’s a shame that it couldn’t be with us.

Thanks for everything, Kyle.