Earlier this month, Complexity Gaming 
unveiled a significant rebranding effort, trading the red-and-black aesthetic that defined its previous 16 years of existence for a new, yet familiar blue-and-white palette and star logo.
They’re familiar because they are the colors and logo of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, which became Complexity’s sister company when Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and investor John Goff acquired the organization in November 2017. Complexity Gaming has gradually become more and more intertwined with the Cowboys organization in the year and a half since, and that transition is now represented across the team’s jerseys and branding.
Following the announcement, The Esports Observer spoke with Complexity Gaming founder and CEO Jason Lake about the road to rebranding, what the new look symbolizes for the team, and how he believes it can help grow the organization into a $1B USD sports property.
Embracing Cowboys Culture
Soon after being acquired, Complexity Gaming left its original Florida home to join the Cowboys organization at Cowboys World Headquarters at The Star in Frisco, Texas. As the team and staff became entrenched in the Cowboys organization and culture, they saw an opportunity to not only embrace new branding, but also align itself with the well-known NFL brand—the most valuable sports franchise in the world, according to Forbes.
“It was a topic everyone started thinking about, I would say from day one,” said Lake. “But we didn’t want to rush into what would be such a dramatic change. We moved the entire organization here in December of 2017, and spent a year-and-a-half really looking at what a change would mean for us, what a refresh and a rebrand would mean for us, and what an alignment with the Cowboys organization would mean for us.”
Credit: Dallas Cowboys
Since moving to The Star, Complexity Gaming has worked with Cowboys players and coaches, as well as the team’s marketing, legal, and sales departments. Given that, as well as the construction of Complexity’s own dedicated headquarters at The Star (the GameStop Performance Center), embracing the team’s branding seemed like the logical next step, said Lake.
However, adopting the Cowboys’ color scheme and a similar logo was not mandated by the original deal, and Lake denied that Complexity was required to make the changes. Instead, he added, it was a more organic process of wanting to embrace the Cowboys culture and branding to help facilitate and hopefully accelerate Complexity’s own growth and success in the years to come.
“We had created probably over 120 potential mocks for how the branding could actually work…”
“It absolutely was not something that was forced on us,” he said. “It was really an ongoing conversation with our board and with everyone in Complexity. We were given a great deal of discretion as to if we wanted to do it, how we wanted to do it, and when we wanted to do it, which was really appreciated. I know the public reaction to these things is generally like, ‘Oh, they were forced to do it by these big, bad, evil owners,’ but that simply wasn’t the case.”
It was truly a matter of when we look five years or 10 years down the road,” Lake continued, “what type of branding and what type of alignment do we feel is going to create the most success for our brand? Upon extensive review and contemplation, it became obvious to us that aligning with the Dallas Cowboys brand was the best move for our future.”
Simply Complex
In a recent video in Complexity’s “Press Conference” YouTube series, Lake said that the team initially hired a firm to propose logo ideas, but nothing stuck. However, when marketing director Cameron Kelly joined the organization in November 2018, he led an in-house effort to mock up concepts and help develop the team’s new look.
Credit: Complexity Gaming
“It was one of the first things I tasked [Kelly] with,” Lake told The Esports Observer. “He did in-depth analysis and surveys, and really reached out to different gamers to get their emotional reactions to current brands in the ecosystem. We had created probably over 120 potential mocks for how the branding could actually work, and then once we narrowed that down, we would do surveying to see what emotional reaction does this elicit from your average gamer.”
The resulting logo immediately recalls the Cowboys’ branding at a glance, with a similar-looking blue-and-white star design. Upon closer examination, however, it has unique touches. On the lower left side, small gaps in the star pattern create what looks like a forward arrow design. It also mirrors similar, distinctive edges within the Complexity wordmark, creating a new branding that echoes the Cowboys’ own without exactly replicating it.
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“I think a lot of esports organizations tend to just fly by the seat of their pants. We wanted to intentionally be different.”
“It wasn’t like we tossed up five logos and threw a dart at a dart board—it was a very exhaustive, in-depth process, which resulted in a fairly simple logo,” said Lake. “But I think that’s really the beauty of it. Simplicity has a timeless nature about it, and we think that we’ve got the momentum that we want to see in the new star logo. We think it’s bold, we think it’s in your face, and we think it’s out there. And despite the fact that some people it’s too simple, we think it’s perfectly complex.”
It’s now seen prominently on the team’s new jerseys and other apparel produced by H4X, which come in blue with white accents and also white with blue accents—both featuring the star logo and stripes, and highlighting sponsors such as GameStop, MSI, Twitch, and HyperX.
Reframing the Legacy
Alongside the rebranding, Complexity issued a manifesto that spelled out how the new logo reflects its vision, with each point on the start representing a different area of focus: Competition, Community, Culture, Cause, and Convergence. They’re all part of a wider “Esports 3.0” vision that Lake has detailed in the past, with Complexity aiming to provide its players with all of the amenities of a professional, traditional sports athlete—including physical and mental wellness support. Lake sees the rebrand as helping Complexity better represent that ideal.
Credit: Complexity Gaming
“I think a lot of esports organizations tend to just fly by the seat of their pants. We wanted to intentionally be different,” said Lake. “We wanted to lay out: these are our values, these are our pillars, and these are the things that we are going to build on to build hopefully a billion-dollar sports property over the next decade. This is really a refresh, a re-iteration of all the things we stood for in the past, and how we want to refine that in the future.”
Having the public reputation as the Cowboys’ esports team seems sure to help Complexity in Texas, as well. The organization is vying for the hearts and minds of fans amidst other local teams, such as Team Envy and its Dallas Fuel Overwatch League (OWL) team, as well as Infinite Esports & Entertainment’s OpTic Gaming and Houston Outlaws OWL team. Lake said he considers those teams “friends of ours” and wishes them “nothing but the best”—but still admits that the Cowboys association is bound to bring benefits.
“I can sincerely say that I’ve never been as bullish about Complexity as I am right now.”
“I do think that it will provide some strategic advantage to us, being aligned to not only ‘America’s Team’ but definitely the team of Texas in the Dallas Cowboys,” said Lake. “Moving forward, whether you’re looking at selling sponsorships or strategic alliances, whatever it is, there are very few downsides to being aligned to such a professional, globally-respected brand. Locally, absolutely—I think we’re going to be able to gain fans at an exponential rate with our association with the Cowboys. But I think we’re also looking at a much, much bigger picture, to where every aspect of our business will be improved by the refresh and the realignment.”
Lake himself has long been the public face of Complexity Gaming with his trademark button-down white shirt and red tie—now blue, naturally—and he’s also been something of a hype man for the team. His excitement over the rebranding is hardly surprising, given that reputation, but he still said that this is the most optimistic he’s ever been about Complexity’s future.
“Historically, if you study my interviews and watch my videos, I’ve always been extremely bullish about Complexity and about esports. But I can sincerely say that I’ve never been as bullish about Complexity as I am right now,” he said. “We’ve got incredible partners, we’ve got industry-leading infrastructure, and we’ve got a refreshed vision for the future. I think the decisions that we’re making now—the seeds that we’re planting are going to grow into large crops of success, championships, and a legacy that won’t be matched anywhere in the world.”
