Vitality apEX at ESL Pro League Season 19 – “I’m just playing here to be the best”

Dan “apEX” Madesclaire is one of Counter-Strike’s great IGLs. A two-time Major winner and a veteran of the game, we sat down with apEX ahead of ESL Pro League Season 19 to get his thoughts on the team’s chances in the upcoming tournament.

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You guys are obviously coming off the back of a disappointing Major defeat to FaZe. What has the team been working on in the meantime to make sure you put things right this time around?

To be fully honest, it’s not easy in the sense that we’re going to less important tournaments than the Major. We try to give a lot, from the beginning of the year, to the Major, to be as good as possible. Obviously, the disappointment was pretty high after the loss against FaZe, so we just talked and knew what to work on, but the thing is, the biggest tournaments are coming later. So now we’re trying to get our preparation for the next one and train to be as ready as possible once again. We have a lot of steps to fix and we’re just trying to work on that every single day.

mezii has been with the team nearly half a year now. How does it differ with mezii than, say for example with Magisk? How has that been over the last few months and what does he bring to the team?

Well, I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen the full potential of mezii to be honest. I think he can just get so much better in a lot of aspects; I think that for him he needs to show himself more and play a bit more for himself, to take more responsibilities in general. That’s something we’ve been working on and I’m pretty sure if he gets there, he’s gonna be much more important for the team than he is now. Of course, Magisk had way more impact in terms of like… his experience helps a lot. With his impact, his experience helps a lot. While mezii has a bit less, he has other strengths to use, I would say. It’s two different players, but also, Magisk at the same time took a lot of space in the team. So now we try to give more to everyone to try to have the same amount at the end, but that’s not the easiest task.

Coming into ESL Pro League Season 19, I think it’s fair to say that you’re one of the favorites in Group B. Do you guys approach games any differently when you feel like you’re the favorites or is it all the same to you?

No, it is the same for us. As I said before, it’s not the most important tournament but it’s good training for the next ones. Until the end of the year I think our big, important tournament would be BLAST London. So, we’re just going to give our best to get ready there. It’s nothing crazy to do, just, preparing as usual and trying to top the group.

Are there any teams that you’ve got your eyes on facing in particular, or do you just take it one game at a time?

No – always one game at a time for me. There’s no people I want to face, or team I want to face, or whatever. I’m just playing here to be the best. If you want to be the best you want to face anyone. So, that’s the way I’m thinking, actually.

Yeah, that’s the best way to look at it. So if Vitality make it through, you guys will have a week’s break from officials while Groups C and D conclude.

Yep.

Do you think having that break to prepare is worth the trade-off of coming into the Playoffs quite cold? Who do you think benefits more from the Pro League schedule?

I think it’s the same. Of course, they will be warmer, but a bit more tired. We’ll have more energy and new things that we will prepare. So I think it’s a lot different and I don’t think any team will take an advantage. I don’t think we’re gonna see more teams from Group C or Group D going through to the Playoffs over Group A or Group B – I think it’s just pretty even.

Would you say that your own expectations have changed in light of the last couple of tournament results or is the same “we have to win” mentality?

This “we have to win” mentality doesn’t exist. We want to win, “We have to win” is a lot different. We just, we want to win, and for me it’s two big different things. But of course, when you’re Vitality, you want to win. Of course we lost in the Semis of the Major, but that’s not a bad result. That’s just like an… okay result, I would say. You can see that FaZe wanted to win as well, and they lost in the Final. It’s just all about working and getting some more tournaments under our belts. We want to win so bad so we’re just giving our best for that.

Just to finish off – looking beyond ESL Pro League Season 19, if you’ve got one goal in Vitality for the rest of 2024, what is it and why?

I think we’ll have like three really important tournaments, of course like the EWC tournament in Saudi Arabia. It’s a big thing now, it’s getting bigger and bigger, a lot of cash prizes, so I think it’s gonna be one of our goals. Cologne obviously, the most important non-Major tournament that we all want to win, and I didn’t win it yet. As a person, I lost like two Finals there – I really want it under my belt. The last one is of course the Shanghai Major, but this one, I don’t have to explain why, I guess.