ALEX rumoured to leave Vitality
Alex "ALEX" McMeekin has reportedly told his teammates at Vitality he is looking to leave the team due to personal reasons and constant travelling the French CS:GO squad has to endure to compete in tournaments.
The British In-game-leader has made a shocking announcement earlier this Tuesday, March 3, when he declared his intentions of leaving the team after growing weary of the constant travelling with Vitality, who are currently preparing for the busy schedule, which will see them compete in six events in the next four months.
ALEX's announcement comes during a difficult time for Vitality, who have failed to live up to the expectations in recent events, which saw them drop down to ninth place in global CS:GO rankings – the lowest they have been since May 2019. Most recently, Vitality crashed out of the BLAST Premier Spring, where they finished third following two defeats against Complexity and NaVi, meaning the French squad will now have to compete in the BLAST Showdown.
Vitality also participated at IEM Katowice 2020, where they placed ninth-12th, which was an underwhelming result considering Vitality's high expectations, however, they failed to deliver against Astralis and FaZe Clan.
ALEX started his CS:GO career in 2014, when he joined webSPELL Gaming, which later disbanded and its roster moved into melty eSports Club. ALEX remained with melty eSports Club until December 2015, when the team released its roster. ALEX alongside his two teammates "Lambert "Lambert" Prigent and Valentin "mistou" Balbastro moved to Platinum eSport, where ALEX played for three months, until the team disbanded.
In April 2016, ALEX joined Team LDLC, where gained renown as an excellent player. His skill and potential did not go unnoticed, however, as he got signed by Team Vitality in December 2018 as a replacement for Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer, which was Vitality's first roster change since the French organisation's entrance into the CS:GO team.
ALEX led his new team to several titles, and helped them climb to the second place in global rankings, after an impressive run that included ECS title and a runner-up finish at ESL One Cologne in July 2019. Towards the end of the year, Vitality also finished top-four at Intel Extreme Masters XIV – Beijing and pocketed gold at EPICENTER 2019 in December 2019.
Since the turn of the year, however, Vitality failed to see much success with a seventh-ninth place finish at BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Regular Season and ninth-12th place finish at Intel Extreme Masters XIV – World Championship. Vitality are now assessing their options ahead of the ESL Pro League Season 11 venture, which is set to begin on March 16, 2020 and later ESL One Rio Major, which will kick off on May 11.Vitality already have a guaranteed spot in the New Legends Stage at Rio Major, due to their playoffs run at the StarLadder Major last year.
Although there are no official announcements who will replace ALEX at vitality, there are rumours suggesting the French squad have their eyes set on Ali "hAdji" Haïnouss, who is currently playing at Team LDLC.
