ApEX takes over as new Vitality captain
Vitality member Dan "apEX" Madesclaire has been confirmed as the team's new In-game leader, following the departure of Alex "ALEX" McMeekin earlier on Wednesday, March 4.
Ever since ALEX announced his intentions of leaving Vitality CS:GO roster, the biggest question was perhaps not who will be the new arrival at the French squad, but rather who will Vitality appoint as their new captain. Although there were speculations Vitality could sign a new IGL that proved to not be true, as it was a 17-year-old Kévin "misutaaa" Rabier who was announced as the team's fifth member.
With the final slot in the team filled with the inexperienced CS:GO pro, the decision for a new IGL came down to either Richard "shox" Papillon or apEX, both of whom had previous leadership experiences CS:GO teams. Shox was previously the captain of CVeryGamers, Epsilon and G2 Esports, while apEX was regarded as the back-up leader at Vitality, as he supposedly often helped ALEX with leading the team.
Although many speculated it will be shox, who will take over as an IGL, given his experience at the helm of G2 Esports, apEX took on Twitter to reveal he will be the one taking over for ALEX.
In his Twitlonger post, titled "The past and the future", apEX talked about Vitality’s journey since the team started from scratch back in the middle of 2018. Although the French squad saw a reasonable amount of success, apeEX revealed that things started to go downhill ever since Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt left the team and ALEX took over as the IGL.
"ALEX became the captain and things have started to slowly go badly because we had to do too many tournaments in a row that we couldn't skip," said apEX.
"Everyone was slowly getting mentally tired of not being able to show what we were capable of."
ApEX went on to address the motivation issues ALEX had, as he was losing his will to continue playing at the highest level, which eventually led to his departure from Vitality.
"ALEX lost some motivation to continue playing at the highest level and we felt it. It wasn't easy to handle it at the end because everything was falling apart."
Although Vitality had a tough period behind them, apEX explained that he believes his team is capable of much more and that the whole squad is highly motivated to prove everyone they belong among the CS:GO elite.
ApEX has supposedly been thinking about becoming an IGL before but decided not to take on the challenge due to his "issues with emotions" – something he has been working on with the organisation's mental coach. The French CS:GO star, however, believes he is now ready to take on the role of team captain and is determined to lead his team to glory.
In his announcement, apEX also commented on the signing of the 17-year-old misutaaa, who will finally get his first taste of the top-level Counter-Strike scene after climbing the ranks in some lesser French CS:GO teams. The brand-new Vitality IGL praised the young arrival and stressed that the team will support him and help him grow as a player.
"Having new blood is something great for the French scene, and I think misutaaa deserves his spot," said apEX.
"We are going to try to give him the best conditions to perform and we will not use him the wrong way as we did in the past with a few other players."
Vitality's first match with the new squad will come on March 16 in ESL Pro League Season 11. There the French squad will play in Group A; with their first match in the round-robin stage putting them against GODSENT.
