Vitality’s run at BLAST Open Porto was far from a convincing one, but they recovered from a stunning opening series loss to Inner Circle to complete the lower bracket gauntlet with wins over 9z, Legacy and FUT.
A crucial part of that recovery was Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, who has averaged a 1.07 rating at the event so far after stepping up with key performances in their last two series.
I want to win, but I will be sad for mezii if we win
After the match, HLTV spoke to the captain about his form at the tournament, what Vitality lacks with William “mezii” Merriman away on parental leave, and the team’s recovery to make it to playoffs.
First, congratulations. What’s your first reaction to making the playoffs?
I’m really happy, to be honest. We’ve been through difficult times, and it’s getting better right now, even with a stand-in. I feel like we’re playing better, more confident and a bit with more balls and just headshotting a bit more and that helps, not going to lie. Doing it with Justin as well is awesome. I had a few tournaments, but I’m not like Karrigan, playing with tons of stand-ins in my career as IGL. It’s not something I get used to, but fun experience.
It feels like, like you say, you got better with each game. Was that just you as a team growing in confidence, or was that also jL getting a bit more bedded in?
To be honest, the first game we completely threw it. We threw Cache, but even though Anubis was 13-8, the amount of reads we had on CT side and what we can conclude is insane. We played pretty bad as individuals as well, ZywOo had one of the worst best-of-threes for a long time, et cetera, so it doesn’t help, and we are a bit off individually. So it wasn’t easy, and when we got back to headshotting a bit more against teams that actually headshot hard, like FUT or whatever, that’s their strength. But I guess we have a bit better team play, so it helps.
I imagine you’re proud not just because you made it to the playoffs, but also you had a pretty tough run in the end. 9z, Legacy, FUT, all teams that are on the up.
They were almost all above us in the ranking. That was really important for the VRS as well, we won maybe 150 points out of three games. We get back to good points. This VRS is insane. We won five events in a row, and then you lose two quarter-finals and you’re back to top four, top five, and that’s actually mind-blowing for me. But that’s the way it is. We know that you can go down really fast, but you can go up really fast as well, so that’s the goal for the team.
When you came into this tournament, obviously you had a stand-in. Did you still have expectations as a team?
I always have high expectations. We always have high expectations in Vitality when we have such brilliant players and such a brilliant team. So no way, if you don’t count BLAST Bounty, we’ve been through group stage for maybe, I don’t know, 40 events, 30 events. We haven’t lost since Katowice 2024, I think, in group stage. So for me it was really important to go through and then see how it goes and just have a lot of fun with Justin, and also to show to the world that he still has it, because I think it’s important for him to play good here, to have opportunities.
And I have expectations for the team even without William. In a way, I want to win, but I will be sad for him if we win because he will feel bad a bit, and that’s normal.
What do you lose when mezii is gone? I know obviously he’s going to fit better in your team, in terms of roles on the server, but what else do you lose with him being gone?
Well, we lose a voice. We lose a person that is really calm. While Justin is calm as well, but a bit more crazy, and we have enough crazy people in the team, I would say, so it creates a bit of chaos sometime before maps, et cetera. We lose a person that is one of also the best supports in his roles, et cetera. So it’s not easy to lose him. But Justin has been a phenomenal stand-in. I think it’s also good when you’re stand-in to play in such a good team, I would say. I think it’s good stuff for him.
I’m putting a lot of hours in the game
But I’m a bit sad for Will in a way that he had to go away for this tournament because he didn’t have the best first part of the season, at the end of the first part of the season, individually, and in EWC I felt like he came back to a better level and he had to quit us, and that was a bit sad for him because he can do so well and we know how important he is for the team. I just hope he’s going to come back to the best level he ever showed, because he is the best teammate I ever had.
You had quite a high individual level personally, posting some of the best maps you’ve played in a long time. Was that a conscious thing from you, knowing that you had to step it up with the stand-in situation, and the team struggling a little bit?
I don’t know. I would be honest, I think the first part of the season I had amazing best-of-threes, amazing best-of-fives, and then, like last year, I dropped down, and as the IGL, it’s really tough to drop down because to come back you need also to take care of the team first and then of yourself.
I’m putting a lot of hours in the game. I’m sad it didn’t show up here for EWC. That was our main tournament, and for Vitality as well because it was so important for me to do well there. I played the most amount of CS for a long time and it didn’t show, and it feels like it’s showing now.
And I’m happy. I had a really good third map yesterday, really good two maps today. It’s good for the confidence, I’m not going to lie. As an entry and rotation, for me it gives me a lot of more wings to move and do plays, and that worked today against young guys that have, like, twice my aim or three times maybe, but when I play like that, I think we are such a dangerous team.
