apEX returns for IEM Katowice

18-2-2021 16:02

Vitality will have their in-game leader back in action at the prestigious event.

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire has returned to activity after taking a short break from competition earlier this month, the player and Vitality have announced. The French veteran is set to play in IEM Katowice, where the team will play their first match against OG on Thursday at 19:00 .

apEX is back after a short break

The in-game leader was put on the sidelines by coach Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam in the middle of the team's campaign in the BLAST Premier Groups so that he could deal with personal issues, shortly after Vitality lost a one-sided match to Complexity in the tournament. With Nabil "⁠Nivera⁠" Benrlitom stepping in, the team went on to lose a close encounter with Evil Geniuses to go out in last place and fall to the Spring Showdown.

Nivera is now expected to return to the role he has been fulfilling for the past three months, playing only on three maps: on Dust2 and on Nuke instead of Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier and on Inferno in Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon's place.

With the team back to status quo, Vitality will hope to return to form at the biggest tournament of 2021 yet as they're set to take on the double-elimination Group B, featuring the aforementioned OG, FaZe, Liquid, FURIA, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Natus Vincere, and Virtus.pro.

LETS GO! How did he know? hltv.org/forums/threads/2415884/apex-bac..

2021-02-18 16:02

22 replies

Krl did interview and he said hell return

2021-02-18 16:03

3 replies

ahaha, circus

2021-02-18 16:19

2 replies

Cry is free kid

2021-02-18 16:40

1 reply

ahah GOODBAY

2021-02-21 16:40

apEX posted picture on Instagram and post said that he was ready for Katowice. Post got deleted after 2-3 hours i think.

2021-02-18 16:04

Returning so quick?? Somethings fishy...

2021-02-18 16:06

14 replies

he did it to confuse the opponents

2021-02-18 16:35

6 replies

People thought he was going A but he faked to B.

2021-02-18 16:37

4 replies

+1 He is a tactical genius

2021-02-18 16:46

apEX is a tactical genius. He is best known for his signature tactic "I was never an IGL, and now I am", He also has a second little known tactic of "Fk this team, I'm taking a break, haha just kidding". What an absolute legend, TOP 1 six-man roster IGL for sure.

2021-02-18 18:05

+11111111111111111111111111111111111111111

2021-02-18 19:48

+1 was hoping someone would grace my comment with something similar.

2021-02-18 20:58

Gotta confuse the opponents, right babe?

2021-02-18 22:41

sometimes only a few week break is more than enough. This aint astralis situation.

2021-02-18 16:44

astralis players left cause of burnout , apex left for personal issues there is a difference

2021-02-18 17:34

#159 it can be the same, you know, no difference.

2021-02-18 23:10

he was malding so hard he got forced benched for his own capillary safety

2021-02-18 17:01

What do you suspect is fishy?

2021-02-18 17:35

Management forced him to return or bench/He wasn’t really taking a break

2021-02-18 17:40

The way the departure tweet was worded, seems like he had something like a close family funeral or something

2021-02-18 19:29

HLTV users best news for everything.

2021-02-18 18:33

it was planned that he would come back after the blast

2021-02-20 05:25

wohoo

He got bored.

Boredom is frustrating indeed, he need to find a hobby

2021-02-18 16:18

ApeX dream alive

what a long brake!

yes long brake

2021-02-18 21:33

easy catch the odds boys

wtf

damn, such a long break

12 replies

yaa XD

It was said since the beginning that he would only be for the rest of blast groups

9 replies

2021-02-18 16:10

2021-02-18 16:17

I don't think it was said like that, they never mentioned how long his break is going to be.

was said it was for the remainder of the blast groups

2021-02-18 16:28

They did

2021-02-18 16:51

they actually said it was ATLEAST for the rest of blast, not only

2021-02-18 16:31

Yes so nothing surprising to see him come back for the 2nd/3rd biggest event of the year

2021-02-18 18:37

do you think he goes back to the break after haha ?

2021-02-18 19:34

Idk but it wouldn't be a bad thing if apex want to have more rest

2021-02-18 20:00

BIG MALDING INCOMINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG

Unlucky

my fantasyyyyyyy noooooooooooooooo

Malding is over

i think we all get jebaited.

2021-02-18 16:05

2021-02-18 17:16

wtf?

expected

clown

Yes you are

nice break, hope he is well rested now after long holiday

HLTV MAIN PAGE shows APEX takes break from compy and below that APEX RETURNS FOR KATO hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

ahahahahahahaha oh boy

Surprise surprise motherfucker ! THE KING IS BACK !

The king of malding

2021-02-18 16:52

Ahah yes but still the king

Hmm lets bench apex and l try nivera. Then uhh its worst move ever lets bring apex back . KEKW

FUCK

Pog

Shortest break ever. GL

damn...

woop woop gg og :D

who?

nice

Lmao he took a 1 match break? Why did they make such a big deal about it.

It was a break for the rest of blast groups, so no matter of match he missed. It is what was planned since the beginning

When did they make a big deal about it? All they said is that hes taking a break from blast lmfao

2021-02-18 16:41

2021-02-18 17:17

When a tier 1 team has a roster change like that and hltv reports about it - it's making a big deal about it. We have over 500 comments now on apex taking a break, and over 200 on apex coming back 1 match later. That is the "making a big deal about it" we are talking about. Hope I could help ya.

2021-02-18 22:47

thats HLTV, not apex and xtqzzz

2021-02-18 22:51

Ok I agree with u on that one 50%. Hltv loves that kinda drama and me too. But look at the big a** statement they put out :D twitter.com/TeamVitality/status/13591430.. Looks kinda weirdchamp now in retrospect. Ppl were thinking apex would be out for a long time.

2021-02-18 22:55

its not actually that long but they had to post two for english and french and it does say its only for blast premier

2021-02-18 22:58

I again 100% agree with you m8. They should have hired Macron to read out the announcement and have Paul McCartney play that song about being in heaven and Pewdiepie play a 24 hour minecraft donation livestream for Apex - THEN and only then it would have been made a big deal. Edit: It's Eric Clapton (Eric Clapton - Tears In Heaven) - sorry for mixing them up. ;D

2021-02-18 23:46

hes an attention whore

2021-02-18 16:43

#114

#203 so I'd say #116 is correct.

wtf?! RIP my bet on OG

yes indeed wtf men, in situations like this we should be able to get refund since we've been betrayed

Eziest scam lol.

2021-02-18 22:48

Will baby Apex rage quit again after a loss? That is the question 😂

god bring him back pOG

POG

Esse não sabe o que quer, parece uma pica com fimose.

2021-02-18 16:16

2021-02-18 16:54

King is back

Imagine OG bettors thinking its payday 🤣 Both teams good strats but only one team has good comms and good skilled individuals, gonna be a quick 2-0 this one.

ffs OG actually had a chance this time :(((

2021-02-18 16:27

Back from Belgium: hltv.org/forums/threads/2415097/apex-in-..

Welcome back, king.

2021-02-18 16:07

RHAYAY apEX

rage quit wasnt long

2021-02-18 16:08

Navi: a che vsmisle)

LUL

Oh shit.....

2021-02-18 16:09

seriously what du hek are they doin ?

Rip Na’Vi

2021-02-18 16:11

pog

Fak rip my prediction

haahhahhahah come back to ruin team xd

2021-02-18 16:14

yeah! gl&hf

free win for OG then, ape x is the problem in Vitality

0/8

0/8 what? the guy is a useless tilter and a worse IGL than ChoKola

2021-02-18 17:27

he took a break for one BO3, wow

2021-02-18 16:15

I was expecting a gla1ve type of break. This man comes back after a week lol.

He is a madman, dedicated player and a hardworker, that's why he rage a lot and that's why he came back so fast. I think he needed a 0% CS for few days to come back stronger

2021-02-18 16:33

That was always the plan but HLTV users have some trouble reading the reports

I didn’t bother reading it, just saw the headline at work back when it was posted.

2021-02-18 17:21

Apex's girlfriend : IT IS CS GO OR ME Apex : okey my love i choose you 1 week later KING IS BACK

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I hope the break helped you, apEX. :) I look forward to seeing you back with the Vitality lineup again. :D

What a long break!

HAHAHAAH EZ LOSE WITH TILTED MALDIBNG BOT

Let's freaking gooooooooo

desperate for money lmao, can't blame though

Honestly I thought he is not going to comeback, he seems like a pretty medicore player, but maybe after this break he will be better, we will see. Wish him and Vitality GL.

Watch his interview with thorin and you will see that he definitely is not a "pretty mediocre player"

I don't have to watch his interview with Thorin, I'm just saying what I see in the server, he is a good leader but his individual skill is lacking, maybe after this break it will be better, hopefully.

2021-02-18 19:03

oh no my sticker investment :((((((

Damn, this ruins my fantasy, why did this come so late :/ Good to see him back tho :)

lets hope he had time to play death match so he can at least shoot someone in the back

LETS FUCKING GO BRO

hope break went well for him

2021-02-18 16:20

Lets gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

2021-02-18 16:22

no six man no win XD

2021-02-18 16:25

LMAO 9 DAY BREAK

2021-02-18 16:26

RIP OG ;(((

Lurker

They will still lose haha

nice 1 week break kkkkkkkkk

2021-02-18 16:29

Vita top1 let's gooooooo

2021-02-18 16:30

My fantasy bets lmao

One bo3 break, and 2 big posts on main page. Ahahahahah, cfiesta

When you decide to take a vacation but bank balance 0 on day 2

2021-02-18 16:32

Saving strats for Katowice ?

CEO of malding is back

what? lol

He left the team after getting frustrated because he was such a bot and later the team managed to convince him that its okay but still are important and he returned....LOL

What a clown!

2021-02-18 16:45

That's actually good, Vitality would suck without Papex

Nooo, rip fantasy

2021-02-18 16:47

They benched him..then begged him to cum back lol

2021-02-18 16:48

so long break wow

my guy literally ragequit a qualifier

lets gooooooo #VforVictory

rip vitality

Bet gg

ah yes very big pause

Expected , VItality got 1 milliions of reason to comeback him , NEO is the funcking boss

2021-02-18 16:56

RIP OG :(

If Vitality get 2-0’ed now will apex take another break?

Welcome back captain. #VforVictory

2021-02-18 17:09

rapex

2021-02-18 17:12

Dude must have been malded of the planet after that complexity game

2021-02-18 17:15

returns? I didn't even know he was gone XDDDDD

2021-02-18 17:19

NICE

The break was so long I don't even know who apex is wtf

apex good but not best (jw bestest)

2021-02-18 22:34

the king is back

2021-02-18 17:28

good

2021-02-18 17:29

can u even say he was gone? xd

2021-02-18 17:33

lmao

Hope he enjoyed that winterholiday. Did he go snowboarding?

2021-02-18 17:36

Definitely benched for toxicity, even more confirmations

2021-02-18 17:39

Hope he cured his nerves, good luck

2021-02-18 17:49

Who cares which bots Zywoo has to carry.

2021-02-18 18:01

No one cares

2021-02-18 18:07

What the heck lol

2021-02-18 18:10

Return to MALD again XD!

2021-02-18 18:14

MALDex on road

2021-02-18 18:20

If it is true that he needed time then this might be too early. I hope it doesn't ruin his mental thus hinder Vitality's chance to win.

2021-02-18 18:22

You couldn't live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me.

2021-02-18 18:24

Vitality will win Katowice

2021-02-18 18:53

sad news

2021-02-18 19:10

2021-02-18 19:17

Wtf. I hope there will be rules on this topic at some point. You can't just fucking come and go as you like. The other teams have prob pracced for a different team and now this frog comes back after a week of vacation. Ridiculous. Same with roster changes. Unless it's bco illness people should be prohibited from transfers until a transfer window. Like football. Not cool, Apex

2021-02-18 19:21

Not cool to have a tragedy in your family and rest a week ?

2021-02-18 23:50

EXPECTED MON GATER , PUTIN TU NOUS A MANQUER GROS , C'ETAIT PAS PAREIL SANS TOI HAHAH Traduction: we missed you, it wasn't the same without you

2021-02-18 19:46

Please retire finally 4 kills apex trash

2021-02-18 20:11

imagine being a cs pro and only playing three maps.

2021-02-18 20:23

what? lol. "APEX TAKES BREAK FROM COMPETITION" makes it sound like several months. dude legit just sat out 1 match lmfaooo

2021-02-18 20:57

5 replies

Yeah he was gone for like.. one week? xD

2021-02-18 21:22

liquipedia.net/counterstrike/ApEX 2018-10-08 – 2021-02-09 Team Vitality 2021-02-09 – 2021-02-18 Team Vitality (Inactive) 2021-02-18 – Present Team Vitality 9 days and only missed 1 match lol

2021-02-18 21:34

Pffffttt, that doesn't sound like nearly enough to fix your problems maybe they will give him a bigger break after Katowice I guess

2021-02-18 21:36

Vitality's tweet kinda gave me the "death in the family" impression. maybe that was it and he needed some alone time, but yeah, thats a very short time to work on that

2021-02-18 21:43