apEX: "The atmosphere is really good, it's the real last dance at this tournament"

The French in-game leader was all smiles after Vitality plowed through Astralis during the team's last dance at the BLAST Premier World Final.

Vitality's last tournament with its current roster has finally come, BLAST Premier World Final 2021, and the French team could not have hoped for a better start as Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and his men demolished Astralis 16-4, 16-6 on Nuke and Mirage to proceed through the event's upper bracket.

Vitality didn't skip a beat after flying to Copenhagen from Stockholm, where they won IEM Winter, and the team's spirits are sky-high after their opening match in Denmark, according to the team's 28-year-old in-game leader, who took some time after the series against Astralis to talk about the win and the keys for the team's good run of form.

You guys are one fire right now. Your confidence must be really high, so what's the atmosphere like in the team?

I can say it's really good, it's the real last dance at this tournament. We didn't talk about it together but I still feel like we want to finish on a high note. Everyone is confident and we've been playing really good CS. Not just individually, but even our team play has been on point which is something I really like because I'm the in-game leader and that's something I'm really working for.

A player like ZywOo popped off, he did 52-13 in this best-of-three, I've never seen something like that at this level of competition. So yeah, he's just too good.

Can you explain what elements came together for you to be in such great form to end this year?

When people think it's because we're a dead team, as I mentioned before, I don't think a dead team has ever done what we've done. We worked a lot since August and we got better and better tournament after tournament. We made the ESL Pro League final at the beginning, then we had the RMR, the Major... the Major was a bit hard at the beginning but then we played better and lost to NAVI.

It was NAVI's Major, anyway. Then we made a final at one tournament and won another one — it's the result of a lot of work we did before, all together. Before our bootcamp in August we said we would all give everything, together, to achieve what we want and I feel like all of the work is paying off right now.

NAVI lost their opening match against another dead team, Liquid. Is this your tournament to take now?

I'm not sure, to be honest, we're facing G2 now and it's been a while since we won against them. They're always very hard to play against, for us. It's always a close game but they always win it. We'll try to give our best to beat them because if we want to win the tournament that's going to be needed.

Astralis only got 10 rounds in two maps against you. Did you expect that kind of domination?

Obviously not, you never expect such a game, it's impossible. You always think it's going to be close and that you'll have to stay focused. You never think about stomping a team, but yeah, it happened. It was a good moment, I liked it. It was pretty nice, to be honest.

How about in the game, at what point did you say 'OK, this is going to be pretty straightforward?'

I was pretty sure when we played the CT side on Nuke because everything was perfect. Communication, moves, aim, we were in the game. I always talk about that, 'how is my team at this moment?' And they were all really focused and prepared for the game. I don't think I was ever mad during the game because everything was very smooth. When that's the case, what can you say?

To close out the interview I'd like to touch a more personal question. For a long time you were typecast as a brainless entry-fragger but you've been proving your qualities as an in-game leader for some time now. What do you have to say about that?

I think I've been one of the hardest workers in this industry, I know the chance I have to be here and live this life. Being able to travel around the world and earn such good money, to live from my passion. That's something I never forget when I wake up every morning. I'm never mad when I wake up because I know that it's the best job.

It was the same when I tried to become an in-game leader. I wasn't sure it would work, to be honest, but I knew I would give my best and I had really good people behind me to be able to do that.

Now I'm feeling really comfortable doing it and it's also because my mates trust me 100%. That's one of the most important things. I never asked them to trust me, but I'm proving that they have trust me, which is very different and it works well.