apEX on changes: "On the T side we didn't have a lurker"

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire spoke to HLTV.org about why Vitality decided to bring in Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi for Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier and why their roles are now "perfect."

We caught up with the Vitality in-game leader following the end of Group A in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups. Playing their debut with Spinx, the team earned second place in the group, beating Ninjas in Pyjamas and OG before losing the final to Astralis in an overtime game on Mirage.

The Frenchman spoke on the topic of the reasons behind why the coaching staff decided to make the change from misutaaa to Spinx, pointing out that it has solved a role issue they have been facing on the Terrorist side.

"On the T side we didn't have a lurker," apEX said. "We had a role issue because misutaaa and dupreeh had the same role, Magisk had to take all the lurking areas. That wasn't working really well, not everyone was feeling comfortable in what they were doing."

The veteran explained that changes were also made on the CT side, where they struggled in the Astralis matchup on Mirage, before delving into whether Vitality are still switching to their native language when playing out clutches.

Second place in the group, but before that I wanted to go through the change you have undergone during the off-season. First of all, what issues did you identify, what pushed you make a change?

Well, the true thing is, on the T side we didn't have a lurker. So obviously, we had a role issue in that sense because misutaaa and dupreeh had the same role, Magisk had to take all the lurking areas. That wasn't working really well, not everyone was feeling comfortable in what they were doing, so that's what happened most likely on both ways.

Why did you feel like misutaaa was the one who had to go in the aspect, then? Was it also down to the fragging, because in the past few months the stats showed he was struggling to put up the numbers?

I think misutaaa is a really great player, but he has to be used in a certain way. I think the coaches — obviously, it's not my decision — prefer to stay with dupreeh for the entry-fragging part, to put him on every entry-fragging condition, so that was most likely that. They also know that with misutaaa you have to micro-manage a lot, and dupreeh is experienced and it's way less, so that's most likely that.

You touched on the roles a little bit already. When you were announcing the change, you were saying how the roles are now perfect. Do you feel like that still after having the chance to play it through a little bit more and having some more practice?

Well, I felt like our T sides today were really good. We had Lotan [Spinx] in late rounds with ZywOo, who are two really good players, so it's not easy for the opponent. Me and Peter were like old entry-fraggers, going there and there, and Magisk has his own areas, lurking or not or playing aggressive, or whatever. So I felt that of course it's much better, but anyway we had to change a few positions on CT sides, so of course we had to work on that, and that's not easy. But that's what we struggled with the most today, I would say.

I wanted to touch on this last game as well, the CT side on Mirage didn't really go your way, I think the only rounds you managed to win were forcebuys. What happened there?

Once again, we have two new positions. I don't think it's an excuse, but we have two new positions, me on B and Spinx, who used to play short, is playing connector now. It's a really different role than short, you have way more things to do, and you need to adapt more and have more experience in the position. Obviously, we lost a lot towards mid and getting first kills and stuff like that, but it's how it is. I'm not frustrated at all, it's the first tournament together, we had like six days of practice, so we're gonna get more and more to get better as soon as possible.

What about in terms of Dust2? I noticed that Spinx was put in the pit position. Was that always going to be the case? Is that the best place to put him on this tournament, or is it just how it worked out with the rest of the team?

I think we also looked stats-wise how he was, and I think Dust2 was his worst map, like almost 1 or below 1 rating, so we decided to change his positions. He was the B rotation and B lurker, and now he's long. I think it's a position I'm really good at, and we're really good on the CT side most of the time, so we just tried to put one for one with misutaaa and Spinx and me staying in my position. Once again, we had a great CT side most of the time, so why change something that works? I think also am okay to play some anchor positions, but I also need to enjoy what I'm doing, and obviously playing only anchor positions is pretty tough. We tried to mix things up for everyone, and it's just really good.

You lost this 3-2 split in the team with the French and Danish side. I'm curious about how this has impacted your approach to the language. I know at first you were making sure that everything is in English, but then you realized it's still good to play out clutch situations in your own languages. How does it work now?

I'm not gonna lie, I think when ZywOo and me are in clutches we speak French, because I think it's more fluent and way easier. And when the Danes are together, they try sometimes when they don't understand each other, they just speak Danish. Obviously, for Spinx it's a bit harder because he doesn't understand our native language, but, yeah, obviously we're trying to speak English as much as possible, but when it's tight and when we are 2v2, 2v3 with Frenchies, we speak French. It's more fluent, obviously.

I noticed you have your mental coach here. I don't think that's a typical setup for you guys, and he was used more in a bootcamp setting before. What's the significance there?

I think he decided to, and Vitality, I guess, both decided that he will come more with us, just to be closer to us and understand situations. That's why he's here today.