Spinx after 131 ADR game: "ZywOo was not feeling well so I told him to support me fully"

Vitality's superstar is sick, but Spinx has stepped up in his place with a 1.44 rating in the team's first three best-of-ones.

Vitality are reigning Major champions and No. 3 in the world but come into PGL Major Copenhagen wounded. Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi and company crashed out of IEM Katowice in last place, and they arrived in Denmark with another blow, an illness affecting Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut.

With the Frenchman unable to contribute as much in frags and in communication, Vitality "are trying for everyone to step up," Spinx tells HLTV.

So far, despite defeat to Eternal Fire in their opener, that plan has worked. Spinx had a 1.46 rating as Vitality scored their first win at the Major over The MongolZ and went one better with a 1.95 against Imperial as he dominated Overpass from start to finish.

The Israeli rifler also touched on the balance of the team on CT side with a more supportive rotator in the form of Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire, how William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman is a great bomb-site partner, and how Vitality are trying to use less pressure to their advantage.

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It feels a long time ago now that apEX said you needed to be more of a star on CT Overpass, how was that game for you?

It depends. I think my strength as a player is to know how to put myself in a good condition, and that's what I should do. But I also want to make everyone around me also comfortable. So it's a back and forth, but this game ZywOo was not feeling well so I told him to support me fully, so I can be fully comfortable. He's not really well this tournament so far, he's a bit ill, so that was the focus for me and I'm glad I delivered.

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Is that something for the general team, what's it like trying to fill that void?

We are trying for everyone to step up. Not only numbers, everyone needs to put more numbers, ZywOo's not going to do 2.00 ratings like a normal day ZywOo. But it's not only numbers, it's also the communication, we need to be full focus on the game and not the lost rounds because ZywOo usually helps us in this department. Because he's not feeling well, we need to push even harder.

How about day one, how do you look back on it now? It's always hard to come in halfway through.

I think the teams that played before always have an advantage, they're kind of warmed up, and familiar with studio. But I don't think that's the main reason we lost. We didn't play like Vitality. Of course, ZywOo is ill so he's not 100% but I think we should have won if we played to our normal level. We just talked about why we are not playing to our level and what we can do to fix it, which helped us today.

How did you feel coming into the Major more generally, maybe third in the world on most people's world rankings, does that take a bit of pressure off?

I think yes. We had a lot of pressure on us at Katowice, you are not going to the tournament to do a good performance, we're coming to win the tournament, so it does put extra pressure on you. Now, I think we have a little bit less pressure on us, most of the people are looking toward Spirit and FaZe. But we try to take it to our advantage, and just go with it.

Something on flameZ and mezii, your last Major where of course you won. How are they progressing as a duo? Playing some sites together, like on Overpass just now.

First of all, me and mezii are playing most bomb sites, almost every site, Overpass is different. I really like to play with him, I told him many times it's a pleasure to play the site with him. flameZ is mostly with apEX, and I think the duos are pretty good on the team right now. Me and mezii are on one site, flameZ with apEX on the other, and ZywOo roaming around and doing his own thing. I think it's pretty good for us.

More specifically on mezii, coming in for Magisk who was more of the bonafide third star. mezii seems more supportive, just generally, he's the one saying 'I'll jump out,' what's the difference like?

When mezii joined we told him, 'you're not a Magisk replacement,' it's really hard to replace Magisk. He's one of the best players in the world in his role, there's a reason he has won so much in his career. mezii is just a different player, maybe they play some of the same positions, but it's a completely different style and character.

I think mezii is, not always, but compared to Magisk, is more sacrificial in his department. But it's what the team needs, sometimes. At the same time, we don't want him to be... like smooya said, a 'full bitch.' Maybe we sacrifice him sometimes but we don't want him to be a full bitch, we want him to perform, we want him to shoot good, to feel good. It's not like, 'mezii you do the shit role again and again and again.' Sometimes yes, but we share it.

What about that dynamic between you and apEX as rotators on most maps. Some teams, it's two star players together like frozen and ropz on FaZe on Mirage, so what's it like to have apEX as a more supportive rotator next to you?

In our team that's the current decision because apEX is calling a lot in the mid-round, what to do, and on CT side I'm trying to help a bit but it's mostly apEX. He's the right guy to do it. Maybe someone else in Connector would have better stats, but for the team it wouldn't be beneficial. If the team is a whole five players, it wouldn't be the right decision at least right now.

What about you specifically? To have someone more supportive, does that help you?

For me, not too big a difference. If you take Mirage as an example I don't think he's supporting me [the Short player] a lot. He's trying to make flameZ [A anchor] and ZywOo more comfortable and playing better. For me it's just filling in, what I feel like I can do at the current moment. Maybe Connector is a 'star position' but if you have a really good support guy in this position it can make the A guy and Window guy pop off really well. There's good and bad in everything, but right now it's for the best.

Final question, 2-1 now, looking forward to playoffs?

Yes, the goal was always playoffs. Nothing before the quarter-finals would be a success for us. It doesn't matter who we face for 2-1, whether it's a good team or... not a bad team but not one of the best teams in the world right now. The goal is definitely playoffs and even more.