Spinx on leaving Vitality: "It was the right decision, even if I would be on the bench"

Spinx has no regrets about leaving Vitality during the winter break.

Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi was already looking for a way out of Vitality during the 2024 summer break, according to coach Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam, but couldn't secure a move away from the French organization.

Once Vitality secured the signing of Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, however, the Israeli player was given the exit he wanted.

"I knew there was a possibility that I would be on the bench for the next season," Spinx said about the decision, but he eventually landed on MOUZ after their shock removal of Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek.

Spinx's debut with MOUZ was a positive one, as the European combine beat BIG to get off to a winning start at PGL Cluj-Napoca. After the win, Spinx spoke to HLTV about his debut, Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin's calling, and his departure from Vitality.

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First of all, congrats on the win. Your MOUZ debut went pretty well, I would say. How do you feel right now after getting the victory?

I feel great. I think it was an important win. It's good to start with a win in the first game. It's good for confidence and everything else. So yeah, a good and important win. I'm happy about it.

You played Ancient in this series after not playing an official for almost three years on it. How was that for you? You started pretty slowly, but then you got into it.

Yeah, of course, Ancient can be hard sometimes. We practiced it a bit, but to be fully in control of the map, I still need a bit more. But yeah, it's a rough start, first game with the team, not a new map, but kind of a new map. I understand it's a rough start, but I'm just happy I managed to reset and help the team win.

The new map is obviously not the only new thing for you. You've got a new team and some new roles. So, what would you say is the biggest thing that changed for you on the server?

It depends. On some maps I have the same role, on some it's a bit different. But I think overall, I will probably be more active sometimes, I will just fight a bit more. We'll see how it goes.

You say you're going to fight a bit more. Is that maybe something you missed in Vitality? You wanted a change, so was that something you wanted to achieve in your new team?

Yeah, definitely. In Vitality, I was the main lurker, I would say. Now, sometimes I am the lurker, sometimes the second lurker. But Jimpphat is still the main lurker in the team, so it helps me in some maps to not just lurk and do this job.

Do you think this new role, being a bit more active, will help you have more impact? Be even better than you were in the previous years?

I don't know if I will be better than previous years. But for me, I think I can help the team more in this role. So far, in practice, it was okay, but of course, practice is really different than officials. Especially when you're lurking, it's a bit easier because you don't have that many moves to make.

But when you're active and you do take some control in officials, I think it's really different because you're probably a bit more scared. So we'll see how it goes, we only played one official, and in practice so far it's been pretty good. But I want to see how it goes in these key games and these key moments, to see myself still go for it and trust my feeling, even if it's 12-11 or whatever.

Another new thing in MOUZ is Brollan taking over IGLing. It's a new role for him, and you probably didn't have that many games and practices with him. But how do you say he has adapted to the role?

When I joined, I wasn't sure how it would be because Brollan is IGLing for the first time. And I will say so far in my career, the IGLs I had in my team were pretty experienced, both Snappi and apEX. So it's definitely different. It's really different, actually. But so far he's doing a really good job, and also Sycrone, our coach, is doing a good job with him.

We are trying to help him as well, either having a call on the fly or saying what we see, so we can help him call better. So far he's done a pretty good job, but as I said, it's just one official, so we'll have to see.

I also wanted to talk about last year. You wanted to leave Vitality in the summer break, but you didn't get the move right at that time. Was it maybe hard for you to stay in top shape, stay motivated, and play your best during the second part of the season?

Yeah, last year was a bit weird for me, it had a lot of ups and downs. I think it showed on my skill I would say, that there were a lot of ups and downs. There are reasons, but I don't want to talk about it. I love the guys, they won Katowice, and I'm happy for them. But yeah, I had my reasons, and I thought that for my benefit, it would be better to go somewhere else.

You left Vitality and then you were on the bench for a while. Did you think that you might not get a team for this first part of the season? Because MOUZ made the change pretty late.

Of course there were some talks, and some teams were like maybe we wait for the mid-season, or after the Major or whatever. But I knew it was a possibility when I decided to change, I knew it might be that I would be on the bench for the next season. I might miss a Major or some tournaments, but I still thought it was the right decision, even if I would be on the bench.