ropz: "apEX's calling is great, he's reading the enemies well"

Vitality's latest addition credits apEX for helping him hit his peak form.

Vitality have followed up their IEM Katowice victory with another grand finals appearance, enjoying a dominant run through ESL Pro League that has seen them run their recent win-streak up to ten series.

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Vitality best The MongolZ to set up MOUZ clash

The current domination of Vitality is multi-faceted; their map pool is strong, every player is in prime form, and both sides of the map are treating them well. "It does feel like we are a bit ahead of the rest of the pack," Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool admits following a win over The MongolZ that secured a spot in the final in Stockholm.

ropz sat down with HLTV after said victory over The MongolZ to talk about the series, compare the calling of Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, and discuss why Vitality are so dominant right now.

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Congratulations, how are you feeling?

Feeling good. It was a bit shaky coming off of Nuke, I think winning Anubis with some dominance was something fresh for us, maybe we didn't really expect it. We knew The MongolZ, we watched the game yesterday against NAVI, and man, they were hitting some shots there (laughs). Coming into this match we were expecting that as well.

We got a good start on Anubis, but we had some small incoordination, not being on the same page on Nuke, so I think that's where it kinda crumbled. Definitely mistakes from our side there. We just reset, even if we have apEX, the guy who gets pretty loud and emotional, we can still reset. I think it speaks volumes about this team.

Were you surprised a little bit by the Anubis pick? They didn't go for comfort, they went for a punish pick.

Yes, I think we were surprised a bit. We were definitely expecting Mirage, because it was similar to the veto last time we met them in Kato. The thing was that I didn't really feel like they had much stuff prepared for Anubis. At the end of the day, if you go against Vitality, Anubis is our worst map, so it's a fair try to give it a chance and try to punish pick it. We try our best and still do work on the map, we see it as an issue, so we do a lot of work on that map.

What did you say after Nuke to try and reset? What was the discussion like when you went outside?

After Nuke, the energy was there, the individuals had good comms in terms of people speaking and giving initiative, but we just weren't connecting together. We had some rounds where we were just a bit uncoordinated, I feel like we did some decisions on one part of the map, but then the other side of the map wasn't really connecting. Everyone's saying something but not really playing as a team. I guess that was the main thing we talked about, and if we went into Inferno paying attention to that a bit, it was going to go well.

MOUZ tomorrow, how are you feeling about that matchup?

For Vitality, obviously their ex-player is playing in MOUZ, so it's going to be a bit personal to beat him. For me as well, having been there for some years of my career, it's definitely always fun to get revenge against your old team (laughs) so I'm looking forward to that. They beat Spirit, obviously they won PGL as well, a bit of a good showing, and they deserve this spot in the grand final. Spirit are the main team we were potentially going to face in this tournament, and they were beat by MOUZ. We're looking forward to it.

They have something personal as well I think, we beat them earlier in this tournament so it's going to be a rematch, I think it's going to be good. It's a best-of-five, so it's going to be a long one.

Now you've had a few months to settle into Vitality, how are you feeling?

Individually I feel great, and I think the games are showing it, I'm just playing good. Everyone is gelling good, I've said over and over again that the chemistry is great. Individuals are playing well, we are peaking in terms of individual excellence; today flameZ showed an insane game, so anyone can do it. It's going to be mostly ZywOo, but most of us can also take the handle. apEX also I think is playing out of his mind lately, the way he played in Katowice. So in that sense, it's really good.

I read some comments back then [when I joined], 'okay how is ropz going to play, he's only played with karrigan most of his career', but I think the thing most people don't realize is I've almost been a pro for a decade, eight years by now. I've also played with many iterations of different lineups, even if it was MOUZ or FaZe, I've had a lot of experience of how to deal with different personalities and cultures. Even if I do end up playing with a different IGL, I think it's something I'll figure out, by now I've had a lot of experience.

As you say, your individual form has been really good. Why do you think that is?

One for sure part of it is that we're just winning (laughs). If you're team is doing good, it allows you to shine. It's something we struggled with in FaZe for a long time, which was my fault, and everyone else's fault. In that iteration of the lineup, it's tough if you're having to lose against top teams every time that you meet them. For now, we're dominating a lot.

I think apEX's calling is also really great, he's reading really good into the enemies. It's something that's a bit different with karrigan, apEX really pays attention and really tries to, every round he already has a read in his mind about what's going to happen, and it's working really well for us.

Vitality are very good right now, it looks like you are at least a step ahead of the rest of the teams. Does it feel like that to you, and how long do you think it can continue? Can Vitality go on to make this their year?

It does feel like we are a bit ahead of the rest of the pack. Still I would put Spirit alongside us, they won the first BLAST tournament this year. In general the best teams right now have a superstar, we have ZywOo, Spirit have donk, G2 have m0NESY, but they are struggling a bit with the rest of the players. It's just necessary to have that calibre of player to really compete for the title every single tournament, otherwise yeah, you can try to rely on teamplay and try to shut down the carries.

I watched the HLTV Confirmed a few days ago, and I agree with dupreeh, that CS is really individual in terms of skill, but also taking decisions and reading into the game. You need to have five really good players, in every role, and I think that's why us and Spirit are ahead of everyone else.