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Drawing the Curtains on Vitality

The crowd erupts with deafening applause, as the lights dim and curtains draw on a beautiful dance of death.... | 24. December 2021

The crowd erupts with deafening applause, as the lights dim and curtains draw on a beautiful dance of death. Team Vitality, as we know it, is coming to an end. The heart and soul of the team is being replaced, breaking a strong bond that had lasted for years.

The current Vitality squad is made of apeX, shox, zywOo, misutaa, Kyojin, and their coach, XTQZZZ. apeX has been on this team since early 2018, almost 4 years. Vitality’s coach, XTQZZZ, joined the French side in December 2018. He skillfully built this team, turning an entry-fragging apeX into a genius IGL. Their biggest X-Factor, zywOo, joined in late 2018 and shox in late 2019.

Team Vitality is splitting up

The core of apeX, XTQZZZ, and zywOo created a dynamic trio. In literally their first year together, they reached four S-Tier Grand Finals. Their performances helped the young zywOo win Player Of The Year Award in his very first year of top tier CS. With shox being integrated soon, Team Vitality cemented themselves as the best French team in the world, alongside G2.

And as their French brotherhood heroically clinched third place in the World Finals, the ever-emotional apeX couldn’t help but weep, as Vitality quit the tournament after a loss to NaVi.

shox and Kyojin are leaving the team, with “shox to Liquid” rumours flying sky high right now. Liquid themselves are disbanding, and still managed to place 4th in the Global Finals. Kyojin’s plans are unknown currently. But the most important departure is of the backbone of this team, their coach XTQZZZ. His move to G2 is being speculated, as G2’s ex-coach maleK quit the team after the Major.

As mentioned, Team Liquid are splitting up as well. But Vitality and Liquid are polar opposites. Team Liquid are disbanding due to internal friction, as the unstable stars couldn’t align well enough for a bright, beautiful constellation. They never really glued together well under FalleN, leading to their downfall. Vitality on the other hand was a strongly cohered unit, feeding off of each other to reach godly heights. The blood of this team runs deeper, as apeX revealed that when he was 17-years-old, he met a 9-year-old zywOo in a random French tournament. Chilling.

The end of a dynasty

With this team falls a long-standing dynasty. The French scene has been one of the most stubborn scenes since the dawn of CS. Teams like LDLC and EnVyUs have inscribed their name in gold in CS:GO history, with icons like kennyS, shox, Happy, Kioshima, apeX, etc. rising through dust every other generation.

But with G2 relying on Bosnian brothers and flirting with Aleksib, Vitality was the only true French team out and out. That ends with this change. With the anticipated arrival of Danish trio dupreeh, Magisk and zonic, the final pure French team dissolves.

But the memories stay. The nostalgic reminiscence of the gold of bygone times will run through the veins of every single person involved in this team, from players to fans. Tomorrow is a new day. A slit for a newer, brighter light. The turning of a page, refilling of a pen, italicised words to start a new life.