"Even in Astralis, there were times when we didn’t understand each other." Magisk and ApEX talk about Vitality growth and communication in chaos Interview

Vitality IGL Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, assisted by Emil "Magisk" Reif, spoke about finding a balance between preparation and personal initiative in their mixed roster. As a member of CSPPA, he also explained what went wrong with moving summer break. The discussion happened at IEM Cologne 2022 press conference.

It was quite hard for us to find the right balance. In the Astralis roster, they had more planned games, everything was set up in some ways. For us in Vitality, it was both playing on my calls on the fly and intuition, but also structured. But nowadays the sure thing is that a lot of teams prepare [for you]. So playing only on your preparation is not easy, and you need to adapt during the game. Just work on that together.

Also, Magisk and Dupreeh learned how I call to feel better individually and what to do in a particular round. Because what's in this round has nothing to do with what you prepared. The only right thing is what you do at the moment. I think, with more time, they adapt to my calling. Now it’s just getting better, so we can play both ways.

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ApEX on M4A1-s nerf

The problem with the silencer was most likely that people could play aggressively without much team play and do triple kills. Now, with 20 bullets, it’s gonna be harder. Three kills in a row with the silencer is now a sick round. It's going to be good for team play than the individual. People will have to do one kill and go away, not just spraying everywhere. Because the M4A1-s recoil is really easy to master. So people can just do easy kills without being super good. So now it will be more balanced, but we need to see more of it because we haven’t played any tournament with this silencer yet. Let’s see how it goes.

Magisk on developing "perfect" communication

I don’t think any team in the world will ever have perfect communication. I don’t think it’s possible. Doesn’t matter if you speak your native language or international. Even in Astralis there were times when we didn’t understand each other. When you speak in your native language, you also misunderstand people anyway. There’s no such thing as perfect communication. But there’s something called good communication. Obviously, it takes time. We’re all trying this kinda for the first time. I tried one time playing international, but everyone else is new to this. I mean, there’s no timeline. I can’t sit here and say, in a few months it’s gonna be good communication. It might take six months, or two, or one year. That’s how it is.

We still have struggles communicating when it’s chaotic. The most difficult about this issue is that you can’t practice it outside of the server. Because chaotic situations are not something you can replicate in practice. You can’t just go in and practice them. I think that is what’s most difficult about it and why it takes time. You have to be at LAN tournaments where you get this atmosphere, the feeling, and the pressure. That’s what makes it chaotic.

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ApEX commented on CSPPA moving player break earlier and the community outrage

Both [sides] have been handling this pretty badly. We have a group on WhatsApp where we normally have all the players. And we asked this question, but unfortunately, it’s really hard to reach the players. What happened is that the people who are in charge of the CSPPA decided that if it’s silence, it’s a "Yes." Four people answered "Yes," and the rest were silent.

It’s such a big problem, a big concern for everyone. It shouldn’t be handled like that. They should be re-asking again, doing a vote, or whatever. And I think it’s been handled really badly in that way.

ApEX explained he was joking about retiring if YEKINDAR ever joins Vitality

I said that I would retire but that was the joke, obviously. I would never do that. I just said that I’m not a fan of the guy. I think he’s a really good, talented player. But I don’t like the way he sees CS. <...> He is really super-talented, last year he was the 8th player in the world. For sure, he’s such a good player but I don’t think he would fit my style or our team.

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