by in
After their first six months as an international squad failed to show positive results, Team Vitality are reportedly looking at changing up their Counter Strike: Global Offensive roster. Although nothing has been made certain at the moment, Logan “Spinx” Giladi of ENCE has been touted as a likely replacement for Kevin “misutaaa” Rabier in the roster.
At the moment, Vitality are reviewing feasible options in the transfer market, and Spinx is among their top choices. However, with some potential roadblocks to navigate, the European organization is looking at other alternatives to fill up the soon-to-be vacant spot.
Since the beginning of the year, when Vitality made the switch to having an English-speaking international roster, the team has had a lot of trouble advancing far in events. With the signings of Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Danny “zonic” Srensen, there was anticipation that Vitality would have better success than they have had in the past. However, there was no expectation that they would win any titles right away.
At the beginning of the year, Vitality made their mark at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups. However, the team struggled at the IEM Katowice, ESL Pro League Season 15, PGL Major Antwerp, and IEM Dallas tournaments, as they were eliminated in the group stage of all four competitions. Their only other appearance in the playoffs was at the BLAST Premier Spring Final, where they finished in second place. However, they were eliminated in the group stage of the following tournament, the International Esports Championship in Cologne, marking a disappointing conclusion to the first half of the season for the international roster.
HLTV revealed that Spinx averaged a rating of 1.17 on LAN from the start of the year till now. The 21-year-old’s outstanding performance has piqued interest in the last six months and earned him the spot as one of the top players in the world right now. His contribution enabled ENCE to briefly rise to the position of No.2 among the top five solid CS:GO teams.
The player first made a name for himself in his time with c0ntact Gaming before moving to ENCE with IGL Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer in early 2021. In March this year, Spinx reportedly extended his contract with the organization until 2023. Due to this, Vitality will have to resort to parting with a substantial sum to have the Israeli rifler on their team.
If Vitality replace misutaaa, the organization will move even further away from the French CS:GO scene. Since the team’s roster changed to an international structure, misutaaa has noticeably struggled to keep up with his strong performances of the previous year.
Despite his attempts, the Frenchman’s LAN rating dropped from 1.01 last year to the current 0.93. Due to the improvements in the French scene, it is not entirely certain where the player would move on to after being unseated. However, with Kenny “kennyS” Schrub’s move to VALORANT not succeeding, a French Last Dance roster might be in the works.
The decision to keep only Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, and misutaaa as part of the team for the 2022 season was made because of Vitality’s decision to sign on the previous Astralis group, Magisk, dupreeh and zonic.
After moving to the English-speaking international roster this year, Vitality faced some challenges which they are still struggling to overcome – one of which is the difference in languages. No player on the team had a prior background with English commands, especially during the topmost competition level.
While the organization is still one of the world’s top teams, they still have a long way to go in meeting the standards of other international teams. The players, as well as the staff, have publicly mentioned the several difficulties encountered by the group, including communication and difficulty fusing the differing styles of the Danish and French players.
