Earlier this month, Dan «apEX» Madesclair, the in-game leader of Team Vitality, announced that he was going to take a break from performing. However, he will return to the active roster for the duration of the IEM Katowice tournament. The first match with his participation (Vitality vs OG) took place already this Thursday.
Dan Madeskler was sent to the reserves when Vitality played in the group stage of the BLAST Premier, shortly after the team was defeated by Complexity. The Vitality coach explained that the player needed time to sort out his personal issues. The place of apEX was temporarily taken by Nabil «Nivera» Benrlit. However, the team lost the next match as well. As a result, she ended up in last place in the group and was eliminated from the competition. It will now have to participate in the BLAST Spring Showdown.
When apEX returns to the main roster, Nivera is expected to continue in the same role he has been in for the past three months: he usually takes the place of one of the team members when Dust2, Nuke, or Inferno are to be played. Having returned to the original squad, Vitality hope to show better results in Katowice than in previous tournaments and to prove themselves successfully at least in the group stage.