apEX on the match against Team Spirit at the 2026 Esports World Cup in CS2: “I didn’t prove myself to be a good IGL.”
Team Vitality captain Dan “apEX” Madeskler, in an interview at the 2026 CS2 Esports World Cup, discussed his own mistakes in the match against Team Spirit and offered his thoughts on what needs to be done in the future to make his team stronger.
On his own mistakes
I didn’t prove myself to be a good IGL in this match, and I also played terribly as an individual, so that’s disappointing. I’ve been doing everything I could over the past few weeks and months.
On temporary substitutions on the team
It was important for us to play well here, since we wanted to put on a good show for the French audience. This was the last tournament before mezii’s temporary absence. Yes, it’ll be a little strange to play with an incomplete roster featuring jL, but we need to put the last two unsuccessful months behind us. That’s how CS works—we need to get better.
On the match against Team Spirit
We played poorly today, while they played well—that’s just how competition goes. That’s how it works in CS: if you perform worse than your opponent, they usually win. And that’s exactly what happened today.
In the quarterfinals of the 2026 Esports World Cup for Counter-Strike 2, Team Spirit proved stronger than Team Vitality. Boris “magixx” Vorobyov’s team won on Anubis (13–11) but lost on Nuke (14–16). The outcome of the series was decided on Mirage, where the “Dragons” crushed their opponents 13–3. The “Bees” exited the tournament in 5th–8th place, earning $60,000.
Photo by Stephanie Lindgren, BLAST.
