apEX on Vitality’s elimination from the IEM Cologne Major 2026: “Sometimes you have to lose to move forward.”
Daria Ushakova
Team Vitality captain Dan “apEX” Madeskler, in an interview at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, criticized his team’s performance in the event’s quarterfinals and shared the team’s future plans.
On Team Vitality’s elimination from the IEM Cologne Major 2026
We really played poorly today. And so, this is the end of our run here. It’s sad because I wanted to win this title, too. But that’s life—sometimes you want too much, and you have to lose sometimes to move forward.
On the team’s future plans
We need to reflect on this loss because, as I said, we played poorly. But this is CS—sometimes pro players perform well and beat us. This is esports—there are winners and losers. Today, we’re the losers. Of course, now we’ll take a break and talk things over to figure out what we can improve to secure future victories. We were lacking a lot in this tournament.
Earlier, Team Vitality lost to Team Falcons in the quarterfinals of the IEM Cologne Major 2026. On the first map, Anubis, Dan “apEX” Madeskler’s team lost 11–13, but took Inferno 13–11. The decisive map, Mirage, went to the “Falcons” — 13–11. Thus, the “Bees” were eliminated from the tournament.
Photo by Stephanie Lindgren, BLAST.
Daria Ushakova
