Devilwalk on Team Vitality in CS2: “They still have potential, and I still believe in them.”

BanKs: Another important point is the weight of VRS points at this tournament. HLTV doesn’t usually do this. I don’t know if this is the first time this has happened or not, but usually, when an event is this large-scale, HLTV doesn’t cover absolutely every match for VRS points. I’m not sure why they made that decision this time. Perhaps it’s because of how many big-name teams have gathered here. But for comparison, consider the Fragadelphia series tournaments in the U.S.—even though they’re much smaller. There have been many instances where European teams traveled there, and HLTV didn’t cover their early matches at all until the playoffs. Here, however, the site covers absolutely every match, which means they all count toward the VRS, since Valve uses absolutely all the data from this portal for its ranking system. So that’s really cool, man, and insanely important for absolutely every participant.

BanKs: Beijing will be a tough test. It’s going to be a very interesting tournament. As I mentioned earlier, as far as I know, Team Vitality is skipping it. I expect that Natus Vincere or someone else might skip it as well. It all depends on how far the teams advance in that championship. But, obviously, you have to accept the invitation in advance. The main advantage for ESL is that if a team has already skipped one of their events, it can’t do so again, so that helps the organizers. Personally, I probably should have known for sure, but I haven’t been keeping track of who’s skipping what.

Devilwalk: I think this is more of a temporary blip on the radar. I wouldn’t say that if they suddenly fail to win a couple of tournaments or get knocked out in the semifinals, their entire era will immediately come to a halt. I still feel like we’re in the Vitality era. It’s just a minor glitch in the system. And that doesn’t mean at all that other teams can’t win championships during someone else’s era, but I don’t think it’s definitively over or that this team’s time is up. They won’t make ridiculous roster changes or merge with other organizations. They still have potential, and I still believe in them.