jL on his temporary stint with Team Vitality: “It was a collective decision by the team.”

It was a collective decision by the team to bring me in as a stand-in. I’ll be playing as a substitute in two tournaments, not just one. That means they value me. But on the other hand, who could be a better fit than me? Free agents or players on the bench? I don’t think it’s easy to find a better option.

I’ve been following the training process for four days now. First of all, I want to say that I don’t plan to copy apEX’s or mezii’s style. I aim to fill in for them and help the team, while still staying true to myself. Of course, there are key roles I’m responsible for—flash plays, smokes, everything needed to play for Team Vitality. I’ll definitely be learning all of that.

I don’t think age correlates with performance in any way, but when you started playing professionally—yes, it does. Take donk, for example, who started at 16; he’ll start to feel his performance decline at 26. On the other hand, for a player who started at 22, that decline will happen at 32. You play for those 10 years, observe a lot in the game, and then your body can no longer adapt the way it used to. But it’s not about reaction time at all. If we’re talking about apEX, he’s been playing for—I don’t even know how long. However, his reaction time isn’t any worse than the average pro player’s. It’s just that he’s been in this field for so long that his performance isn’t as good as it used to be.