Dan “apEX” Madesclaire is a legendary figure in Counter-Strike. 20 majors played, 3 time major winner and countless other trophies. At the StarLadder Budapest Major, he aims for one more.
“I want to finish my career with the most majors possible.”
Bouncing back
The Frenchman spoke to pley.gg after their dominant 13-2 win over B8, which puts them in the 2-1 bracket, but the Major didn’t start as planned for Vitality.
A 13-7 loss to FaZe put them in the 0-1 bracket and with best-of-ones in the opening rounds, it was a real possibility that Vitality could go 0-2 and face elimination. But they bounced back and destroyed 3DMAX 13-4.
“I don’t know why, but lately and also at the last Major, we started really rough, really slow, but the most important is the way you react to that.”
“Now we 2-1, the most important thing is to be in 2-1 and not 0-3 or 1-2.”
And react they did. The beatdowns of 3DMAX and B8 have secured Vitality at least two chances of qualifying for the playoffs in Budapest. Their next matches will also be Bo3 and not Bo1 – something apEX is happy about.
“I don’t like best of one. It shouldn’t happen in the best tournament of the year. I think we never play best of one except at majors, which is once again, the most important tournament of the year.”
So if VALVE is reading this, apEX is happy about the Bo5 finals, but would stille like the best-of-ones removed.
“Hopefully they will change it and it’s going to be a lot better for every team with a bit less pressure.”
Reflecting on the win over B8 and moving on at the Major, apEX just wanted consistency from his team.
“I think we played some good counter strike together. I think the team stepped up when they had to and we were good. The plan was good. Hopefully it’s going to keep being like that for the rest of the tournament.”
