apEX on La Pause podcast: "Stewie2K is not made to be a captain"

On the French show "La Pause" hosted by Sebastien "KRL" Perez, Vitality frontman Dan "apEX" Madesclaire joined G2 coach Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam and François "Cnd" Balembois to discuss a variety of topics, including the emergence of Evil Geniuses as a fifteen player roster. While the show was in French, Dust2.us reached out to Guillaume "neL" Rathier to provide an accurate translation after several tweets of the show emerged on Twitter.

The topic of Evil Geniuses has certainly captured the attention of the CS:GO world with their ambitious 15-man roster, that would compete in several events, often simultaneously. XTQZZZ remarked "Evil Geniuses is trying to help the NA scene, because we need the NA scene. Now, what is their plan? I don't know. They didn't really say what they wanted to do. I hope it's not just for the buzz, and that there's something serious behind it."

While it is understandable to be critical of such an unorthodox project, Evil Geniuses has expanded their support for North American CS:GO, sweeping aside rumors from last summer that they would be exiting the title. In a recent public Q&A, the organization reiterated that the project was to better develop the younger talent within the scene, as well as offer opportunities they would not normally receive. Regarding Jake "Stewie2K" Yip, apEX and XTQZZZ had this to say:

Cnd: "We feel that there is a problem with Stewie2K and that [the coaching staff and team] don't match."

apEX: "From good sources, yeah that's for sure."

XTQZZZ: "We have to think that for some clubs today, they work like it's five or six years ago. The player's POV is more important than the staff's."

apEX: "And Stewie2K, he earns twice as much as me... just to let you know."

XTQZZZ: "Yeah, some clubs will listen to the players because they won a Major. But they forget that a player will always think about himself first while staff think about the team."

For context regarding apEX's comments on Stewie2K's salary, in a recent 1pv interview he stated that he earns approximately €20,000 a month from Vitality. Given the assumption by apEX, it shows that Evil Geniuses has laid out a pretty penny for their main team. However, apEX had some harsher comments for the American IGL later on in the interview. As translated by neL:

apEX: "From what I heard, the NA mentality is special. I think that Stewie2K is not made to be a captain, that's for sure. And he doesn't understand it, and Evil Geniuses don't either. It's a mess..."

XTQZZZ: "But that's on the club, not the players."

apEX: "Oh, yeah."

Based on these comments, it appears that apEX and XTQZZZ share skepticism toward the project. For now, only time will tell how the experimental 15-man roster will pan out. apEX will be back in action in a matter of days, as Vitality is set to tussle with G2 at the BLAST Premier Spring Final on June 15th at 08:00PM.