Spinx: "apEX's emotions can be good, it can be a bit bad sometimes, but it's part of the package"

Vitality ended the group stage of IEM Dallas on a sour note, losing to heavy underdogs 9z, but started the playoffs on the right foot, crushing HEROIC without batting an eye. That victory sets up a long-awaited matchup, Vitality versus Spirit, two teams who have somehow avoided one another in every tournament this year.

After the quarterfinal, Dust2.us Daniel "Scoobster" Khurgin spoke with Lotan "Spinx" Giladi about Vitality's dominant performance against HEROIC, apEX's performance and temperament, and the upcoming semifinal match versus Spirit.

You just qualified for the semifinals by absolutely destroying HEROIC. How did that happen?

On Nuke, we had our superstar apEX. He played really good, he had a really great game. I think on Dust2, we were all performing really good and we just ran over them.

You said apEX had a superstar game, how does something like that happen?

I don't know how it happened, I just want it to happen more often! But, yeah. I think it can happen to anyone on our team. We have five good players and even apEX can pop off. It feels nice to experience it.

During the group the stage, he had some incendiary moments, maybe a bit too emotional. Is that just what happens with apEX, you take the good with the bad?

Yeah, apEX is a really emotional guy in-game. It can be good, it can be a bit bad sometimes, but it's part of the package. We accept it. Sometimes it can be a bit bad but in the big picture its good. We need this in our team. Four of us have few emotions, and I think its good for us.

Talking about that group stage, in that seeding match, you guys were defeated by 9z, the lowest ranked team of the event. How does something like that happen? Was it poor preparation?

I don't know if it was bad preparation. I think it was a bad day from us overall. I think all five, we just didn't play that good. But at the same time, they played really good CS. I have to give props to them. I think it was a combination of us not having a good day and them having a really good day.

Your semifinal game is against Spirit. This is Vitality's first match against Spirit with donk, what do you expect?

I'm coming into this game hoping to enjoy it. I think it's going to be a really good game for us and for everyone. I've been looking forward to it. I think its one of the games you just enjoy to play and enjoy to watch.

They also have a superstar AWPer in sh1ro. That means you'd be donk's counterpart in the server. Are you excited? Afraid, maybe?

Nah. I think when you are in the game, when you are 1v1 against someone, you don't really know if it's against so-and-so. I don't think it's ZywOo against sh1ro, me against donk, I think it's Team Vitality versus Spirit. We'll see tomorrow who is the better one for now.

apEX said after the ESL Pro League grand final, that was some of the worst Counter-Strike you've played in ages. Do you feel better in this event then you did back then?

Yeah, it's not like we had a bad tournament. It was a shit day. It was a really bad day in terms of Counter-Strike, and shit days can happen. You want to avoid it, especially in a grand final game, but it did happen. It's in the past now and we just use this experience to learn from it and make sure we do our best so it doesn't happen again.

On some of your inconsistency, you guys have had a bumpy half of the year, is that something you're working on, is there some big picture scheme to get out of this inconsistency?

Well first of all, I think since the start of the year, we fucked up Katowice, of course. We bombed out. But otherwise we were pretty okay. There were some games here and there that we should have won and we didn't, but I think if you look at the big picture of the year, we didn't lift a trophy yet, but I think we were contenders every tournament besides Katowice. We are still up there.