jL x Stake Interview - Exclusive Team Vitality CS2 Insights

jL: If I were Vitality, I'd go for myself as well, why I'll be only the second player ever to team with both s1mple and ZywOo & how the one condition for my return to pro CS was always joining Vitality

Speaking to Stake in this exclusive interview, major winner jL opened up about his return to professional Counter-Strike as a stand-in for Team Vitality, stepping in for both mezii and apEX after more than a year away from the server.

In this exclusive interview, the former Na'Vi star also shared what he learned about himself during his break from competitive CS2, the mountain of utility he has to master before BLAST, and why he believes a honeymoon-period trophy is a genuine possibility.

Read on to see what jL had to say, and you might just find some unique insights before placing your esports bets here at Stake Sportsbook!

When you announced your break, you said that being the best in Counter Strike requires sacrifices you didn't feel you could make anymore. Now you're joining arguably the greatest team Counter Strike has ever seen. What does what you said before mean to you today?

It still means the same, I’m still standing by it. With joining Vitality, I'm willing to sacrifice a lot and to help the team win, just to see what life on the other side is because I've been inactive for over a year now and I've missed the game a lot.

I might have made it sound like I didn't like pro life, but I do like pro, it's just that I wanted toexperience something else as well. Now that I've experienced it, I can calmly come back into the game and just focus 100%. So, I mean, I'll sacrifice a lot, but I'm used to it, so it's fine.

And why do you think Vitality chose you for the role?

I'm experienced. I've won the major, I’ve won multiple tournaments, and I'm experienced. I bring positivity to the team and I think that's the main reason.

Vitality had academy players they could go for, but VRS is very important, and I'm pretty sure there is not a better stand-in at the moment than me. So if I were Vitality, I'd go for myself as well.

What have these first few weeks with Vitality been like? What has stood out to you the most about how this group works behind the scenes?

They have very good chemistry inside the server. They communicate well. I'd say they have really good chemistry and it didn't surprise me. When you're the best team in the world, you must have good communication, good team play, good understanding of the game, and that's what they have.

I feel like they play really well when they're at a disadvantage and are also really good at an advantage. For the past week or eight days, I've been watching them play. I've been trying to get around how they communicate, how they play, how they act, and I try my best to study them. But I've only played one game with them, we'll have a practice day on August 26th because our first game at BLAST is on 27th. So we'll see how it goes there.

Watching the game from home, do you have access to any kind of special communication where you can see how they communicate at EWC or do you only get comms later on a VOD?

I can get comms later for sure, if I ask, I imagine I’ll probably get them. It’s actually not a bad idea, I’m definitely going to ask them for voice comms. I'm going to listen to it a little bit whilst syncing it to the game, that makes sense.

Talking about mezii, he plays a role that he's described as the hardest on the team. What have you learned about the role whilst watching him or since joining Vitality. What do you think will be the biggest challenge for you to step in for him?

Utility. Utility is the biggest challenge. I have a list of smokes I have to learn before I go to BLAST and I'm going to start today in the evening and then practice them throughout the week.

The amount of utility that I have to throw on all the maps is crazy. Me being an aggressive lurker, I never had to do utility. Or maybe it's early utility, like mid smoke, insta window, and you're good to go. You don't have utility anymore. But now I'm gonna have to support and play the late round. So, we'll see how it goes.

I feel like it's an interesting role on T-side and CT-side. He has some rotation roles which I love and we'll see how it goes. I feel like I should perform well in those roles.

And when you look at Apex as a player, what stands out to you about his gameplay? And which parts of his game do you feel are the hardest to replicate?

Probably going for the crazy plays, but I don't think you have to replicate them. I don't think you do. I mean, yes, sometimes he goes in and dies, but sometimes he goes in and kills two or gets a lot of space for his team. But I don't think I will be copying Apex one to one when I'm going to be replacing him, because it is a very hard role. He's playing a lot of space-taking and I'm not a space taker. I'm a lurker. I can be a support player, but for sure not a space taker.

Can you tell me a bit more about how being a stand-in for two players would work? Like you said you probably can't do exactly what mezii does or exactly what Apex does. So when you stand in, does everyone then have to adapt to you? What kind of Vitality team can fans expect?

I don't think they should change roles. I'll try to slot in as easy as possible. I mean in other words, I'll just see what the team needs and try to provide that.

But then again, I cannot be a one-to-one replacement for a player. So, of course, the players will have to adjust to me a little bit because it is impossible. It's going to be a change for everyone. They've been playing together for such a long time and me coming in, it's a different voice. It's the way I speak, the way I communicate. It's going to be different to the player that they're used to. So, obviously, they're going to have to make an adjustment.

After your break, you mentioned in another interview that there was one condition that would bring you back to professional counter strike, but you didn't want to reveal it at the time. Can you tell us what condition it was if you still remember it? And what about this opportunity probably fulfilled it?

Wait, this was from a very long time ago. The condition was joining Vitality!

I guess that's fulfilled then.

I mean, joining as a stand-in is different. Yes, I'm proud of being a stand-in for Vitality but this is not permanent. I cannot be treated as a Vitality player because being a Vitality player is prestigious. It is honorable. Being a standin is: you're the best that they could get, so I don't know…

Why do you think that?

Because a stand in, it's not part of the team if you know what I mean. I'm just there to fill someone's shoes in a way.

Got it. Considering you're still a stand-in, what would make this period for you a success personally? What has to happen for you to say, "Okay, this was a great period as a stand-in for me.”

Best-case scenario, we win a tournament. To be honest, the realest chance of winning a tournament would probably be, for us… It might be a little bit crazy to say, but BLAST Open. Because we have Apex as the in-game leader, and we have me. And sometimes you hit a honeymoon. So probably the BLAST Open is our best chance to win a tournament.

PGL Bucharest could also be a tournament that we can win because it's mezii calling the plays, and we've had practice with mezii. Because right now, we're going to go into BLAST Open with one day of practice, but in PGL Bucharest we're going to have weeks of practice.

There's a chance we can win both tournaments, but of course the cards need to go our way and we need to hit our shots. We need to play well together. So, winning a tournament would be a success and also not dropping a negative rating throughout the whole stand-in period would also be a win for me.

Right now you see this opportunity as a stand-in on Vitality so that you can go back to professional Counter-Strike, right? It's not like you're helping Vitality or doing a one time thing and then you take another break or something. You're back for good, or at least that's the intention?

Yes, I want to come back into pro 100%. But also, who has the chance to play with ZywOo, ropz, flameZ, mezii, and apEX? Not a lot of people have the chance.

So, I use it as a chance to enjoy my time there and I will be the second player in the world to ever play with s1mple on ZywOo. I'm really curious how ZywOo plays. I'm curious how ropz plays.

And you could say it's a dream come true. Of course, the dream would be playing for Vitality, playing for the team. But right now, I'm happy with the situation that I have because I like to get the most from life and I was just curious how these players play and I get to witness that. So, I'm happy.

Is there another active player you would like to play with in the future that you haven't had a chance to?

Probably NiKo. I've always looked up to him. He has a lot of knowledge about the game. His game sense is good, and he's been calling CT side for most of the teams that he played with. So, I'd like to hear how he does it. I don't even have to play with him. I just want to see the behind the scenes, if you know what I mean.

Vitality recently isn't in as great shape as it was in the amazing runs the team had in the last year or so. How do you think their goals for this next cycle before the major will change with you as a step in? Is there any pressure on you to help them win it all as a stand-in?

Coming into the tournaments, of course there's going to be pressure… if they win EWC and then we're heading to BLAST open and they could say: ‘okay, if they don't win this, this is jL's fault,’ then yeah, of course there's some pressure to that.

But people cannot expect for me to come in and their performance not to drop off because they're changing a crucial part in their team. It's a hard question to answer… but for sure they're looking for the win they're looking to be as high in the Valve rankings as possible because this is a major invite stage three, stage two, stage one, and for sure they're aiming for a trophy with me.

When you stepped away from Na'Vi, you said you weren't happy playing anymore because of your own thoughts and how you felt about the game and yourself. Looking back now, what was really happening mentally for you during that period and what happened that you came out of this way of thinking so that you're ready to compete at the highest level again?

I've lived life. One of the main reasons was I wanted to enjoy life a little bit more. And it's not just taking a vacation, going shopping or doing the fun stuff. I also wanted to do the hard stuff like cook breakfast for myself, cooking lunch for myself and learning how to cook, going to gym, eating healthy. Those are the things that I really wanted to try.

People don't realize a pro sacrifices a lot of his life just to be a pro. And the more you sacrifice, the better you are. And this is with any discipline in life. I just wanted to try the hard stuff like fixing the cupboard and it's just simple things like that, like spending more time with my wife or taking the dog for a walk. It's simple things like that, I just really missed them and now that I got to do them I'm ready to come back to pro. I know it sounds funny, but for me it's very valid.