ALEX splits from Vitality ahead of ESL Pro League Season 11

Team Vitality and  Alex “ALEX” McMeekin have officially parted ways. Both the team and the player have issued statements confirming the split.

In a post on Twitlonger, ALEX cited the exhaustive travel and intense schedule of competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as the reason for the split.

Team Vitality officially announced the news today on the team’s official Twitter account, confirming yesterday’s rumors that ALEX had left the team. Vitality took the time to praise ALEX for his leadership during his run on the roster.

Note: The statement below has been trimmed from its original length.

Interestingly, it doesn’t look as though ALEX will stick around and sub in for the team during the transition, leaving Vitality without a fifth player shortly before ESL Pro League Season 11’s start on March 16. 

ALEX explained his personal reasons for leaving the team. He specifically mentions that the new ESL Pro League and BLAST schedules increased the number of days he would need to spend on the road, dooming what seems to have been an agreement between himself and Vitality that the in-game leader would be able to spend more time at home.

“Last year [Vitality] traveled 36 weeks of the year. By July, I was struggling to keep up with the intense traveling schedule…However the accelerated professionalization of the CS:GO scene, through the ESL Pro Tour and Blast Premier, changed the ecosystem and we could no longer get down to anywhere near the amount of weeks discussed earlier,” said  ALEX.

Vitality down to four players before ESL Pro League Season 11

It’s a sad parting for both ALEX and Team Vitality. The last 12 months have been wild for the team, with Vitality making a case for elite status in the first half of 2019 before tumbling down the rankings into 2020. That said, the team’s performance at BLAST Premier Spring Series suggested that Vitality was ready to turn things around.

Vitality managed to take Vertigo to overtime against Astralis and pick up a map against eventual tournament winners FaZe Clan, showing that there was still a hope that Vitality could grow into a top-five contender.

ALEX continued his goodbye by thanking Vitality and its staff for their support. As of now, it doesn’t seem as though ALEX is considering other options in CSGO. 

“The last part of this is just a massive thank you to Vitality…I have nothing but love for this organization and I wish them the best going forward,” said ALEX.

If the travel schedule for Vitality was too much for ALEX, it’s unlikely that he will find a better situation with another team close to home. Most high-end teams are already heavily committed to either ESL Pro League or Flashpoint, two major LAN events that would require ALEX to relocate completely or spend an extensive amount of time on the road. 

ALEX spent just over a year with Team Vitality before his departure.