Team Vitality in-game leader Dan “apEX” Madesclaire spoke candidly in a pre BLAST Open Fall 2025 interview with James Banks for BLAST, admitting that the team has been going through a difficult stretch since their dominant first half of the year.

Well, obviously, when you do the season we did in the first part, it's never easy. Mostly because I knew that if we went down, since at some point you can't go up, it would be more painful than usual. And that is for now.
Since the beginning of the season, we don't play the way we want. We are not winning tournaments, we are not playing well. So overall, it's just a bit frustrating. But that's competition. You need to accept that and move on. And that's what we're trying to do all together.
Dan “apEX” Madesclaire

From golden run to sudden decline
The first half of 2025 was nothing short of historic for Vitality . The team won nearly every major event on the calendar:

Titles at IEM Katowice 2025, ESL Pro League Season 21, and BLAST Open Spring 2025 set the tone.
They followed it up with victories at IEM Melbourne, BLAST Rivals Spring, and IEM Dallas.
The crown jewel was the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, where Vitality secured the $500,000 prize and also completed the Intel Grand Slam Season 5, adding another $1,000,000 to their earnings.

But after that peak, results have dipped noticeably:

IEM Cologne 2025: eliminated in the semifinals (0:2).
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025: another semifinal exit (0:2).
Esports World Cup 2025: finished 4th after a narrow 1:2 loss in the final bracket, settling for $70,000.
What went wrong?
Analysts point to the classic “post-Major slump”: after such a dominant run, Vitality look less sharp in key series and struggle to close out high-pressure matches.

While ZywOo and ropz remains a consistent superstars, they individual brilliance hasn’t been enough. flameZ and mezii have shown inconsistency, and apEX has not always been able to deliver in crucial moments. apEX himself notes that the biggest issue right now is mentality and confidence, both of which carried them through finals earlier in the year but now appear shaken.

Looking ahead
Despite recent setbacks, Vitality are still firmly among the world’s elite. The next test comes at the BLAST Open Fall 2025 and ESL Pro League Season 22, where apEX and his squad will attempt to bounce back and remind fans of their championship pedigree.