Team Vitality Officially Sign Spinx

Team Vitality have finalized the long-rumored signing of Lotan “Spinx” Giladi, who joined the French esports organization on Monday, August 15. Spinx joins the team as a replacement for Kevin “misutaaa” Rabier and finalizes Vitality’s CS:GO roster ahead of the next season.

Team Vitality officially announced Spinx’s signing on Monday, who will join the team’s active roster immediately. The 21-year-old Israeli Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player joins Vitality from ENCE following weeks of rumors of speculations on whether the move will actually happen.

Former ENCE player has been acquired to replace misutaaa, who was benched from the team on August 8 and has since joined Team Falcons, where he’ll play in an all-French team.

“A new adventure begins… We are delighted to welcome Spinx to the Vitality CS:GO team,” read the announcement.

“Welcome to the hive; we look forward to seeing you and your new teammates in action on the server during the BLAST.”

While expected, the move is a big deal in the CS:GO scene, as it sees one of the hottest prospects in the scene move homes and join the struggling Vitality squad.

Spinx joining Vitality also means that the esports organization now no longer fields a majority French roster as Dan “apEX” Madesclaire and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut remain the only two French players on the team.

Spinx arrives at Vitality with a huge weight on his shoulders as one of the top players in the scene who has made a name for himself at ENCE. The Israeli CS:GO pro had a slow start to his professional career, which began in 2019, but he has found his stride across the last year.

The 21-year-old began his CS:GO career at NOM-Gaming, before joining Tikitakan and C0ntact Gaming, which he was a part of between August 2020 to January 2021, when he joined ENCE. Although he has achieved plenty of success at c0ntact Gaming, Spinx truly came into his own at ENCE.

In his stint with ENCE, Spinx powered the team to numerous impressive tournament runs. In 2021, he helped ENCE win Funspark ULTI 2021: European Playoffs #1 and finish runner-up at Malta Vibes Knockout Series #1 before adding another silver medal from Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Fall: Europe.

Towards the end of the year, Spinx also led ENCE to PGL Major Stockholm 2021, but unfortunately, the team didn’t make it far, crashing out in 15th-16th place. But things turned for the better in 2022.

ENCE kicked off 2022 with a runner-up finish at Pinnacle Winter Series #2. Then, after a failed run at IEM Katowice, ENCE found their stride, making semifinals at Elisa Invitational Winter 2021, winning Fantasyexpo EU Champions: Spring 2022, and reaching another final at ESL Pro League Season 15.

Since then, ENCE won BLAST Premier: Spring European Showdown 2022 and reached the semifinals of PGL Major Antwerp 2022 before putting together a streak of solid but somewhat underwhelming showings. They finished top-six at BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022, top-eight at Roobet Cup, and 13th-16th at IEM Cologne.

Much of ENCE’s success over the year was due to Spins, who has averaged a 1.17 performance rating on LAN across the eight months.

By signing Spinx, Vitality now fields a much different roster than the one the organization had heading into 2022. Since moving to an international squad at the start of the year, Vitality have struggled to achieve much success, failing to make a splash in any of the big events.

Still, with the recent addition, the spirits are high in Vitality camp, which is now getting ready for BLAST Premier Fall Groups, where the French organization will debut its new lineup. BLAST Premier Fall Groups kicks off on august 19, with Vitality’s opening game slated for 13:00 CEST when they face OG.