Vitality came in 2023 with the same ambitions as every year: winning the LEC trophy and carrying Europe to international events. But for the 4th year in a row, the beehive couldn’t make it to any international tournament, meanwhile, the french organization is still awaiting its first trophy. Despite a strong start, VIT looked like a bottom team as soon as summer, how so ?

A very exciting roster, a very promising Winter

Vitality’s 2023 season started almost as strong as expected. Zhou "Bo" Yang-Bo, the highly praised and estimated chinese jungler, led his team to a strong 7-2 record in Winter season, putting them at first after the first set of bo1s.

However, Vitality didn’t manage to surf on this success, as heading into LEC Groups, they quickly got swept by KOI and SK. Most notably, Luka “Perkz” Perković was very much outperformed by the opposition (Larssen and Sertuss). In the end, Vitality could only reach top 5-6 of LEC as of Winter, a very disappointing end of the first split for the roster that finished the season in first place.

Nonetheless, this Winter Split showed that the Vitality roster could - on paper - work, something that was far from certain with the presence of two asian players (Bo and Kyeong "Photon" Gyu-tae) with strong gameplay habits. Norman "Kaiser" Kaiser also showed decent level which was reassuring after a very tough 2022 end for him. All in all, VIT were very much still in the talks for winning the Spring Split.

Keeping up the pace in Spring, until the heartbreak

VIT’s Spring started very similarly as Winter, with a 6-3 record in the Spring season, VIT maintained their bo1 good form. However, since this split was extremely stacked in the top, they would only end up fourth (below, BDS, Astralis and G2). It is to be noted that VIT made the decision to bring Elias “Upset” Lipp instead of Neon in the adc role, as the latter wasn’t performing as highly as wanted.

What differed though is that VIT managed to go through Spring groups with ease, demolishing MAD and Astralis 2-0. VIT didn’t know it yet, but these two bo3 would be the peak of their team. Indeed, in playoffs, disaster struck, Vitality got completely outplayed by BDS in the winners’ finals, and then looked stunned against the surprising MAD.

It is difficult to say exactly what happened, since the downfall of Vitality wasn’t just one missed bo5, it was two consecutive blunders against teams that were in their reach. What was blatant was that the mistakes came at first on the team scale, and in the end, all seemed to lead to one player : Bo. The Chinese Jungler played atrociously against BDS, it was as if he wasn’t in a voice chat with Perkz and Kaiser, something clearly went off in the team chemistry.

Many thought BDS was simply a bad moment, but against MAD, VIT showed that they couldn’t resurface after the defeat. The won game 2 was an oasis in a desert of big macro and micro mistakes. Once again, Bo would seem out of place, while Kaiser and Photon would appear phantomatic.

There isn’t much to say about Summer, the ghost of VITvBDS haunted the men of Perkz. Bringing in young blood Kacper "Daglas" Dagiel made little to no difference. It was clear that Bo wasn’t the only problem, the whole squad was simply malfunctioning, it almost is miraculous that VIT grabbed one win against SK.

Heading in 2024, everything is to be rebuilt

Vitality decided to keep Photon and Daglas in the roster. While Photon’s preservation didn’t surprise many, since the Korean top laner was pivotal in VIT’s successes in the early season, Daglas was a bit more of a surprise as there were potentially a lot of strong junglers on the market. In the end, Vitality stayed true to its values by bringing in 3 high-class player alongside their former topside.

An uncertain structure

Contrary to rosters like KC or MAD which offer a seemingly obvious structure, Vitality has a roster that is harder to predict on the strategic scale. From a player’s perspective, every player has been a strongside carry at one point in their career.

In Winter 2023, Photon was the main player for Vitality, while Neon was heavily weaksided, the former T1.C toplaner benefited from a lot of space and attention from its teammates, especially from Perkz and Kaiser. Overall, he was the second biggest carry of his team with Bo, and when - due to VIT’s struggles - he couldn’t receive as much resources as before, his gameplay would suffer a lot. However, it is tough to say whether this decline is linked with him being more left alone, or him suffering from the team’s absence of chemistry. As Photon’s main strengths were intricately linked with a very good pressure management, it is fair to say that Photon had its fair share of responsibility in his poor end of 2023.

Daglas played 3 games in total in LEC, losing all of them, but it would be extremely dishonest to hold him responsible for this, consequently, it is more suitable to analyse his LFL gameplay. Daglas was the main carry for a very shaky VIT.Bee roster, a role he shared with Czajek who also had a strong season as a midlaner. The Polish youngster (barely 18 years old) was nothing like a second support, he truly was a hyper carry. Some may say that, as he is still young, he still has a lot to learn and can adapt to his team’s needs, however, it would be weird - to say the least - for VIT to recruit a player who made a name for himself as a carry jungler, and to ask of him to play a very low-resource role. Plus, this situation already occurred for VIT when they brought in Skeanz, a hyper-carry jungler, in 2020, alongside a roster also stacked with hypercarries, and it turned out very badly.

Heading into midlane, the case is trickier to watch. Vincent "Vetheo" Berrié made his LEC debut in MSF in 2021 as what some may say an “overly” hyper-carry mid laner. The french rookie used to sap a lot of gold from the map and was always looking for ways to improve his earnings. A very egocentric playstyle, but one who worked fairly well at Misfits. However, once the former LDLC player joined XL, his adaptation was clear, but his gameplay suffered a lot from it. Nonetheless, Vetheo managed to bounce back in Heretics, largely helped by Jankos. Vetheo’s profile as a midlaner isn’t a strongly oriented as it used to be, most of all, he has learned to be less selfish in midgame, an aspect of his game that he developed at Heretics. Nevertheless, Vetheo remained a high-resource player pre 15, so it is undetermined as of how will Vetheo thrive.

Furthermore, Vetheo has always had its best success with enabler-junglers in LEC. The balance between him and Daglas is thus, on paper, very fragile, one of the two will have to concede a slice of his identity, it is - for the better or the worst - more likely that Daglas will be the one who will need to adapt the most, as it has usually happened this way with rookies, but who knows what VIT have in mind.

Carzzy-Hyli Botlane : the main reliability

Alongside Vetheo and their former topside, Vitality have brought a premade botlane in the name of Matyáš "Carzzy" Orság - Zdravets "Hylissang" Iliev Galabov. The former MAD Lions’ botlaners will most likely be the most reliable elements of Vitality in 2024, similarly to what they (more or less) used to be in MAD.

Carzzy is especially the player to be looked at when talking about consistency and the ability to step up for the team. The Czech ADC has been the main carry for MAD in 2023 and has immensely stepped up in Summer to make of the ashes that were MAD Lions a top 3 team in Europe. At the very least, Carzzy is the second best ADC in the LEC and he could very well be the first as his last head-to-head against Hans Sama was in his favour.

On the other hand, Hylissang and reliability in the same sentence is a bit odd to say, but the 2018 Worlds’ finalists has always been the strongest with ADCs he had the occasion to play with for a long time, heading in 2024, he will have his second year with Carzzy.

Despite his 2023 season being under his standing, Hylissang’s top form is not to be forgotten. With Fnatic, Hyli excelled at getting an early lead on the botlane, allowing him to enable a lot of space for its sololaning teammates. This playstyle fits perfectly into VIT’s needs, but it is uncertain whether Hylissang will be able to bring back his glory days. Overall, his experience and shotcall ability will be immensely valuable to a Vitality roster that lies in uncertainty.

Additionally, the Carzzy-Hyli duo can be considered as a “get out of jail free” card for Vitality. Numerous times have these two players won, sometimes single-handedly, games for their squad despite the team not functioning well. In order to start the season well, this clutch ability that Carzzy has developed will be vital for Vitality.

Nothing less than top expectations for Vitality

On paper, Vitality will aim to play for the first place in the end of the season at the very least, as this goal has always been the one firmly established by the org. This roster is on the other hand slightly weaker than other highly expected teams, such as FNC or G2. In fact, Daglas’ shape will be determining for Vitality’s success, if the semi-rookie can’t perform, it is unlikely that Vitality will be able to perform above top 4. All in all, Vitality's minimum performance should be top 6, their average placement should be around the podium, and if the stars align, the gold medal is totally within reach.

It is to be noted that Selfmade is in Vitality academy as of 2024, bringing him in LEC would be the unlikeliest of comebacks, but this is the kind of surprises that Vitality has used us to.

Vitality’s total failure also remains totally possible - as every other roster - but in VIT’s case, the fragility to start is very prevalent. But with the fact that James "Mac" MacCormack will be the head coach should be reassuring, as the British coach has managed to get excellent results from rosters that didn’t work very well together.