Vitality’s curse in League of Legends will not break in 2025. While the team made huge progress this summer and looked stronger than ever before facing a shaky Karmine Corp (KC), VIT lost 1-3 this Sunday. A sad way to close a promising split, at the gates of the Madrid Summer Finals. After the series, assistant coach Pad looked back on the year, the disputed choices made by the staff, his next competitive chapter, and delivered a closing message to the VIT fans.
How do you feel after this disappointing series?
Pad: Mostly just sad right now. I was just on the Riot broadcast as well and I said the same thing there that like the last couple of times I’ve gone out, whether that’s early or late, it sucked but we were already at an empty tank. Like we didn’t have more to give. Even if we won the series versus TH —in Spring— I don’t think we would have been a great contender going into Spring playoffs. And I think the big difference this time is that the boys have developed so much over the last two, three weeks.
We are going to post our scrim results after this time off now, but basically we’ve been beating all of the top teams the last three weeks. I think we’ve only been losing to Fnatic consistently.
So it felt very different. There was a lot of hope and hopium within the team.
Ethan: Talking about the series, what went wrong? Because I felt like after this 50-minute game, you should have had the momentum. But after game 2, it felt like you guys lost that patience and went on to force a lot of plays even though you were in winning situations.
What’s your take on the things that went wrong today?
Pad: Actually, I think game 1, a lot of stuff did go wrong. But for good reasons. Because there were some stage jitters, we were feeling a bit excited. But the worst way to go out of a best of five is, is going out not having played the game. So I was really happy even in game 1. Game 2, I think we had probably all of our favourite champions but I think that they played really good through sides. I think Yike found a lot of good picks through sides. But where we just weren’t matching and that gave them an edge. Game 3 I think was playable but we ended up in a situation that has always been uncomfortable for us where we don’t have enough engage. If we don’t have Lyncas or Fleshy on primary engage… We have genuinely struggled in scrims and officials so you can probably choke a lot of that down to draft. [The] final game was playable but we had to play really well because we had a full poke comp. They didn’t have that much engage. But I also think that early picking Jhin with K’Santé into Jayce available was probably a bit optimistic. So yeah, I think it’s a mixture of plays and drafts.
Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
Ethan: Even though you lost today, as you said, you showed clear signs of progress in summer compared to the previous splits at least.
Do you think this roster iteration could have achieved more if you had had more time?
Pad: I mean, honestly, going into today, we were so confident because we had been playing really well and we’ve been playing some good League. Like, obviously, our champion pool is still not that developed because we haven’t been put in a lot of best of five. I think this was the second best of five we played all year. Which meant that once you go into game 3, 4, 5, you get challenged a lot on this. We probably needed more time in scrims and on stage to develop. What happens when… For example, today KCorp did such a good job of removing Blitzcrank and Pyke… like they were removing engage from Fleshy.
But I think that giving us like this experience, if we win today and then we have 13 days before going to Madrid, we’d compete for the title.
And I think that’s why I’m extra sad right now, because it was not feeling like: “Okay, if we win this one, we’re gonna get smacked by Fnatic next week anyway”.
Ethan: As you said, you were in a very good position as a team this split. But let’s say you didn’t stick to Hylissang in the first place in Winter, and then went on to take a gamble with Nisqy…
Don’t you think that if you took Fleshy from the get-go, maybe you could have had more time? Like, do you have any regrets regarding the choices you have made this year?
Pad: It’s hard to say because it’s all hindsight, right? The reason why we kept Hyli, in our mind, was that the way that we play the game… And when you have seen us play well this year, it’s very much based on the LPL playstyle; it’s very aggressive. It’s in your face. It’s about making the game hard for the opponent. And what we had last year was Vetheo and Photon on sololanes. And these two are the detrimental opposites of the Chinese League of Legends. They are like the OG Korean style. So the thought process of keeping Hyli was that we would hire Czajek and Naak, who would slot into our Chinese style of League of Legends, and that Hyli could be a role model in this playstyle.
Ethan: Maybe he took it a bit too far on the Chinese playstyle then…
Pad: Maybe he took it a bit too far, yes. And the big issue was that he wasn’t willing to meet Lyncas halfway. Because Lyncas is also a more conservative player. He’s done so well in developing his aggression. But I think Hyli did not allow him to develop at a human rate in split 1.
So I wouldn’t say that it’s a regret for me to keep Hyli. I think that if it had clicked, if some things had gone different, if Lyncas had been 10% more aggressive, naturally… I think that we would just have had a good team from the start of the year.
But then, when it didn’t work, I’m very happy that we benched him after Winter and I’m very happy that we tried with Nisqy. Obviously, I first tried with Fleshy, but visa made it impossible. So… No, I would say that I am okay with the choices we’ve made.
Time to make things official, welcome @fleshyylol to the LEC!
— Team Vitality League (@TeamVitalityLOL) July 23, 2025
Ethan: No regrets at all then?
Pad: No.
Ethan: On another note, now that Vitality is out.
Who do you think will take the third spot for Worlds? And who do you think will win the final?
Pad: That’s a good one. I think KC can probably beat both GX and FNC, so they should take the third spot. I think that from scrims, probably G2 is going to win the tournament. I think they’re looking really solid. The big missing link in the past was where BB’s champion pool was at the playoffs. And I think it’s giga good right now. I think he’s got down all of the counters. He’s got down all of his special little niche picks. From a draft POV, they’re in a good spot. And Caps has shown up in playoffs, so I think it’s hard to beat G2.
Ethan: Vitality’s CEO Neo stepped up publicly earlier this year, as you know, to say that you and Mac would not continue the journey with Vitality if you couldn’t find good results this year. So I guess top 6 in Summer might not be good enough, even though you guys looked way better… So I know it might be a bit early to ask you about it.
But what do you think is next for Mac and Pad, for Vitality, and this group that you created?
Pad: I mean, so we’ll have to have a meeting with Neo and see where we’re at at some point. But what I told Mac, I guess, after Spring was that…
It’s time for me to try to be me when our contracts run out. Whether we get kicked here or we have one more year together if we don’t get kicked, it’s time for me to try to fly by myself and see if I can use this skill set that I have developed under his tutelage.
It has also become very apparent that we fill a lot of the same roles at this point because we’ve been together for so long. So I cannot tell you exactly what’s going to happen.
Ethan: But you would want to go for a story on your own, right?
Pad: Yeah, I would want to. I would want to create my own legacy as well. So I’m not just a “Mac + Pad”, you know?
Credit: Team Vitality
If you have a final word for the fans or anything you want to say before closing the year and maybe your chapter with Vitality: the mic is yours.
Pad: Honestly, thank you to the fans. They have been so engaged with us and it’s been very similar to my old football days where you have fans with very big opinions. But I love that. I love that they’re involved. I love that they’re enthusiastic. I love that they’re angry when we lose. I’m sorry that we couldn’t replicate the recipe we had in MAD Lions and provide better results. I’m sorry that it took 5 splits for us to have a roster that we could be proud of because we weren’t, right?
I haven’t been proud of my roster in the last two years of what we have created. But I am for this one.
I believe that if I stay, if we stay, I don’t know what will happen… This roster has proven that we have stuff to build on, to go and compete in EU for the best spot.
Ethan is an esports fanatic — not a Fnatic fan, don’t get him wrong. He previously worked for a French media outlet called Eclypsia, as well as Sheep Esports, for whom he covered a variety of scenes: from FC 24, R6, and RL to CS:GO, VAL, and more. But the main reason Ethan started writing in esports was to have the opportunity to work fully on his one true love: League of Legends. And that’s precisely what he is doing at Hotspawn. Be warned, his articles can sometimes ooze a little too much of his lack of objectivity towards the French scene and players…
