British CS:GO player Alex McMeekin is no longer a part of Vitality’s roster, the 24-year-old announced today.
ALEX joined Vitality at the end of 2018 to replace Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer. His addition helped the French squad become a consistent tier-one team throughout 2019. They won four championships, including the ECS season seven finals in June 2019.
The British player initially shared in-game leadership duties with NBK-, but ALEX became Vitality’s sole captain after NBK- was removed from the team in September 2019. Despite Vitality’s continued success, ALEX opted to step down from competing in March due to CS:GO’s stressful travel schedule.
Since March, teams like FaZe Clan, FunPlus Phoenix, c0ntact Gaming, and Cloud9 have reportedly talked with Vitality to try to acquire ALEX’s services. But his buyout was reportedly set at $600,000, which may have discouraged some esports organizations.
ALEX hasn’t revealed his future yet, but he teased that he’ll play with other British players. “By the way, how many UK players is too many for one team?” ALEX wrote in a TwitLonger.
ALEX, however, will reveal his new team tomorrow during 1pv.fr‘s show at 9am CT. There aren’t too many elite British players in CS:GO apart from Owen “smooya” Butterfield (free agent), Thomas Utting (Endpoint), and, of course, ALEX himself.
It’s still unclear if ALEX’s new team has bought him out of his contract or if Vitality has released him. The second option is less likely, though, because ALEX was one of the best in-game leaders at the time he stopped playing.
