"I'm just..." apEX pauses, to contemplate the gravity of the moment.

"...so happy right now".

Who can blame him? For all of the doubts of his team and himself, apEX has sailed through without so much as a punch connecting back.

"I feel amazing, I think winning three games in a row, not dropping a map, being able to play in front of our home crowd will be amazing."

Stephanie Lindgren

Vitality have been indomitable. The inevitability of ZywOo and the unpredictability of Spinx make for a potent one-two punch that so far, nobody has been able to withstand.

Perhaps, nobody will be able to.

"If we win this tournament it could be like the biggest highlight of my career so far. It would be a fantastic moment but it’s a long road still. I’m just so happy to be able to play in front of a French crowd."

Trust le process

apEX puts their recent success down to a commitment he and the whole Vitality crew made at the backend of last year - and believes the fruits of that labour are now surfacing.

"Well of course we see that the plan is working, we’ve made only playoffs from the start of the year, we won one tournament, two quarter-finals, now we’re in quarters again, it’s an upgrade from last year and there is no doubt about that."

Vitality appear to be hitting a peak, and apEX believes that the Vitality we saw at Rio wasn't even their peak, as they "didn't look at that tournament as [their] priority, even if [they] won it".

Back to today, though - for the future is so far away - and apEX feels they could still have been better today.

Stephanie Lindgren

"Anubis in the beginning was pretty tough but then we managed to come back pretty convincingly, we had the upper hand on them and we played pretty well and won 16-10 so nothing to say.

"Nuke T side was back-and-forth, I think we played not that good, just our individuals stepped up and the CT side, we were 13-5 up and they came back, we played really bad but in the end it was a win and that’s what matters the most."

The mark of a perfectionist is never being happy with a result if the journey there wasn't flawless - and it seems like apEX still believes there's things to be fixed.

If they can get better, we can't wait to see it.

The other teams in the tournament, though, are certainly hoping they can't.