Scoring a win to kick off their League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) Spring Season, Team Vitality is ready to shock Europe and put the bees back on everyone's radar. Having welcomed Yasin "Nisqy" Dinçer as their new support, the team looks reinvigorated and ready to take on the world. In an exclusive interview, James "Mac" MacCormack, head coach of the team, discusses their first win of the split, the differences from the old roster, whether benching Hylissang should be seen as a failure, and their former academy support, Paul "Stend" Lardin.

You started the split with a strong win against GIANTX. How would you recap that match?

James "Mac" MacCormack: "I think it was a good warm-up. GIANTX haven’t really found their stride yet—they looked a bit shaky yesterday, and we had extra info on them since they played twice, which sucks for them. That said, we were also shaky at times. Competitive matches just feel so different, especially when you have a player learning a new role—it’s nothing like scrims. There were definitely some jitters on our side, and at certain points, we got a bit too excited. Some of our fights were messy, but overall, we're happy.

How do you feel about the team’s progress, especially with Nisqy joining? This Vitality seems very confident, and we keep hearing good things from scrims.

Mac: For sure. We're really confident and just excited to work together, honestly. The day-to-day atmosphere, the scrims, the quality of practice, the communication, the standards—everything feels great. Nisqy adds so much to the team, and everyone who knew us before and sees us now says it feels different, but in a good way. So yeah, we're all super excited.

How would you describe the difference between Winter and Spring Vitality in a few words? What are the biggest changes?

Mac: Togetherness, proactiveness, high standards. I'd say those are the three big changes.

You've always spoken highly of Nisqy and previously said that not signing him at the start of the year was one of your hardest decisions. Czajek is clearly a deserving player, but does it feel good to work with Nisqy again? What does he bring to the team that others might not?

Mac: Yeah, for sure. When we were looking at support options, obviously there are career support players, but no one has the same level of pedigree as Nisqy in terms of international experience, LEC experience, and best-of-series experience. I've known him for a long time—we first worked together in 2018, which is crazy to think about. There's a lot of trust there. We've passed on Nisqy a couple of times in the past, parted ways, gone in different directions during offseasons, and that was tough as friends. But one thing I love about him is that it never affected our personal relationship. He understands that business and friendship are separate.

Even during the contract negotiations, which were on a really short timeline, I was involved in the process, and it felt a bit weird because we’re friends. I was genuinely worried—when we started discussing signing Nisqy, I kept thinking, "Oh my God, I hope we don’t turn him down again." I would have felt terrible because it’s hard not to feel undervalued in that situation. But Nisqy is amazing in that regard. Of all the players I’ve worked with, Nisqy was the one who, right after my daughter was born, showed up at my house with a gift bag full of toys and wanted to hold her. He’s just such a lovely person, and he brings so much positivity to the team.

Nisqy's arrival also meant the difficult decision to bench Hylissang, a player you initially wanted to build the roster around. Given that, and the fact that you defended him for years, does it feel like a failure that it didn’t work out?

Mac: Do I view it as a failure? I don't, to be honest. There were definitely things that went wrong and things we could have done better, of course. But do I have a huge number of regrets? I wouldn’t say so.

Is the project forever changed because Hylissang isn’t in it? No, not really. The vision remains exactly the same. The style of team we wanted to be in League of Legends is still the same as when Hyli was here. But a lot of things around the game—communication, standards, shared understanding—were a struggle. There were differences in expectations and how things were communicated, and as you mentioned, we didn’t always see eye to eye.

That said, the overall vision hasn’t changed. Our team culture, standards, values, daily operations, and processes never revolved around one player. The project is still intact, and I think this version of Vitality is really exciting.

Some could argue that the issues from Winter Split could have been foreseen, given your goal of building a roster around synergy. Do you think this could have been predicted? And considering Stend was in your academy team, was there a missed opportunity to promote him instead?

Mac: If I had the choice to swap Nisqy for Stend right now, I wouldn’t take it. I think where we’ve ended up is better, so I would make the same decisions again.

That said, were there things I could have done better? Absolutely. There were conversations I could have had earlier, better communication with Vitality, a better process overall. The past couple of years have been a big transition for me personally—moving from a team I’d been with my whole career to a new one meant adapting to different expectations, communication styles, and offseason structures. Vitality’s position in the market is very different from MAD Lions', not necessarily better or worse, just different, and that changes how you approach the offseason. So, there are definitely things I could have anticipated better.

Do I regret not promoting Stend? No. And that’s not a shot at him—I adore Stend. I worked with him one-on-one a lot last year during the EMEA Masters, and he’s a great player with good mechanics, strong communication, and a great personality. I’m really happy to see him doing well in the LEC.

But for this specific project? I don’t think he was the right fit. If Hyli is at one extreme end of the spectrum, Stend is at the opposite. He has a different approach to the game, a different philosophy. If we had brought him in, we might have faced the opposite issues of what we had with Hyli. I don’t think it would have brought out the best in our players, and I don’t think our preferred style would have been a natural fit for him either. So, I don’t believe it would have been right for either party.

With this new roster, what do you think is Vitality’s ceiling with Nisqy? Do you think you could have reached the same level with Hylissang given more time?

Mac: Theoretically, on paper, was it possible? Yeah. In practice, I think no. At the end of last split, after speaking with all the players and staff, none of us felt like we were improving as much as we needed to in order to become the team we knew we could be by the end of the year. The team has to come first, and at that point, something had to change.

I believe our day-to-day process and growth will be better now, and our ceiling will be the same or even higher—whatever that ceiling may be. I don’t like making predictions or putting a number on it. But I can say that this is the most excited I’ve been about working with a team since I first became a head coach in 2020 or when we had the "dream team" roster with MAD Lions in 2021. Who we are as a team, the people we have, the atmosphere—it’s such a privilege to work with them. So from that perspective, it feels really good.

Any final words for Vitality fans and maybe a teaser for next week's match against Rogue?

Mac: Thanks to the fans for your patience. Thanks for believing in the process. I know it was a big U-turn. I know things have been rough, and at times, maybe unclear. But we’re going to do our absolute best to be transparent with you guys and to be the team that you deserve to support—because you guys are amazing.

Vitality fans are just the best. Objectively, it’s fact. Sorry, everyone else.

As for next week, we’re going to keep cooking. Today, it was Yasuo. Maybe there’ll be more Yasuo next week. Maybe there’ll be some other spicy things in the pot. But what I can say for sure is that we’re going to be a team that stays ahead of the meta. I hope you guys enjoy the process with us, love the games, and most importantly, love the guys—because they are such a joy to work with."