French esports organisation Team Vitality have confirmed the Vitality LEC 2024 roster, plus a couple of Brits on their coaching staff, and the LFL academy team.
James ‘Mac’ MacCormack (UK) and Patrick ‘Pad’ Suckow-Breum (Denmark), who recently left Mad Lions as Head Coach and Strategic Coach respectively, have now joined Vitality as Head Manager and Strategic Coach for the org’s LEC team.
They join existing Vitality coaches Alexander ‘Carter‘ Cartwright (UK), who is the LEC Head Coach, and Alexander ‘Stuii‘ Spelda (Germany), the org’s League of Legends Head Manager.
Mac, Carter and Pad have worked in the UK League of Legends ecosystem years ago before progressing up to the higher level in the LEC.
Now they’re ready to focus on working with the Vitality LEC 2024 roster, which consists of Photon (top, South Korea), who is now joined by Daglas (jungle, Poland), Vetheo (mid, France), Carzzy (bot, Czech) and Hylissang (support, Bulgaria).
They said in a press release the goal is to reach Worlds.
The news comes after Selfmade, Perkz, Upset, Bo and Kaiser left the team over the past few months, with Selfmade now moving to the LFL academy roster (see bottom of article).
Mac and Pad also hinted at joining Vitality by posting bee-related memes and tweets on X (aka Twitter) after leaving Mad Lions.
It also comes a few days after Vitality’s CS team won the Blast Premier World Final 2023 to cap off a successful year.
Update (January 11th 2024):
‘Together we are going to build something amazing here’ – Mac on Vitality LEC 2024 roster
Mac said on joining Vitality as LEC Head Manager: “After six years on one team, I’m thrilled to be part of Vitality and to be working with these wonderful people (as well as a few familiar faces)!
“Together we are going to build something amazing here. I hope you’ll support us on this exciting new journey!
“All of us, from the players to the staff to the management, are approaching this project with a lot of ambition and hunger to prove that we can achieve greatness consistently and sustainably.
“Team Vitality has enjoyed great successes in other titles in the last few years, and we are all excited about building a culture and environment that can allow the LEC team and League of Legends division as a whole to develop into a project worthy of the organisation.”
Vitality LEC Strategic Coach Pad added:
Mid-laner Vetheo said: “I was told that a French player was missing to perform on [the Vitality LEC] League of Legends [team]. Very happy with the team and honoured to be part of the project.”
Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide, President of Team Vitality, commented: “For the LEC team this year we’ve brought in seasoned coaching staff who will form the foundations of the team moving forward while maintaining the performance culture and values of the club.
“We’ve given them complete control of forming our new LEC and they’ve managed to create an exciting roster that they will improve throughout the year.”
Mac and Pad have had a successful few years with Mad Lions, reaching Worlds and MSI several times, and winning several LEC titles.
They ended their stint with the following parting posts towards Mad Lions, with Mac’s Spanish text translating to: “I thought I had become Spanish enough to stay, but the new management did not agree.”
The LEC Winter Split 2024 kicks off on January 13th and its Split Final will take place on February 18th 2024.
Vitality’s first match on January 13th will be against GiantX, the name of the org following the merger of Excel Esports and Giants Gaming.
Team Vitality’s LFL Vitality.Bee academy team for 2024
The LFL team is also looking to rebalance its team composition. Alongside mid-laner czajek (Poland), three players are joining the Vitality.Bee roster: Naak Nako (Turkey), Jopa (Croatia) and Stend (France).
This young roster will be led by more experienced player Selfmade (Poland) with ‘the clear intention to dominate the competition and reach the EMEA Masters’.
The team will be coached by the same staff of 2023: Nahovsky (Head Coach, Poland) and Krog (Assistant Coach, Denmark).
“We are proud to have managed to find four young talents who we will be able to support in their progress thanks to good coaching staff. We have a lot of hope about their ability to join the LEC next year, that would be great proof of success!” commented Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide, President of Team Vitality.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
