Vitality Confirms jL Stand-In as apEX, mezii Miss CS Events

Team Vitality has officially confirmed a temporary roster change for two upcoming Counter-Strike events: Lithuanian rifler Justinas “jL” Lekavicius will step in as a stand-in. The move comes as Dan “apEX” Madesclaire and William “mezii” Merriman are both expected to miss the tournaments due to impending fatherhood, with Vitality planning continuity by using jL rather than switching multiple cores.

Dates, events, and who’s available

Event	Team Vitality stand-in	Player absent
BLAST Open Porto	jL	apEX
PGL Masters Bucharest	jL	mezii

Vitality announced that jL will support the team at BLAST Open Porto and at PGL Masters Bucharest. However, the roster adjustments won’t be identical at both stops: in Porto, jL will replace a different teammate than in Bucharest.

For the BLAST Open Porto lineup, Vitality expects to have Dan “apEX” Madesclaire out, with jL filling the slot. That means the rest of the active roster remains unchanged, featuring Robin “ropz” Kool, Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut alongside jL.

At PGL Masters Bucharest, the stand-in role shifts to cover the absence of William “mezii” Merriman. In that case, Vitality’s active lineup will include jL together with ropz, flameZ, and ZywOo.

Vitality’s statement ties the changes to the players’ personal schedules: both apEX and mezii are expected to welcome children around the same timeframe as the tournaments. Vitality has therefore opted for one consistent stand-in—jL—so the team structure stays stable across both events.

This also marks a timely return for jL after his recent team situation. He parted ways with Natus Vincere in early July, and spent a little over a month on loan with MOUZ—where he helped the squad place third at PGL Astana and at CS Asia Championships.

Team Vitality’s CS social account confirmed the plan in a post dated August 4, 2026, noting that jL would join for BLAST Porto and PGL Bucharest while apEX and mezii were on paternity leave.