Four-time CS:GO Major champion dupreeh is back to Vitality’s team after spending the past month on parental leave for the birth of his first child. The Dane will return to activity in time for the ESL Pro League season 17 playoffs this week and take the place that was temporarily being filled by French rifler Audric “JACKZ” Jug, who put out incredible numbers while dupreeh was out and seemingly made Vitality play better, according to some fans.
JACKZ helped Vitality defeat Grayhound, OG, and FaZe Clan without losing any maps at ESL Pro League season 17 group C. The 30-year-old averaged a 1.26 rating after the six maps he played with Vitality, according to HLTV, and is currently topping the leaderboard for headshots per round (0.49), which is higher than what some of the most talented players in the scene like ZywOo and Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov got thus far in ESL Pro League season 17.
“They should have stayed with JACKZ for this tournament,” one Redditor said after Vitality revealed on social media that dupreeh is coming back. “To be honest they have been doing better with JACKZ,” another Redditor said.
JACKZ had all this impact while playing for a new team and attending his first big CS:GO event this year. He’s currently on HEET’s bench and had not played an official Counter-Strike match since ESL Challenger League season 43 Europe Relegation in December 2022.
For comparison, dupreeh has been a part of Vitality since January 2022 when he joined the French organization alongside Magisk and head coach zonic, and has averaged a 0.98 rating in the past six months, according to HLTV. The Dane only got a positive rating at IEM Rio Major Legends Stage in November 2022 and BLAST Premier Spring Groups in January 2023 in these past six months.
Vitality will join the ESL Pro League season 17 playoffs in the quarterfinals. Dupreeh, apEX, ZywOo, Lotan “Spinx” Giladi, and Magisk will face the winner of ENCE vs. G2/Movistar Riders on Friday, March 24 at 1pm CT.
