According to unconfirmed reports, Lotan "Spinx" Giladi wanted to leave Vitality before his team's victory at IEM Cologne 2024 – the Israeli esports player was reportedly unhappy with the performance of his teammate William "mezii" Merriman. This information was shared by insider, streamer, and GenOne organisation owner Sébastien "KRL" Perez.
KRL claimed that Vitality was considering Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač from G2 as a potential replacement for Giladi, and negotiations were allegedly ongoing up until the start of the tournament in Cologne.
The founder and CEO of the French club denied these rumours, but KRL stated that his information came directly from Vitality staff. He also noted that the other members of the team might not have been aware of the situation with Spinx.
Insider and scout Alexey "OverDrive" Biryukov partially confirmed these rumours. "It's true that Vitality has been searching for a replacement for mezii for some time. They've even reached out to CIS organisations," OverDrive wrote on his Telegram channel.
It is worth recalling that after their victory at IEM Cologne 2024, Vitality took the top spot in the global Counter-Strike 2 rankings, according to HLTV.org.