Dan Madesclaire, better known as apEX, is a professional Counter-Strike player who currently plays for Team Vitality. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest in-game leaders in Counter-Strike history.
Career Early years and Counter-Strike: Source Madesclaire was born in Charmes, Vosges in 1993, he was 14 when he first played Counter-Strike after being invited by his friend. Madesclaire began playing Counter-Strike at a high level in 2008 when he attended his first LAN tournament at age 15. He continued to attend a couple french LAN tournaments a year until 2011, when he began to see some success in France and abroad. In April 2011, Madesclaire and 3DMAX placed 3rd in the Counter-Strike: Source tournament of the Copenhagen Games, a multi-game tournament. Later in the year, playing for LDLC OL, Madesclaire placed 5-6th in the Source tournament at ESWC 2011. Madesclaire joined VeryGames at the beginning of 2012, where the team saw great success, with numerous tournament wins towards the end of Counter-Strike: Source. Transition to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Madesclaire left VeryGames in the middle of 2012 and remained with Team eXtensive until the end of the year. He joined LDLC in early 2013 and played with moderate success, leaving the team in August of that year to join Clan-Mystik. It was with Mystik that Madesclaire played at his first Major at DreamHack Winter 2013, with the team receiving a direct invite to the event. Mystik won their first match at the event, before losing the next two to exit the tournament in 9th-12th place. Madesclaire would remain with Mystik until February 2014. 2014-2015 After leaving Mystik, Madesclaire joined LDLC again, early enough in the year to attend EMS One Katowice 2014, where he and the team finished in the top 8. The team would experience some success heading into the second major of 2014, ESL One Cologne 2014. They would beat the champions of the previous major, Virtus.Pro before losing to Ninjas in Pyjamas in the semifinals. After the Cologne major, the first of the "French shuffles" would occur, with Madesclaire moving from LDLC to Titan. This move would prove unfortunate for Madesclaire as one of his teammates, Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian would receive a VAC ban, with the team being barred from the final major championship of the year as a result. Despite this, Madesclaire performed very well in 2014, being ranked the 15th best player in the world by HLTV, citing his skill as an entry fragger and high form throughout the year. Madesclaire remained with Titan going into 2015, where he and the team remained competitive and earning another shot at the major by passing through the LAN qualifier. The team would not see success after qualification, exiting ESL One Katowice 2015 in last place, losing to the previous champions in their opening match of the tournament. Titan would win one LAN after their major run, but results would dip as the year went on, with Madesclaire leaving the team in July of 2015. Madesclaire would join Team EnVyUs and immediately see success, winning a tournament and reaching 2nd place at the second major of the year, ESL One Cologne 2015. Both Madesclaire and the team continued in their success for some time, winning numerous high tier tournaments with EnVy, culminating in Madesclaire's first win at a major tournament at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015. Madesclaire would again be listed on the HLTV top 20, being ranked at 18th due to his achievements with both Titan and Envy. 2016-2017 The start of 2016 would prove to be mixed, with an early tournament win in february followed by two group stage exits. Envy's prospects would continue to sour after a last place finish at MLG Major Championship: Columbus, losing to the American team CLG in their opening match, then losing to the CIS team Gambit. Madesclaire and Envy would secure passage to the next major, but would again exit in last place. There would be some scattered success throughout the rest of the year, with the team achieving a spot at the upcoming Atlanta major, additionally the team would move through their regional and continental qualifiers to reach WESG 2016. In the main event, the team would top their group and move through the playoff bracket, winning in the grand finals and receiving the $800,000 prize. The team would next attend ELEAGUE Major 2017 and narrowly miss out on playoffs, the lineup would change after the major, with Madeslcaire and two of his Envy teammates joining G2. The new team would take some time to get in form, but they would eventually perform well in the run up to the second major of 2017, winning a top tier tournament just a few weeks before PGL Major Kraków 2017. Madesclaire's major misfortune would continue, narrowly missing out on playoffs again after going 2-3 in the group stage, but due to majors moving from 16 to 24 teams after Kraków, G2 would be guaranteed a spot in the next major. The team would rebound in September, winning another top tier LAN in Sweden, before settling into more mixed results for the remainder of the year. 2018-2019 The first event of the year for G2 would be the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 where they would perform well, passing through the first and second group stage in 3-0 fashion to reach the playoffs, Madesclaire's first time in the playoffs since the Cluj-Napoca major. Their time in the playoffs would be short however as they would lose to the eventual champions, Cloud9, exiting in 5th-8th place. G2 would take a dip in form, unable to achieve any real success, the team would only reach the playoffs of one other event after the major. Madesclaire was benched from G2 in June, and would sit out the second major of 2018, having to wait until October to move to his next team, Team Vitality. Vitality would be composed of four veteran players of the French scene in Madesclaire, Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt, Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer, and Cédric "RpK" Guipouy. To round off this new team, a young and talented French player would serve as the star player, Mathieu "Zywoo" Herbaut. The results began slow, as the completely new lineup had to qualify to every top tier event, their first steps towards the top would be taken as they would qualify to, and later win, a DreamHack event. After this, they would qualify to the minor championship in order to reach the upcoming IEM Katowice Major 2019. Vitality would end 2018 with the benching of Happy, and the introduction of Alexander "Alex" McMeekin. The updated roster would be tested immediately into 2019 as Vitality would play in a qualifier, then the minor in January, which they would pass through both successfully. Madesclaire and Vitality would perform in the group stages, passing through the first stage 3-1 before narrowly missing out on playoffs after going 2-3 in the second group stage. Vitality and Madesclaire would begin to live up to expectations after the major, qualifying to ESL One Cologne 2019, winning numerous high tier tournaments, and winning the team's first top tier trophy at Esports Championship Series Season 7. Vitality would end up in the grand finals of ESL One Cologne 2019, but would fail to prevent a dominant Team Liquid from winning and claiming the Intel Grand Slam. Later on in the year, Vitality would have another shot at the major at StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019, where they would reach the playoffs after successfully navigating both group stages, but would exit the major in 5th-8th place. Vitality and Madesclaire would end 2019 by winning one more top-tier LAN at Epicenter 2019, ending Vitality's first full year in Counter-Strike. 2020-2021 At the beginning of 2020, Madesclaire and Vitality would attend two LAN tournaments, but would not see success at either. After this, the Counter-Strike scene would be forced to transition to online play exclusively due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the planned IEM Rio major being delayed, then cancelled. In March, the captain of Vitality, Alex "ALEX" McMeekin, would leave the team due to burnout, leaving the team without a leader. Madesclaire, who served as an entry for most of his career, would take the reins as the new in-game leader for Vitality. Madesclaire would be put to the test only a few weeks after moving to his new role at ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe, where the team would not make it to stage 2 of the event. Madesclaire and Vitality would soon stabilize and find success, remaining a top 5 team for the rest of the year and picking up two top tier tournaments in back to back fashion. The beginning of 2021 would prove to be tumultuous as Madesclaire would take a short break in February, but would be back in the server less than a week and a half later. The team would continue to struggle to find results until the latter part of the year, reaching 3rd-4th place at a tournament in July and 2nd in a tournament in September. Vitality would be in high form in the run up to the first major since 2019, PGL Major Stockholm 2021. The team would begin their major run in stage 2, but would lose both of their opening matches, before rebounding and attain a group stage score of 3-2, reaching the playoffs. Vitality would face NAVI in the quarter-finals and lose 0-2, exiting the major in 5th-8th place. The team would remain competitive, winning a tournament, and placing 2nd and 3rd in top tier tournaments towards the end of 2021. With the end of the year came the news that Vitality, a French speaking team up until this point, would be going international with the signing of the Astralis trio of Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen, Emil "Magisk" Reif, and coach Danny "zonic" Sørensen. 2022-2023