Global differences: from chaos to order
The first thing to note: ALEX was an ingame leader for Vitality. Now Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire is leading the team (mostly) with some help other players.What was earlier in defense
Chaos. Eternal rotations. Nasty AWP peeks and many different setups that Vitality were playing every single game. Additionally, they felt the opponent well and could almost instantly adjust to the particular opponent. We get used to seeing some kind of base structure as CT, but when Vitality were playing with ALEX, they could vary their positions very often and unpredictable. For example, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, who used to play as A-site anchor in 70-80% of rounds sometimes could be seen on B-site with his deadly AWP | Wildfire. Or monsieur Richard “shox” Papillon, previously the secondary sniper and B-anchor for Vitality peeked short or long from time to time at the beginning of the round.What Vitality have now in defense
More structured playstyle and less aggression. Now Vitality mix their ingame positions rarely, only when they want (or need) to surprise enemies. What’s more interesting, the Frenches made changes at the point of holding approaches overall. Now they put fewer efforts to take a long control and more focused on mid at early and mid-round timings. In 4v5 situations instead of instant aggression and rotations they Vitality now prefer to consciously, trying to accurately anticipate the opponents’ movement.What was earlier in attack
Fast playstyle with many early aggressive peeks and unexpectable annoying solo duels, early heavy attention mid and short period between early default and a final execute. Vitality with ALEX haven’t got used to patiently wait for mid and late-round timings, they preferred to distract opponents and make early single pick off and then to end the round.What Vitality have now in attack
The Frenches now prefer to play more slowly and carefully. A bist slower playstyle, fewer solo duels early and the calls are calmer. Take a look at how carefully they started the rounds versus Astralis even playing anti-force, not a full gun round.View post on imgur.com
One more thing to note is Vitality’s middle control at early timings: previously they put a ton of their attention at mid at the beginning of the round, now they try to use the whole map.
Changes in pistol rounds
Pretty same situation comparing to gun rounds. Slower and more careful playstyle on T-pistol rounds, more passive playstyle on CT-pistol rounds. Additionally, if earlier Vitality used short aggression at early timings playing pistol round as CT, now they make their focus on long.View post on imgur.com
Rethinking of CT-side positions
With ALEX it was hard to track the positions of Vitality players in defense due to many rotations, but it was looking like it:- Shox (secondary AWP)/apEX – B-anchor/B-rotation players, ZywOo (main AWP) – A-anchor, ALEX/RpK – A-rotation/Long-anchors.
- Misutaaa (secondary AWP) – B-anchor, apEX – B-rotation, ZywOo (main AWP) – A-anchor, RpK/shox – A-rotation/Long-anchors.
Less special setups and aggression on eco and forcebuy rounds
This is an example that you could meet over 70% of ALEX’s Vitality forcebuy and eco rounds:View post on imgur.com
Now, the percentage of usage such special setups as CT and fast aggressive pushes as T is down to 25-30%,
T-side early play: B-lurkers gemination
One more (and the last) thing that changed in Vitality’s playstyle is their early defaults: earlier Vitality used to play with default lurkers: RpK was lurking B/tunnel, shox – was A-long-lurker. The radar below perfectly describes the changes: now Vitality use duo-B-lurkers in more than 50% of gun rounds.View post on imgur.com
To conclude all the said above, we would say that now Vitality are calmer, their playstyle is slower, more passive and conscious overall.
Is that good or bad? Time will show. 
