jL to stand in for Vitality at Porto and Bucharest

Justinas “jL” Lekavicius is reported to be a stand-in for Team Vitality at BLAST Open Porto at the end of August and at PGL Masters Bucharest in October. He would replace William “mezii” Merriman in Porto and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire in Bucharest while each player is away for the birth of a child.

Sebastien “KRL” Perez reported the information, saying jL would join Robin “ropz” Kool, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Shahar “flameZ” Shushan for both events.

The reported Porto lineup would be Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, Robin “ropz” Kool, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Shahar “flameZ” Shushan and Justinas “jL” Lekavicius. The reported Bucharest lineup would be William “mezii” Merriman, Robin “ropz” Kool, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Shahar “flameZ” Shushan and Justinas “jL” Lekavicius. Official entry lists from the event organisers will confirm final rosters ahead of each tournament.

jL left Natus Vincere in July and has been a free agent since. He stepped down from NAVI’s starting roster about a year earlier to take a break from competition. Earlier this year he played on loan at MOUZ and helped the team to third-place finishes at PGL Astana and the CS Asia Championships.

Team Vitality won five events in a row late last year. Since then the team has not reached the top four in three consecutive events and was eliminated from BLAST Bounty Season 2 by Team Liquid before the LAN finals.

Team Vitality has not formally confirmed the reported stand-in arrangements.