After GIANTX's 3-0 sweep of Vitality booked them a top four LEC Spring spot, mid laner Adam "Jackies" Jeřábek sat down with RFT.GG. He talked through how GIANTX outplayed Vitality that most had backed to win, his long-running synergy with Ismaïl “ISMA” Boualem, how far GX have come in breaking through the "playoff curse" narrative, the looming KC test in the next round — and why he believes the team's ceiling is still well above what they've shown.
Pretty good, obviously. 3-0'ing Vitality wasn't what people expected — and honestly, not what we expected either. They're a pretty good team. It feels very nice. And I'm happy with the way we won. Sure, we were behind, but I feel like we won straight up on mechanics. Those wins always feel good — knowing you outplayed them.
Me and ISMA have always been pretty good together. Throughout the regular split, we usually had the same vision, or similar vision, on the game. Today it showed a lot because we had a lot of mid-jungle combos. Sure, Anivia–Skarner is kind of a TikTok combo — "oh, I can put the wall lol". But even in the other games, we always played well together.
I think the reason I got a lot of MVPs in the regular season was also because of him. He makes the game easier for me, and hopefully I make it easier for him.
Kind of, I think. Top four is a funny achievement — it doesn't really mean anything, but at the same time, for us it does. So it's a bit fifty-fifity. Last split, I said somewhere that I felt our top four was a bit undeserved — we had the easiest lower bracket run, we scammed our way to a win against NAVI. Today we played Vitality, and I'd say that in the last split if we'd played Vitality, we'd have lost. And today we finally played Vitality for a top-four spot, and we 3-0'd them. Even though we were behind, so I'm more happy about earning top four than just being the last place there.
Early games, for sure. It shouldn't happen that we fall that far behind. Honestly, I'm kind of happy with our mid game — usually mid game is way harder if you're behind, and today we did pretty decent stuff to come back. And we closed the games when we could. So those areas are fine. Just don't fall 6-5k behind and we're probably going to have really good games.
When I play, I don't think about it at all. But I do appreciate GX for the trust. Spending three years with a player these days, only the top, top teams do it — like Elyoya, like Caps. GX has been with me for three years, so I appreciate that trust. Sure, we're not going the fastest pace to the top, but we're slowly getting there. It's a good feeling to have that trust from the org.
Honestly, quite fine. There's margin for error, of course. My laning phase wasn't the best against the top teams. As much as they make it harder for me — or I'm making it harder for myself — there's something where I'm lacking a bit. But other than that, I'm pretty happy. Mid game, fights, clutchness — those are there. So I'm happy with how I play in that, and I just need to work on the early game. I'm doing a not bad split, I think.
For sure there was some impact. Not playing in the studio for 42 days and then walking into a do-or-die match is kind of crazy, honestly. For us, it wasn't showing that much — we were pretty sharp today on stage, so I think it was well managed. People are memeing the studio, but at the same time it feels like home in a way. Our last game was in Madrid — that's a big stage — but coming back to the studio also felt good. So maybe it even had a positive effect on us today. But probably not the best scheduling, I'm gonna be honest.
I think we do.
For me, the KC series is going to feel the same as this Vitality series.
Not like we should 3-0 them, but like — even our last series against KC, when we beat them, it was about being clutch, winning mechanically, winning teamfights. It wasn't "oh, we stomped them through the early game and kept it up". It was legit similar to today: we were losing early, we stayed strong, we did decent mid game plays, got back into the game, won a fight, and ended it. They're similar to Vitality in that. Anything can happen — could be 3-0 either side, could be 3-2, we could stomp them, they could stomp us. It just depends who clicks better on the match.
Ceiling is a word you can use in a lot of ways. For sure, no — I think we have a high ceiling. We just got into a slump over the top 3 teams. Maybe it was a mental block, maybe something else — if I knew, we'd fix it. But look at the players: Noah and Jun were consistently in the finals with Fnatic. Sure, maybe they had better teammates back then — Humanoid, Razork at peak, Oscarinin. But as for the top side, I think we're improving decently. I don't think we're going down. I'm on the right trajectory, so is ISMA and Lot.
We for sure still have a ceiling we didn't reach.
Support is a role that I just feel like it's so easy honestly. Maybe I full-abuse before I go and play Keria somewhere, but… actually, last off-season, before 2026, I played a tournament in Czechia as support, and I won. I'm a Czech national champion as support now. A little bit of experience there. I played against Master tiers, but other than that it was fine. And one time I had a secret support account in the off-season — okay, LP doesn't really mean much these days, but back in the day I was 1.4k LP with 85% winrate. So I felt like the role was mega easy. I kind of just like the role.
And Humanoid — I don't think he can play anything else. So sadly, I'd have to move.
Yeah. [laughs] Given the results, yes. But at the same time, if we want to win at least two games at ENC against the good teams, I don't think Humanoid should play off-role. That sounds — I'm not a hater. But I've never seen it.
I don't really think about it right now. I just focus on these two splits, because no matter what — if it's me, GX, or anyone deciding — it's the two splits that matter. Let's be honest, LEC is very, very, very result-biased. So I just think: if I play good and I do my best, I'd be happy to stay at GX. If they allow me, I will. Just depends. I haven't really given it any thought.
