Considering the names around him and especially above, the aforementioned awards were not the strongest, as he was never in MVP contention other than in Cologne. “But it required, as I said in many interviews, to be a close team and have good relationships. “Even though it is the only trophy that we won, it was an amazing experience and memory for me and all the people related to this experience have a dear place in my heart. No matter the circumstances that came later on.” Head coach XTQZZZ later revealed that Spinx asked to explore his options after losing in Lisbon, but the matter was settled before the end of the break as the organization chose “not to make changes through Shanghai.”
Why was flameZ the 7th best player of 2024?
The move to Endpoint offered flameZ his first true shot at regular tier-two competition, and with them he won ESEA MDL Season 35 Europe (averaging a 1.25 rating over 29 maps) and qualified for his first season of ESL Pro League. Playing alongside his brother was not without its difficulties either, with flameZ recalling how team issues could be hard to resolve. FlameZ, who had become one of the hottest prospects in Counter-Strike thanks to his performances on OG, now steps into one of the best teams in the world where he can hopefully realize his full potential. Train came back after a few years, and it came back quite different – the same principles but quite different. Maybe not overall a map, but a few rounds that were rusty or the communication was a bit sloppy.
The roster led by Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen immediately made an impression, finishing as runners-up at IEM Summer and reaching the semi-final of ESL Pro League Season 14. FlameZ mustered 1.10 and 1.20 ratings in those efforts, showing he could perform against the best European teams, and slowly OG inched up the world rankings. “I think if you ask any player in Israel at that time, they all would have wanted to play with NertZ,” flameZ adds. “So it was a big boost to my motivation. He was a big voice in and outside the team, always down to talk about CS, life, or anything else and share his mindset and his view on things. I liked him a lot and still like him a lot, he is a player that I have always wanted to compete with at this high level.”
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He didn’t try to qualify for FPL, believing he couldn’t because of a bad PC, but Roey “ZENCER” Kimhi’s words and advice became a zenith to unlocking flameZ’s potential. FlameZ took part in a few small tournaments early on, but soon gained motivation to step out of his older brother’s shadow after he was taunted online. BLIX got the chance to sit down with flameZ following his move, discussing his thoughts on his time on OG, as well as what it’s like to replace someone like dupreeh. I didn’t expect the group to unfold like that, even though when you think about it it’s not so far from reality.
“It was very weird,” flameZ says of how winning two trophies at the end of the year set up expectations coming into 2024. “We just got mezii and had a staff change and it instantly clicked, we were all hyped and won these back-to-back BLASTs.
I’m not sure how zweih is, but that’s something that every team needs in order to have it good outside of the game, a very good team chemistry outside of the game. FlameZ joined Vitality in mid-2023 on a free transfer from OG and quickly established himself as an X-factor player for Vitality. He has earned seven EVP nods for his highlight performances in that time, including four in their title runs at Gamers8, BLAST Premier Fall Final and BLAST Premier World Final in 2023 and IEM Cologne earlier this year. “On CT I am not sure how it will go, I’d like to say I fit the roles, but at this kind of level any player should know that he’s going to sacrifice something and try to do the very best and try to master the site he’s playing.”
Teammates
The 20-year-old then confessed that joining a tier-one team such as OG did not exactly match his assumptions. “I expected more to play whatever we can to get in form, and play those big tournaments like last Major was with Apeks, Monte, 9INE,” he explained. “They come in with like 500 or 200 officials in a year and come up against a team that has like 40 so, of course, they are going to be prepared. That’s the best practice you can wish for, to play officials at this amount.” “In the end, I think everybody felt bad, a lot of players felt burnout and it just wasn’t fun to play as it was before in the other part of the year in 2022. Overall in 2023, the last part of OG was not full of good memories for me.” “Two days before the RMR, nexa goes on leave and we take niko from the eternal bench and free agency,” the rifler said.
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I knew MongolZ could very well beat them, but at least I expected Falcons to go from the lower bracket. I think it was a very big surprise for me to watch Falcons go out of the tournament so quick. I think in the Major we kinda felt stressed, there was pressure on us and we didn’t play our game, and this was a redeeming moment for us that we wanna show up and just play our CS against them. I think the key thing is that we get better game by game, but we’re also coming from a good bootcamp very confident in these games. Vitality grabbed a convincing win in their Austin Major rematch against The MongolZ to head into the IEM Cologne playoffs unscathed. That is according to Sebastien “KRL” Perez, who has reported that Spinx is expected to leave Vitality in 2025 after both sides “expressed mutual interest in parting ways.” The French insider was also the first to report flameZ’s contract extension.
FlameZ took home his third EVP of the year in Cologne courtesy of his 1.19 rating (1.14 playoff rating) and continued consistency throughout the tournament (1.01 KPRW, 101.7 ADRW) and against the best teams (1.20 vs top-five, six maps). “In my opinion, there is no wrong in losing if you are learning and feel that there is progress,” he says about what was going wrong for Vitality around this point. “We lacked closing some of the close games back then, and working on that helped us acquire the trophy in Cologne.” Vitality returned to action at Esports World Cup in July after the break but were cast out early after a loss to Virtus.pro in their second match, with flameZ missing out on a VP or EVP mention for the first time in the year after finishing with a meager 1.00 rating and three out of five maps in the red. FlameZ led the server in the win over The MongolZ (1.49 rating) and against Complexity in Vitality’s qualifying series (1.19 rating), with his K-D, 116.9 ADR, and 1.79-rated performance making all the difference on the Anubis decider to edge out a narrow victory.
- “We are all very good friends, you have to understand. We go once or two times a month to barbeque in Spinx’s house and we talk to his mum and father about everything, with his sister — it’s completely chill. We all know each other very well and we are good friends.
- FlameZ recorded a 0.78 rating in a 0-2 loss to Spirit, but even with a stand-in Vitality recovered by defeating Liquid and MOUZ to reach the semi-final before toppling to G2.
- “Krabeni deserves a shoutout as well, I feel like they will be super good as a duo. But I was also very happy to play with both of them individually and was super impressed.”
- From his first event, you can see how good he is, how sharp he is, and it’s a good sign for Falcons, but obviously on the other side, they will feel bad.
- “The coach, the players, the CEO, everybody in this project made me feel like I could be myself and just grind with them, finish practice and stay in TeamSpeak until late at night playing FACEIT every day.
- Head coach XTQZZZ later revealed that Spinx asked to explore his options after losing in Lisbon, but the matter was settled before the end of the break as the organization chose “not to make changes through Shanghai.”
- Vitality’s campaign in Germany started with utter domination over FURIA and a 1.87-rated map from flameZ, followed by a hard-fought 2-1 win over FaZe and 2-0 over MOUZ to lock in a spot in the playoffs.
- FlameZ led the server in the win over The MongolZ (1.49 rating) and against Complexity in Vitality’s qualifying series (1.19 rating), with his K-D, 116.9 ADR, and 1.79-rated performance making all the difference on the Anubis decider to edge out a narrow victory.
- FlameZ added that the experience in Cologne was his favorite moment of the year, emphasizing his appreciation of the team environment and how hard Vitality fought for the title.
- And although the kills flameZ got were more impactful than most, leading to round wins 70.5% of the time (2nd) and multi-kills 83% of the time (6th), he had the lowest fragging output of players in the top 20 (0.68 KPR).
- Seventh was as high as he could go, though, as the group above outperformed flameZ in most ways, both award-wise and statistically.
- With that lineup, flameZ qualified for his first Major, playing in the Challengers Stage of IEM Rio 2022 and falling just short of advancing to the top-16 after losing to Vitality in a three-map series.
- FlameZ mustered 1.10 and 1.20 ratings in those efforts, showing he could perform against the best European teams, and slowly OG inched up the world rankings.
FlameZ missed out on an EVP again in Dallas, where Vitality came up short in the title decider to a G2 who completed a fairytale run to the trophy with Flamez Jake “Stewie2K” Yip as a stand-in. FlameZ ended the tournament with a 1.08 rating and a VP mention despite Vitality’s immediate exit thanks largely to him having a few solid maps without any real disappearances. “I was really happy that it was my first team in the professional scene and super happy the organization didn’t take advantage of my inexperience. They treated me fairly and were super helpful during the whole period.”
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The Israeli rifler had two stand-out maps against the eventual champions — once in the group stage on Dust2 (1.82 rating) and another in an overtime victory on Anubis in the grand final (1.49) — but also suffered from a few lows in the group stage and on the decider in the final. He improved from a 1.06 rating in groups to 1.14 in playoffs, but it wasn’t enough to make up the difference and edge him past teammate mezii for the final EVP. Despite fulfilling one of his dreams to play alongside NertZ, flameZ’s stint on Finest was short-lived.
“We were all on the same page, very hungry, very sharp, very friendly with each other,” he says. “It felt like we were a really solid family, and lifting the trophy is super nice obviously but the journey there was extremely unforgettable.” His consistent showings against the best teams, 1.25 playoff rating, 1.02 KPRW, and 99.5 ADRW sealed the case for his second EVP of the year, but Vitality still went into the tournament break without lifting a piece of silverware. “Before the season started it felt really good, we came with confidence and I was already thinking ahead of time that this was our year as a team, but I’m not sure if it was the pressure or just that our effort didn’t match our expectations.” “Not making the Majors and being very inconsistent in the important games made me realize I had to start exploring myself and get better at the mental game,” flameZ says.
But I think we came here from a bootcamp that went quite well in the sense that everybody got into shape and good form. Discover our team jerseys to choose the version you prefer and to have it printed with your favorite player or your nickname. The announcement of the Israeli’s contract extension came just two days before the start of Vitality’s campaign in the Perfect World Shanghai Major Europe RMR A, where the team will fight for one of seven spots at the Major on offer. Shahar “flameZ” Shushan and Vitality have agreed to extend the Israeli player’s contract until the end of 2027, the organization announced Friday. Stay tuned to our Top 20 Players of 2024 ranking and learn more about how the players were selected in our introduction article. Seventh was as high as he could go, though, as the group above outperformed flameZ in most ways, both award-wise and statistically.