flameZ: "We played NIP lots online and lost every match, but now we are in better shape"

We chatted with Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan to hear his thoughts about the first day of play in Paris and OG's coming match against Ninjas in Pyjamas.

OG started their run at the BLAST Paris Major with a 1-1 record in the first day at the Major's Challengers Stage, in which a slow start against ENCE gave way to a victory over MOUZ, dooming Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong and company to the dreaded 0-2 pool.

flameZ and his teammates now have one more best-of-one before series play, and it will be against another one of the big name teams at the event, Ninjas in Pyjamas, a squad that OG has struggled against online.

The young Israeli rifler, who gave his thoughts on the upcoming NIP match, also briefly talked about the opening day against ENCE and MOUZ, as well as what the key was to turning up in the second match after a slow start at the tournament in Paris: good sleep.

What did you do for preparation before coming to the Major?

We practiced all of the maps, we played a lot of online tournaments to get into shape. There were many practices, like theory, workshops with each other to improve our relationships before the Major. I think mainly we played Brazy Party and those online tournaments to improve our focus on officials.

Did it help?

Yeah, I feel like we're more in shape right now. The ENCE game was like the rust you get out on the first game, but the second game we were in some form. We hit the headshots... It's feeling good.

Against ENCE you started on Anubis' CT side, which is always tricky. What happened?

Individually I just wasn't in the server. We were not so reactive, which punished us in a way. We just played a game that wasn't our game and they played well, but mainly we lost to ourselves. We didn't do the stuff we talked about, we had a lot of advantageous situations: 5vs4, 5vs3, 5vs2. Every time they had a play ongoing, one round it was maden behind CT, another it was dycha in a smoke, they were just in the right place at the right time and we just gave them the 3ks, the 4ks, and they ran with it.

The second match was against a tough opponent in the 0-1 pool, MOUZ. How did you prepare for a best-of-one in that situation?

I actually fell asleep! I went to the hotel and was, like, 'Fuck, I'm disappointed in myself,' and I went to sleep. I said I'd sleep for 30 minutes but ended up sleeping 120 minutes. But for some reason I slept really well.

We played against MOUZ in Katowice, we feel comfortable against them, we know how they play. We also kind of know how they are, we were bootcamping at Relog with them and were talking so much about CS with them and their coach. We shared visions too much and I had a lot of reads.

Not just that but also playing them a lot and I also kind of know xertioN — at the start it was kind of worrying, he was killing me three times in middle, but my team always capitalized on it. We didn't lose to ourselves that game, we played and gave it our best and we won.

You played xertioN, NertZ...

Too many Israeli people, man! [laughs]

You're playing NIP, no Israeli players there! What do you make of that match-up?

So yeah, the NIP game. I think we played them lots online and lost every match to them, but now I think we are coming in better shape to this match and we have a good chance against them.