zonic: "dupreeh didn't deserve to get benched in some way"

Vitality's coach shared the reasoning behind replacing Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen with Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan and discussed the first days of the new lineup.

Despite being the reigning Major champions from the BLAST.tv Paris Major, winning IEM Rio, and placing runners-up at the final event of the spring season, Vitality decided to look past current results and instead focused towards the long-term future of the team, replacing veteran dupreeh with young star flameZ.

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flameZ replaces dupreeh in Vitality

Parting ways with his teammate of over seven years was the toughest decision Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen has had to make in his career, the coach explained in an interview with HLTV at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, where the new Vitality are making their debut. However, it was one the coach deemed too good of an opportunity to pass.

"It was very difficult, also because dupreeh didn't deserve to get benched in some way," zonic said. "He hasn't had his best time in Vitality, but the last six months he really put everything into it with the main goal of winning the Major, and he just did everything that we asked of him."

"The decision was definitely not based on dupreeh underperforming, but more on looking into the future, also an economic perspective as well. We could get flameZ for free, and let's say we wanted to do this change on a later note, it might not have been possible."

zonic also explained why they have kept an eye on flameZ for some time and why they pulled the trigger once he became available, what role they expect the 20-year-old Israeli to fill, how he has integrated into the lineup so far, and what the goals are with the new lineup.

You can read or listen to the full 10-minute interview below:

Audio version: If you cannot see the Soundcloud embed below, head over here to listen to the interview.

Congratulations, how do you think your first game at BLAST with the new lineup went?

It went pretty well, above expectations when it came to the small things in between the players, communication, flashing for each other, calls from the fly from apEX but also from the players. I'm a really satisfied coach, that was something that we struggled with last season, to really be cynical when it came to these matchups where we were the favorites or had a good start, and today I think we did really well on both maps.

Is that something you have to focus on as a coach, when you're playing a team maybe you're expected to beat, you have to look past the result and look at the nitty-gritty of what's going on on the server?

Last season we had a lot of issues playing against those teams. And then we faced underdogs all the way at the Major, especially when it came to the playoffs, so it's definitely something that we need to show more respect to every opponent. Everyone can beat each other on a good day, so it's a lot about coming down to respect and the reaction from the players when things aren't going our way. We see different reactions, whether we play against G2 or a team like EG. For us it's something we have worked on and it's good to see that it's paying off also with the new player.

flameZ has come into the team, how has he settled in for you so far?

We've had very few days to practice. We've had to prioritize and I really spent some time before the rest of the team joined, together with MaT, my assistant coach, to put flameZ into our systems. We have some platforms, we put him into the playbook, the callouts and all these things.

He's a hard worker and he's really good at listening, so I'm extremely proud of how he has come into the team, but also from the rest of the squad. He has a wingman in Spinx, coming from the same country, but I also want to give a lot of credit to the rest of the team, to everyone, especially apEX for taking him under his wings. We do stuff outside of the server as well to make the team bond more and we had a bootcamp without PCs like we always do with this team, and that can be pretty critical when you only have like six or seven days to practice after coming from vacation. It's just something critical for our team that we have to do, we did some activities with the players and they got to know each other.

Is flameZ just a one-for-one swap for dupreeh's role? Has he just been dropped into the same roles and positions or have you had to move anything else around?

Obviously now we haven't rolled out the whole playbook, so I can't really comment on that, but I will say that the expectations we had for dupreeh the last season are somewhat similar to flameZ. So a guy who puts the team first, who sacrifices, who takes space, who's not afraid of dying, that is what we expect from flameZ.

Was flameZ the only choice for you guys in the off-season, or did you look at some other potential players?

Coming out winning the Major and IEM Rio and finishing the season in a grand final against Heroic, we were not stressed about finding a new guy, but we've had our eyes on flameZ for quite some time, and if we could get him then we would be willing to make a change. He is a guy who has huge potential, his work ethic is phenomenal and he's very young, so there's a lot of future aspects to it as well. I'm really satisfied that we could get him, and that was pretty much the only guy that we had on our radar.

Was it difficult to end up saying goodbye to dupreeh? Obviously, he's somebody you personally have worked with for a very, very long time, and especially after a very successful period.

It's hands down the toughest decision I've had to make in my 24 years, I think. One that came close was saying goodbye to one of my best friends back when I was playing, and that was in 2007, so I've tried this once before. But this time it was very difficult, also because dupreeh didn't deserve to get benched in some way. He hasn't had his best time in Vitality, looking over the one and a half years, but the last six months he really put everything into it with the main goal of winning the Major, and he just did everything that we asked of him.

The decision was definitely not based on him underperforming, but more on a different area of looking into the future, also an economic perspective as well. We could get flameZ for free, and let's say we wanted to do this change on a later note, it might not have been possible. Right now Counter-Strike is in a challenging state, where teams are finding it very difficult to make money and the whole ecosystem is probably not balanced that much. We see teams struggling financially, so that was also a part of the decision.

A case of, the opportunity came up and you couldn't really turn it down.

No. It's my job as a coach to first and foremost listen to my employers and to build for the future, and always stay competitive. Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions and I think we have seen a lot of teams switching when it's already too late and they're waiting too long. For me, I didn't want to do that. When I can see a potential, I have to go for it. Even though dupreeh is one of my dearest friends, I'm here to win trophies for Vitality, that's my job and that's who pays my salary.

Talking about that planning for the future aspect, how much does CS2 being on the horizon factor into your thinking? A lot of people have said that the people who are going to come out the best in CS2 are the young guys who are willing to play all the time.

In some sense one of the biggest factors, I would say. When you have a family and you get a kid, I tried it myself back in '12 when I had to make the decision to switch and continue playing from 1.6 to CS:GO, I knew it would take like 10-11 hours a day to get used to a new game. I know a lot of people say it's still the same game, it's just a facelift of CS:GO, there's a lot of changes to utility, the mechanics, maybe also the aim, we don't know. I would always prefer the new, younger generation when it comes to this. We still need to have players with experience, but I need five guys who are willing to put a lot of work into a new game, and I know a guy like flameZ is ready to do that.

What are the goals for this season for Vitality? You're one of the teams who haven't overhauled their team entirely, there have been a lot of teams who made huge amounts of changes. Does that mean you are targeting tournament wins again?

First and foremost we have to establish a new dream, and that was also how we used these days without PCs. Especially for the French guys, when you win a Major in your home town in front of your friends and family, what comes next? What can drive you to perform again? That is something we have been talking a lot about. I think the goal for 2023 is definitely to be the best team of this year. I think we're in a strong competition right now with a team like Heroic, so for us it's about proving ourselves, but I also told the guys that I don't expect us just to keep the same form as we did last season.

It takes hard work, and when you change a player you always take a step back because the amount of hours that we spent talking about our way of playing, the way we react as a team, and when you change that, and I've only changed four players in my career as a coach in these seven and a half years, you just automatically take a step back. This season, not having a Major, I don't think we could have found a better timing to make a switch, but the goal is definitely to be ready for CS2. But obviously, we want to finish being the best team of '23.