flameZ: "The goal is to make everyone in the team the best in their role"

"Picking up the first trophy of my CS career," is flameZ's wish after securing his first appearance at the LANXESS Arena.

Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan has so far had a dream start with Vitality, winning five of his first six matches with the reigning Major champions to secure spots at the BLAST Fall Finals and at the IEM Cologne play-offs.

It was after that loss against Ninjas in Pyjamas in the BLAST Groups, however, when he had his first big learning moment with his new teammates. "After that NIP game I gained a lot of confidence," he says. "I felt bad, I didn't play so well individually and I didn't communicate well, but after the game I saw the support the team has to offer."

The 20-year-old also opened up about his transfer during the off-season, what the transition to such a tenured side has been like, and even shouted out some players from his local Israeli scene to keep an eye out for.

You're through to the LANXESS, I guess you're pretty excited about that.

Yeah, when I was in OG we made IEM Summer and ESL Pro League semis and final [at IEM Summer], but the only stage I played on was at BLAST tournaments and like the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage, but I never qualified for playoffs on LAN at an ESL event.

At BLAST you can win two best-of-threes and qualify, and yeah it's the same here, but we still have the chance to make the quarter-final or semis and the grind begins. I'm very excited, it feels like a proper tournament and stage. Potentially we can make the semi-finals if we perform good, so I'm very excited.

You have one more match to try and make it to the semi-finals. These games are always a bit strange because you have the weight off of your shoulders, but at the same time it's the final match, and do you want to warm up in the quarter-finals, or go straight to the semis...

To be honest, when I think about it, I don't really care. I want to win as much as I can. I want to win and qualify for the semi-final. Both have good and bad, maybe you don't get the quarter-final warm-up, but you have more time to prepare for the team you're going to play.

Me, personally, I want to win. Even if we lose we make playoffs, but I want to win and be like, 'Yeah, we're dominant' and then all of the other teams will be a bit scared or wonder 'What Vitality will do against us?'

It's a weird game, obviously, because you fight for something you gained already, but it's still a semi-final spot and gaining that these days is not a joke. You don't see many teams qualifying for the semis and winning the semis. I want to make the semis, I want to win the final, and I want to achieve everything the tournament has to offer.

How is it for you rolling into this Vitality squad. You're taking over from a legendary rifler of the game, dupreeh, one of the biggest legacies in CS:GO. How is it, stepping into his shoes and taking over that aggressive rifler position in Vitality?

Fitting in the aggressive rifle on T side, I think I've been aggressive all of my life, so I feel like the role suits me really well. On CT most of the positions have changed, so there I'm trying to fit in and improve on that. BLAST was very beneficial because we had a showmatch against NAVI in Germany, then I met the boys, we had three, four, five days of practice and then we flew to BLAST.

The first two games were just so easy, I didn't really get something going against the team to understand what's happening, but then NIP beat us. I think that's where the process sped up a lot. The team is very experienced and I think most of them experienced roster changes at some point.

The dupreeh part, I didn't think of it too much as pressure, I'm just very happy to have the option to maybe win some trophies. To be honest, after BLAST, after that NIP game, I gained a lot of confidence. I felt bad, I didn't play so well individually and I didn't communicate well, but after the game I saw the support the team has to offer.

apEX was talking to me, Magisk, Spinx, ZywOo, everyone, especially zonic as well. Everyone was communicating, putting a hand on my shoulder and saying, 'Look, this is how things are, you need to learn from them.' I've seen some of the players' weaknesses, they've seen my weaknesses, and I think that I fit more into the group just because of that game.

These two games we played right now, we gained a lot of confidence from them, but we still need to prepare for the next enemy. We can't be like 'Oh, MOUZ were not the hardest match-up for us, they didn't play so well and we played good.' And OG yesterday, on Anubis it was a bit shaky, so we cannot lift our foot from the gas because we still need to push hard and gain everything there is.

The goal is to make everyone in the team the best in their role. If I'm the best aggressive player, Spinx is the rifler of the year, I want to make ZywOo top 1, apEX the best leader, zonic, all of the guys, it's too much to talk about. That's the main goal, I think I fit more and more, but there's still some process, there's still so much. There's going to be many unexpected things and I will need to face them. Only time will tell how it looks like.

You went from an OG team that was young and now you're in a much more established team alongside some big names. What is it like, being brought into this team with a heavy jersey?

It's a good description, the heavy jersey. Coming into this team I was thinking a lot about how I'm mainly here to achieve trophies, but I also expected myself to perform very well. OG was very beneficial in the sense that I gained a lot of knowledge about how I am as a person and how I need to approach the game.

The huge difference is that when I joined Vitality I saw the amount of experience they have. Outside of the server, inside of the server, the words they share, the boundaries they have — natural boundaries, it's not like they come to me and say 'You can't do this here.' It's more like 'I respect what you guys have to offer.'

You want to fit them like a glove, but you also have to improve them, so you have to make some changes that will benefit you. I can't just come in with the same floor as dupreeh, so I'm slowly trying to gain my spot in the team.

We're winning some games, but there are still many things I want to experience with them. I was just happy playing with them; the best player in the world; zonic, the most legendary coach; Emil [Magisk]; Lotan, my friend; Dan... All of them are just very beneficial pieces to rely on in-game.

In the first map I think it was, I didn't have to do anything insane individually. MOUZ came A maybe seven times and they lost seven times, 5vs5, so I'm just very happy to be in a roster like that. All of the players teach me so much. Inside, outside, it's very beneficial for my life.

In the off-season Nertz talked about you joining Vitality and having to fill dupreeh's shoes. Was that him trying to get you to think about ENCE?

No, to be honest, I don't think so. I talked to Nertz about this and I think it was a fair opinion. Many people can read this tweet and say 'This makes sense.' It's not bullshit, or him trying to gain views on his tweet or gain something else out of it. Me and Nertz are good friends, as well, so I went to him and asked him what he thinks.

When I talked to him, he said, 'Vitality, your roster, looks like a threat. It looks very dangerous. Now they have you as a piece that can also shine in the game and it looks very scary.' When Nertz told me this I realized that it wasn't about me joining Vitality, it was just about why did Vitality make the decision to remove dupreeh.

There are many things in that regard that are not mine to worry about and I think Nertz's tweet was a fair opinion if you read it and look at it objectively. I was talking to Nertz, I asked this and he said: 'Look, you're the best fit they can get, but if I were in Vitality's shoes I wouldn't switch a player.' I said OK and we moved on with our day.

I didn't really think about it too much. Maybe I thought about my relationship with him, like what does he mean, what is his intention behind it, but once I figured out why he tweeted it, it's just another day in the office with him.

I totally thought it was him trying to get you to ENCE.

[Laughs]

Speaking of Nertz, he's a friend and someone you looked up to back in the day. It's good too se you all flourishing now. You just played xertioN, as well. How's the scene doing these days?

The Israeli scene these days... Back after HeavyGod came into the picture I thought that for the next three or four years there weren't going to be any new players coming up, but I see the scene and it's not getting bigger, but the quality is rising.
You have so many new players. There's a guy named Zax1e now that I didn't expect to be good, but he comes and plays CS:GO and does it very well. He has good communication, it looks promising. In some years we'll go back to the Israeli scene as some washed up players and having those pieces to carry us will probably be good.

Most of the players are doing well, most found teams, there are some that are still lacking in the team department, but they're still good. Right now everybody is good friends, it's exactly like before, but obviously we need teams, we need tournaments.

The Middle East region doesn't really support its players. We don't have tournaments. We have the RMR, but you need to fly to Dubai just to qualify for that and if you're like a 17-year-old guy I don't think you're going to fly to Dubai and pay for a PC, it doesn't look so realistic to me. So if they can achieve their success from getting invitations to tournaments, to play with the more experienced and better players in Israel, it will improve the scene a lot.

That's the case right now. The scene is doing very well, the people are getting way better as individuals inside of the game and outside of the game. Most importantly, people are very open with each other out of the game and there's not as much ego as before.

So talent scouts should keep their eyes open...

Should I give some names?

Yeah, give some names.

There's a guy, Zax1e, I think he's the youngest and probably has the most potential right now. HeavyGod is in Endpoint, shushan plays very well right now if you see his numbers. There are many more names, BluePho3nix...

It's so weird because I think in my head, 'Nertz, xertioN,' but they're already here in the tournament with me. I think mainly those three players are the ones that are performing really well.

anarkez is still really good, but I'm not sure what's going on with him, I think he's still in the Czech team and I'm not sure how things are going.

I think these players are really good and deserve an opportunity, but they need to work for it really hard because you don't get things easily if you come from a region with high ping and so on.

One wish for the LANXESS Arena.

Picking up the first trophy of my CS career.