flameZ: "We welcome the nervousness and stress because we're in a great position as a team"

"I think every team would want to be in our situation," he said as Vitality prepare to play for the ESL Grand Slam prize.

Vitality are through to the grand final of IEM Melbourne 2025 after breezing past The MongolZ in a one-sided series to extend their win streak to 20 matches.

On Sunday, they will have the opportunity to claim their fourth title in a row and get their hands on the $1 million ESL Grand Slam prize. But first, they must take care of business and move past a highly motivated Falcons team that just made light work of MOUZ.

Date	Matches
IEM Melbourne 2025
27/04/2025	Falcons 08:30 Vitality	Match

"I don't want to come with too many expectations tomorrow," Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan told HLTV after the match. "Because let's be real: it can go either way.

"And hopefully, we just play consistently and we compete. And if they play better as a team, they will deserve that fucking win, you know? But we just want to not lose to ourselves. That's the main goal."

flameZ echoed Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's comments about wanting to get the Grand Slam out of the way right now to prevent it from becoming a distraction closer to the Major. It's another source of pressure heading into the grand final but one that flameZ says his team is welcoming.

"For me, and I believe for everybody in Vitality, and we talk a lot about it, we are nervous but we are happy to be nervous, you know?" he said.

"I think every team would want to be in our situation. We welcome the nervousness and stress because we're in a great position as a team right now. And for us, that's the thing. Just focus on the next match and the next match and the next match. And keep going until it ends."

Read more in the interview below, or listen to it on Spotify.

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A 2-0 victory and you're through to the final. You made it look very easy. Did it go as you expected?

I think it went a bit easier than expected in some sense. I think individually, we were really on, really sharp, and they were quite off, but they still kept going with the same duels, they still kept taking a lot of duels, but they went our way most of the time. I think if they were a bit sharper, they would have won more rounds. But I don't know if it would have been closer because we were just shooting so well.

It was really good from our side and we also made a lot of decisions. We were talking before the game, like, 'We'll make a lot of mid-round choices; let's do mid-round, like, let's make a choice. Let's not leave it up to them.' And we didn't need to do that. Because 1:25, the round is over. Every fucking round. I didn't expect it to go that fast that way.

 Did you watch the Falcons match before your series?

I watched just the first half of the second map. I watched it a little bit.

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But looking at the score and considering that you played two close games against them in Lisbon, were you surprised with the level Falcons were able to show here today?

 Well, to be honest, I think Falcons, Spirit, and us will always have the superstar thing. You know, with the level of ZywOo, m0NESY, and donk, you might always get a win because the guy changes the game. But in the rounds I was watching, it was actually that MOUZ couldn't get it good because xertioN was basically getting them 5v4s almost every round on Nuke T side and they kept losing the 4v5s. And also Falcons played well in those situations.

But I think it was a lot, like, MOUZ could have traded better, they could have done more stuff that would have led them to more rounds and maybe a different game result. I think when you have such good players, like NiKo, m0nesy… TeSeS is playing out of his mind, and you just put those people… kyxsan as well. You have nobody to bash in this team. So when you have a team like that, it's very tough in the sense that you have so much skill and people and just rely on their individual skill and their communication level to just align things.

And plus, I think they're in a very good mood. I don't know if 'honeymoon' would be the correct word because they also won the last tournament. But just with very good energy and m0NESY coming into the team, adding a lot of stuff to the team, and reuniting with NiKo, I'm sure it's a relief for NiKo to know that there is such a superstar behind him. So I think for them, playing against MOUZ was just a matter of individuals shining because no way do they have, like, a deep playbook right now and m0NESY is on board with everything. Because he joined the team a few days ago.

 You played against them in the group stage. It was a 2-0 series but the first map was very close. They almost won it, but you came back and won it in overtime. Considering that and the fact you're now going to play a best-of-five series, what sort of expectations do you have?

The first map, they obviously played well, and we were kind of slow in terms of individual skill. I try not to come with expectations, like we'll play well or not. I just try to come with the focus that I will do my best as a teammate and I'll be good on the entry side in terms of communication. I don't control if I will do headshots tomorrow or not. And from that, hopefully that will help my team do the same towards me and in general. I don't want to come with too many expectations tomorrow. Because let's be real: it can go either way. And hopefully, we just play consistently and we compete. And if they play better as a team, they will deserve that fucking win, you know? But we just want to not lose to ourselves. That's the main goal.

 Just how important is tomorrow's match in the grand scheme of things? Because if they win tomorrow, they will not only win their second title in a row, but they'll also gain a lot of momentum heading into the Major, it feels like.

I think in the grand scheme of things, as you said, it's an important match for us to win just for ourselves. Also, closing out the Grand Slam at the first opportunity is good because then you run yourself into a lot of pressure during the season. For them, I don't think it will change a lot. I think if they win, they'll obviously, like, believe a lot and have a lot of potential. But even if they lose, they will see what they have done with just a few days of practice. And all those players know how to win tournaments. And the coach specifically, from working with him, he will make sure they know that it's not a bad result and that they have been doing really well.

It is important for us because we don't want to run into more pressure in Dallas or Cologne, these kinds of tournaments. We just want to close it out as soon as we can and we have the opportunity to do so because we're in the grand final. I think the team is in good shape and form individually. Everybody is shooting well. So that's the main thing for us. Like, we'll try to do our best, but obviously we try to focus less on the result and more on the process. If we play well tomorrow and we play to our best level, we know we can beat any team in the world.

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You're now, as you said, one win from the Grand Slam. Eyes on the prize and time to wrap it up, right?

It's a tough situation when you have so many things going on that you don't want to lose. It's, like, the 20-game win streak, the Grand Slam, the three tournaments in a row that can now become four. It's something that, as a player, for me, it's weird to deal with. It goes up and up and up until we lose, I guess.

It's going to be tough as a team, but that's why we have great staff and coaching staff and the performance coach behind us to shift the focus from thinking about the Grand Slam to thinking about beating Falcons in the final. And that makes the energy a little bit better because you don't want to… You know, when we were 10-2 in the half against The MongolZ, I was thinking about Falcons tomorrow, and this is something I always try to get back to. 'Okay, I'm still playing The MongolZ, and they can still get competitive as fuck.' Right? So I can't just let it slip from my hands.

And it's going to be the same tomorrow because, you know, we are going to think it might go either way. If it goes to shit to you, you might think, 'Ah, fuck, maybe you're going to lose that.' But it's always about shifting the focus back to the original target, which is beating Falcons, and less about thinking, 'The Grand Slam is nice and maybe we go on vacation there and there.' You just want to focus on the game. That's the main thing for us.

For me, and I believe for everybody in Vitality, and we talk a lot about it, we are nervous but we are happy to be nervous, you know? I think every team would want to be in our situation. We welcome the nervousness and stress because we're in a great position as a team right now. And for us, that's the thing. Just focus on the next match and the next match and the next match. And keep going until it ends.