flameZ: "We felt like we had to celebrate that winstreak even though we lost"

"It's a good number, as well. It's a round number," flameZ said of Vitality's winstreak. "If it had gone to 31 I would feel less happy about that."

Vitality had their 30-match win streak snapped in the opening round of the BLAST.tv Austin Major's Stage 3 in a one-sided best-of-one against Legacy on Inferno. They bounced back quickly, however, and took out Nemiga to stave off the frightful 0-2 start.

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Vitality's 30-match win streak ends with BO1 loss to Legacy

Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan stopped by HLTV's microphone after the second match of the day to share his thoughts on the streak ending, on his team's start to the Major, and to make a bold statement on how the IEM Dallas curse is a hoax. "Any superstition can go to hell," he said emphatically, "who gives a shit!"

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Vitality are 1-1 after the first day. A bit of a scare to start out... but you can breathe a deep sigh of relief of not getting that 0-2 to begin.

To be honest, it's a big relief because we know how fast it can go. Even a great team like Falcons went 0-2. In some sense it's easy to get 2-0 and easy to get 0-2. Obviously, we can complain a lot about the format, but we can't complain, everybody has the same conditions, the same things, and we had to play the first map better.

Some rounds went their way that we couldn't do anything, three people died through smokes when they came B and you can't say anything, right? But we had some rounds that we should have won and we could have played way better and these are the rounds that we needed to step up in terms of the energy and dealing with the pressure a bit.

Then, on the good side of things, right now the game against Nemiga, we slowly got into the game and it felt like it was back-and-forth a bit at the beginning, and it's good to get into those matches that feel kind of sloppy in the beginning, but then you slowly start building confidence and get used to the conditions and the official mindset. I think for us, this is something that's going to bring us way more confidence and we're going to come with a lot more energy. On that end, you never know how the best-of-ones are going to go.

If you lose two pistols it may be too late to win the other rounds, so we might go 1-2 tomorrow, but we don't care because we're very confident in our map pool and we know that we cannot get eliminated without playing a best-of-three and that's something we really want to achieve.

Obviously, we want to go 2-1 and not get 1-2, because it's a lot of pressure. We're going to do our best and once we get into the best-of-threes we're going to feel more comfortable, but we still have to step up in the game, it doesn't matter best-of-one or best-of-three, MR16 or MR12.

You mentioned those guys popping in Inferno in that first match, it seemed like you and mezii were kind of struggling to keep that under wraps [in B]. What do you make of that match, getting into an early deficit and not being able to bring it back? Was it a bit suffocating? Also, I know you weren't thinking about the streak actively, but in a best-of-one it can just be gone like that...

We lost the second round and we had miscommunications, so some people didn't understand some people, and since then we kind of tried to get back slowly, but it was tough because from my POV as a player on the map it felt like we didn't really have an opportunity because someone dies there, then someone dies there, and I think they also played well and shot well.

Then, we had to slowly get back into things and once we were in this mindset and it was 6-1 or something and we were pushing hard, then two people died through the smoke and they have B site. I mean, this will happen and you always have the T side. It was 9-3, and to be honest, we're confident on T-side Inferno, so we still believed that we were going to win, but it just goes like that.

CS2 is so competitive and if the enemies shoot well and play well, you might not have an opportunity to do as you wish, in some sense. The winstreak itself, I remember watching on Twitter. I don't think it even have one like, it's just something I watched, and he wrote that on the 24th of January, or I can't remember when, but we lost to Eternal Fire on the 24th of January, and then we went on a 30 [game] winstreak and he wrote that you never know in life when you're going to hit the next peak and hit a good period.

To be honest, after we lost, we felt like we had to celebrate that winstreak even though we lost. It's a good number, as well. It's a round number. If it had gone to 31 I would feel less happy about that. But for me, we don't care about the winstreak. It's cool to have it after you, an addition, oh, we're 30, we're 31, but it's nothing that is so concrete that you're 10-3 and you're like, 'Oh guys, not the winstreak!' You don't give a fuck, it's the fucking Major, you know? I wouldn't care losing two maps here and winning the Major.

The main thing from that game, the key thing, was that we needed to step up and focus up on the energy because it felt like we had not enough pressure, and too much pressure, like we played like we're really pressured, but when we played grand finals, best-of-fives, with a lot of pressure on us, we stepped up. We initiated a lot of plays.

In this game, we didn't do as much, and obviously I think they played well, as well, so I think that the key thing for us was just to wake up a bit, wake up the energy and start playing CS because we didn't play CS, we didn't do our stuff, and this Dust2 game was a good example because on CT, I felt like in every round there was a plan. That gives you confidence as a player.

Considering the winstreak, as well, is it a bit of a weight off of your shoulders? Like, it's done and you can now just do your thing and not worry about it anymore. You were even joking after this match, 'Okay, beginning of a new streak.'

To be honest, I would have loved to keep going with the winstreak, go to 36 and win the Major, and party, party, but I don't think there will be a team in any sport that will just win and win and win for three or four years and just keep winning. But I don't really care, because I feel like we had good prep coming into this Major and if it went that way, it went that way, but it's nothing... Like, I don't care if we lost.

The next game is the next game, and we focused on it all of this time and there's no time to... Like, in some sense, now you think, 'Now we'll maybe start the new winstreak,' but it's actually irrelevant. Just focus game by game, map by map, round by round, there's nothing, it's just pointless to put so much pressure on the side and, to be honest, when you're [on a] 30 winstreak there's a lot of expectations on you and it's sometimes nice to play a bit calm, so...

Yeah, that's what I was saying. You got rid of that.

Let's start another one!

It's funny because when I was talking to apEX during the media day he was kind of saying the same thing, like, look, Legacy are coming here, they shouldn't even be here, this is all just bonus for them, so they'll be chill and we have this whole thing that could just end in a best-of-one. So you got it out of the way, and it really seemed like you guys were enjoying yourselves against Nemiga, the kisses were back after the match, so it looks like mentally you're in a good spot. Do you expect that with that out of the way, it'll be smooth sailing for Vitality?

To be honest, we never had that feeling even though we had a winstreak, we never felt like we were going to smooth sail anything. I think the key thing is to work out for every map and bring a lot of energy and be a menace — a team that is always going to be competitive.

We never want to lose 13-3 because it means we didn't play the game as we wished to play it, and I think the key, in some sense... Or not the key, but the main focus and the main thing that brought us to a 30 winstreak is that we just focused game by game and we didn't really put ourselves in this pressure of, 'It should be smooth, it should be an easy game,' we just kept going and going.

We played Legacy in a best-of-three at BLAST, or Dallas, and it wasn't so easy. They could have won, it could have gone both ways, but we didn't care about it. We kept going. Sometimes this 1% carries you through games and it's enough to get you a lot, and that's the main thing right now, we don't expect in CS2, especially in BO1, but in MR12, to just destroy everybody. Sometimes it would be nice to do so, but it's not that easy with the level of Counter-Strike.

Last question. I have a theory that the winners of IEM Dallas get cursed. What do you make of that?

I think your theory is a big theory, a very big conspiracy right now, like we didn't land on the moon. I feel like everyone is saying that, so...

No superstition?

It depends what you believe. I don't give a fuck. We could be the first one to break the curse! After we won the Grand Slam, usually people say that people lose and they go out. We won a tournament after the Grand Slam! Two tournaments, actually... Impressive!

For me, personally, I don't care. It's cool to win Dallas, it would be cool to win the Major, obviously, we need to give our best... Any superstition can go to hell, who gives a shit!