flameZ on MongolZ: "In the Major we kinda felt stressed; this was a redeeming moment for us"

Vitality grabbed a convincing win in their Austin Major rematch against The MongolZ to head into the IEM Cologne playoffs unscathed.

Three matches into the new season, Vitality still have yet to lose a map as they have extended their series win streak to 37 with a run straight through to the IEM Cologne semi-finals.

In their last match, they beat The MongolZ in a rematch from the BLAST.tv Austin Major final in convincing fashion, with the Mongolians only winning 13 rounds across two maps.

For Vitality, it was as close to a "redeeming moment" as it could be for a team that has not lost a series for seven months, Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan says when talking about the Major match, which went to three maps.

"In the Major we kinda felt stressed, there was pressure on us and we didn't play our game. This was a redeeming moment for us that we wanna show up and just play our CS against them," he said in an interview with HLTV.

flameZ also spoke about the changes that took place in two of their biggest rivals, Falcons and Spirit, and why he's not so happy with the addition of Overpass:

flameZ, congratulations on making it straight through to the IEM Cologne semi-finals. I talked to apEX yesterday and he was pretty happy about how you guys handled coming back from the break and not looking rusty. Tell me about it, having three relatively straight-forward games.

I think we had some games where we were kinda rusty. Maybe not overall a map, but a few rounds that were rusty or the communication was a bit sloppy. But I think we came here from a bootcamp that went quite well in the sense that everybody got into shape and good form.

After the player break usually the issue is that you can't connect the communication and you're not confident enough in the plays, you still don't feel it. For some reason we're really feeling it, it's going really well for us. I think it's also the DNA of the team, we start playing as a team and then we start doing solo plays and this kind of stuff.

So far it's working well. The beginning of the season so far, we're very confident in the plays, in the calls. This map against MongolZ now we threw some rounds, 4v3 and 4v2 and we're going for duels, but it's better for the players to go for the duels than not do anything and be scared.

I think in the Major we kinda felt stressed, there was pressure on us and we didn't play our game, and this was a redeeming moment for us that we wanna show up and just play our CS against them. I think the key thing is that we get better game by game, but we're also coming from a good bootcamp very confident in these games.

Were you surprised to see how this group unfolded? A lot of people were looking at Falcons and whether they can take it further, but it didn't go their way.

It's so weird to look at CS nowadays. I expected Falcons... I knew MongolZ could very well beat them, but at least I expected Falcons to go from the lower bracket. I think it was a very big surprise for me to watch Falcons go out of the tournament so quick. Especially, just the skill alone is probably enough to win some events.

It really shows how competitive CS is, that skill is not [enough], it's about a lot of things. For them there is gonna be a lot of time to practice and this kind of stuff that will help them show their potential. I think you can say, for me, kyousuke is already a good signing. From his first event, you can see how good he is, how sharp he is, and it's a good sign for Falcons, but obviously on the other side, they will feel bad.

I didn't expect the group to unfold like that, even though when you think about it it's not so far from reality. MongolZ made the final of the Major and we've been doing really good so far. Some would say it makes sense that the team that is so stable and the firepower is always on point to go through and beat Falcons.

What are your thoughts on the other teams? Spirit we see playing the other group final, potentially on your side. Tell me about them and whether you think they have upgraded with this latest addition.

I don't know zweih that much other than playing FACEIT against them. I think magixx, from what I saw, was always bringing good mood and good vibes, and I think every player in the scene knows that magixx is literally a sweetheart. He's so nice, he's so genuine. I'm not sure how zweih is, but that's something that every team needs in order to have it good outside of the game, a very good team chemistry outside of the game.

On the other hand, maybe they have it, I don't know. I guess they know way more than me about what they needed for the team, and maybe they looked for a certain CS player that they needed more for just building the system better. I'm not sure.

They will always be competitive - we saw donk yesterday, this guy alone can beat any team in the world, so I think it's just a matter of, if they grind and he's the right fit outside of the game, I think it might look very good. Just, for me, magixx was to some extent from the outside he was a key player in this.

Overpass - thumbs up or thumbs down and why?

Thumbs up, but it's because it's kicking Anubis. It's just annoying that we got the same map back. Train came back after a few years, and it came back quite different - the same principles but quite different. I like the change of Train, but Overpass I feel like we got the same map without some water. That's something they needed to change a bit.

Everybody's gonna be up to meta, they just need to check their textbook from two years ago and they're fine. If CS wants to change and make game-changing moves, they need to make a new Overpass, a different Overpass, or bring a map that hasn't been played in a lot of years.