flameZ: "We dropped our level. It's obviously tough to keep it up"

Despite admitting Vitality have waned, flameZ was also quick to credit his opponents after The MongolZ bested Vitality for the second time in a row.

Vitality may have dominated the world of CS across the first half of the year, winning seven tournaments on the bounce, but form has been harder to come by since the player break. Their latest tournament outing, at Esports World Cup, was ended in the semi-finals by The MongolZ.

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Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan still feels his team is competitive, even if they are not hitting the same heights as they were at the start of the year. "We're still competitive and getting to the semis, but we're not yet playing how we want to play and that's something we have to talk about more as a team."

The Israeli rifler was quick to credit The MongolZ for their performance in Esports World Cup, saying the Mongolian squad made it "quite tough to play our CS."

"It's tough when the team against you push Ramp, we have two people on Lobby and they both die, or we try to execute on A and Senzu kills two people through a smoke," he says.

With another trophy gone by the wayside, flameZ spoke to HLTV to discuss his team's elimination at the hands of The MongolZ and what has changed in Vitality to send them slipping from the top of the CS mountain.

Listen to the interview here.

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What are your thoughts after today?

Quite disappointed. I feel like on Mirage and Dust2 we had really good plans, but we couldn't hit our shots and there were small details that we failed on. It's completely our fault because we had a lot of good reads and good ideas in the game, we just couldn't punish them in this sense. It's quite disappointing because you have the game in your hands and let it go.

On Nuke, we try to play a round and they kill two people through a smoke. We didn't get to the situations we wanted because they shoot really hard, and every second round there was an entry there and there and there. It's tough to play against a team that is really sharp and is feeling it. So yeah, quite disappointing, but I will have to watch the game to see what happened.

You started in a rough spot on Nuke, 10-2 down at the half. I've had a lot of players saying Nuke T side is really hard to play; do you feel the same?

Yeah, right now Nuke T side is a big question mark for many teams. I think we actually have a good T side on Nuke, but they just played so good on CT side that it was quite tough to play our CS. Then we got to CT side and again, we started winning rounds but they just needed three rounds and that's it.

I wouldn't say it's tough, the T side, but obviously it's tough when the team against you push Ramp, we have two people on Lobby and they both die, or we try to execute on A and Senzu kills two people through a smoke. If that happens in a game you have to give it to them sometimes, give them a handshake because they played really well.

Obviously it's been tough for Vitality at the start of this season, so what do you think changed compared to last season?

It depends, because I feel we are getting back into good form slowly, but I think many teams are good and we dropped our level. It's obviously tough to keep it up, seven trophies in a row isn't something easy. We're still competitive and getting to the semis, but we're not yet playing how we want to play and that's something we have to talk about more as a team. Right now it's many small details, many small communications.

Today ZywOo was pretty sick so we had to help a lot, and we didn't manage as much as him as a player would do. I think we had good reads today, but it was just quite tough on the side that we couldn't hit our shots in many rounds where we had a really good situation.