He didn’t try to qualify for FPL, believing he couldn’t because of a bad PC, but Roey “ZENCER” Kimhi’s words and advice became a zenith to unlocking flameZ’s potential. FlameZ secures seventh place in his debut appearance on the Top 20 Players of the Year list by 1xBet and SkinClub thanks to an impressive stat sheet in the toughest environments.
EVENTS
The 20-year-old then confessed that joining a tier-one team such as OG did not exactly match his assumptions. “I expected more to play whatever we can to get in form, and play those big tournaments like last Major was with Apeks, Monte, 9INE,” he explained. “They come in with like 500 or 200 officials in a year and come up against a team that has like 40 so, of course, they are going to be prepared. That’s the best practice you can wish for, to play officials at this amount.” Shahar “flameZ” Shushan and Vitality have agreed to extend the Israeli player’s contract until the end of 2027, the organization announced Friday. Stay tuned to our Top 20 Players of 2024 ranking and learn more about how the players were selected in our introduction article. Seventh was as high as he could go, though, as the group above outperformed flameZ in most ways, both award-wise and statistically.
“At the start, it was tough because he was way older than me and sometimes things got personal in the game with common team issues,” he says. “I wouldn’t know how to separate it, and maybe both of us didn’t know, so it might have been a bit awkward. FlameZ is young, still ready to be moulded by apEX and Danny “zonic” Sørensen into the type of entry fragger they want him to be. He is no superstar statistically speaking, but he has a selflessness that rarely comes with his type of talent. The five-time Major champion is now 30-years-old, ten years older than flameZ, so there is an element of future-proofing to this move. FlameZ has also got more of that unbridled aggression apEX loves in JACKZ, a natural inclination to risk-taking that dupreeh had to manually unlock.
- He didn’t try to qualify for FPL, believing he couldn’t because of a bad PC, but Roey “ZENCER” Kimhi’s words and advice became a zenith to unlocking flameZ’s potential.
- “But to be honest, I loved sitting behind shushan and watching him play. And later on when I got a PC, it was my place to be social with people, to talk, share experiences, and have a common goal. Also to some extent, it was an escape route that made me feel really at peace.”
- The Israeli rifler immediately became one of the most sought-after free agents on the market, and quickly found a new home with the current Major champions, Vitality.
- Some of that concern can be allayed by the fact that, despite nominally being a lurker in passive defaults, he was OG’s dedicated entry fragger.
- It started with the Israeli spacetaker tallying his highest-rated map of 2024, a 2.47 rating in a 13-0 over Astralis, and was followed by five maps with a 1.23 rating or better (three above 1.40).
- He was the only one to go positive on Vitality (1.22 rating) in an 8-13 defeat on Mirage, but dropped off on the decider (0.68) as FaZe stole away the victory and brought Vitality’s season to a dismal end.
flameZ
The conversation then moved on to his decision to not renew his contract with OG ahead of the summer break. “What I wanted to do in CS is to pick trophies up and try to achieve an era with a team, a legacy, and play the best I can,” flameZ explained. “I think with OG, for many years it’s not going to be possible or as possible as I see for a team like Vitality.” “Two days before the RMR, nexa goes on leave and we take niko from the eternal bench and free agency,” the rifler said.
- “At the start, it was tough because he was way older than me and sometimes things got personal in the game with common team issues,” he says.
- That is according to Sebastien “KRL” Perez, who has reported that Spinx is expected to leave Vitality in 2025 after both sides “expressed mutual interest in parting ways.” The French insider was also the first to report flameZ’s contract extension.
- Losses to ENCE and HEROIC, the series against the latter featuring a win and two defeats, gave a brutal reality check to a Vitality that arrived in Poland hoping to coast off their late 2023 success.
- “I was really happy that it was my first team in the professional scene and super happy the organization didn’t take advantage of my inexperience. They treated me fairly and were super helpful during the whole period.”
- “The Dallas one, well we obviously had this game against G2 and lost to a comeback, but this did not make me lose any belief in the team,” flameZ says.
FlameZ recorded a 0.78 rating in a 0-2 loss to Spirit, but even with a stand-in Vitality recovered by defeating Liquid and MOUZ to reach the semi-final before toppling to G2. FlameZ was back to his best at the BLAST Spring Final with a 1.16 rating across 12 maps, but it was only good enough for a 3-4th finish. He tallied his second-highest-rated map of the year against FaZe in the quarter-finals (2.32) and was Vitality’s best performer in the semis against Spirit, ending the series with a 1.22 rating. With that lineup, flameZ qualified for his first Major, playing in the Challengers Stage of IEM Rio 2022 and falling just short of advancing to the top-16 after losing to Vitality in a three-map series. OG were far from title contenders, however, with flameZ and degster often relied upon for any upset Flamez wins, and one of their only notable playoff appearances came at BLAST World Final 2022 with a run to the semis over HEROIC and Vitality.
Considering the names around him and especially above, the aforementioned awards were not the strongest, as he was never in MVP contention other than in Cologne. “Even though it is the only trophy that we won, it was an amazing experience and memory for me and all the people related to this experience have a dear place in my heart. No matter the circumstances that came later on.” Head coach XTQZZZ later revealed that Spinx asked to explore his options after losing in Lisbon, but the matter was settled before the end of the break as the organization chose “not to make changes through Shanghai.” A loss to Eternal Fire in the Elimination Stage’s opener — where ZywOo was the only one who finished positive for Vitality — could have spelled doom for the reigning Major champions, but flameZ and Spinx took the reins to help charge past The MongolZ, Imperial, and Complexity to reach the playoffs. “I got different positions and ruggah and kakafu wanted me to have more responsibility which was very valuable for me to explore myself, and the org was always seeking improvement and added people to try to help us in the mental aspect which was very beneficial to me.”
Stat check: How will flameZ fit into Vitality?
FlameZ continued to be exceptional under the bright lights of the Royal Arena against Cloud9, posting a 1.28 rating on Inferno and putting on another masterclass on Anubis (2.03 rating, 18-6 K-D) for a swift berth through to the semi-final, but there Vitality had their Major run halted by FaZe. Losses to ENCE and HEROIC, the series against the latter featuring a win and two defeats, gave a brutal reality check to a Vitality that arrived in Poland hoping to coast off their late 2023 success. “It was very weird,” flameZ says of how winning two trophies at the end of the year set up expectations coming into 2024. “We just got mezii and had a staff change and it instantly clicked, we were all hyped and won these back-to-back BLASTs. The coronavirus pandemic then allowed flameZ to fully focus on Counter-Strike, and he continued to grind FPL-C while playing for Adaptation.
Teammates
“But I love niko so I was convinced and very happy with this decision. It starts off and it was so shaky, it did not feel stable at all, and Pro League was just a shit show for us. And although the kills flameZ got were more impactful than most, leading to round wins 70.5% of the time (2nd) and multi-kills 83% of the time (6th), he had the lowest fragging output of players in the top 20 (0.68 KPR). He was also not very impressive in round wins overall with a 0.92 KPRW and a kill in only 57.8% of round wins, again the lowest of all players in the top 20. “We expected and felt like we played well at the time, but we were not able to close this close match against them. This best-of-three was also tough for us back then with the veto, but EF proved to be very lethal against any team. He was among the contenders for the MVP award but was pipped by teammate ZywOo, who wasn’t quite as consistent as flameZ throughout the event but stepped up when it mattered most in the playoffs to consign his teammate to an EVP instead.
The move to Endpoint offered flameZ his first true shot at regular tier-two competition, and with them he won ESEA MDL Season 35 Europe (averaging a 1.25 rating over 29 maps) and qualified for his first season of ESL Pro League. “I feel like there were many moments or people that changed something for me or my mindset toward going pro,” flameZ says. “The first one would be the qualification to FPL/FPL-C. This made me grind and sort of push, maybe not with the sole intent of going pro, but enjoying the circuit and improving. Playing alongside his brother was not without its difficulties either, with flameZ recalling how team issues could be hard to resolve. “On CT I am not sure how it will go, I’d like to say I fit the roles, but at this kind of level any player should know that he’s going to sacrifice something and try to do the very best and try to master the site he’s playing.” “I talked to the coach and heard his plans, but told him that there are some offers that if they are going to come, I will go play for them. I told them beforehand in Dallas that if these offers come I will explore them deeper than usual.”
His only negative map (0.90 rating) came in the decider against G2 in the semi-final, which Vitality lost in overtime to bow out of the Spring Final in 3-4th place. He put in another strong shift against FaZe (1.20 rating) and started well against Astralis in the semi-final, but deflated showings on three maps — two coming against MOUZ in the final — stopped him short of another EVP as he ended the event with a 1.06 rating overall (0.98 in playoffs). Seeing Lotan “Spinx” Giladi and Guy “anarkez” Trachtman compete in cups featured on HLTV and having the chance to qualify for FPL-C — where Israeli players could break out internationally — offered an extra level of motivation.
Why was flameZ the 7th best player of 2024?
FlameZ added that the experience in Cologne was his favorite moment of the year, emphasizing his appreciation of the team environment and how hard Vitality fought for the title. “It felt like we were a really solid family, and lifting the trophy is super nice obviously but the journey there was extremely unforgettable.” “In my opinion, there is no wrong in losing if you are learning and feel that there is progress,” he says about what was going wrong for Vitality around this point. “We lacked closing some of the close games back then, and working on that helped us acquire the trophy in Cologne.”
FlameZ took home his third EVP of the year in Cologne courtesy of his 1.19 rating (1.14 playoff rating) and continued consistency throughout the tournament (1.01 KPRW, 101.7 ADRW) and against the best teams (1.20 vs top-five, six maps). Vitality returned to action at Esports World Cup in July after the break but were cast out early after a loss to Virtus.pro in their second match, with flameZ missing out on a VP or EVP mention for the first time in the year after finishing with a meager 1.00 rating and three out of five maps in the red. FlameZ led the server in the win over The MongolZ (1.49 rating) and against Complexity in Vitality’s qualifying series (1.19 rating), with his K-D, 116.9 ADR, and 1.79-rated performance making all the difference on the Anubis decider to edge out a narrow victory. Vitality had little time to recover from that defeat as the Europe RMR for PGL Major Copenhagen approached, but they met that challenge with aplomb. ZywOo put up mind-boggling 2.97 and 2.68 ratings to get his side past GamerLegion and HEROIC in the best-of-one openers, and the team recovered from a loss to Cloud9 in the 2-0 pool by exacting revenge for Katowice over ENCE in two maps (where flameZ averaged a 1.51 rating) to advance to the Major.