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. 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. The announcement of the Israeli’s contract extension came just two days before the start of Vitality’s campaign in the Perfect World Shanghai Major Europe RMR A, where the team will fight for one of seven spots at the Major on offer. Shahar “flameZ” Shushan and Vitality have agreed to extend the Israeli player’s contract until the end of 2027, the organization announced Friday.
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- A rejuvenated Vitality arrived at BLAST Fall Groups, a 1.19 average rating by flameZ and overall elevation by the team seeing them bounce past GamerLegion and Astralis (twice) to provide some much-needed confidence ahead of the next Super-Elite event of the year, IEM Cologne.
- “It felt like we were a really solid family, and lifting the trophy is super nice obviously but the journey there was extremely unforgettable.”
- FlameZ averaged a 1.33 rating, 1.54 impact, 1.08 KPRW, and 117.2 ADRW over seven maps, but the team missed another shot at a title and flameZ couldn’t ride the individual high of his performance for long.
- “To be honest I’m not so sure [what went wrong], it feels like so long ago,” flameZ says of the result.
- 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.
- There may be teething issues, but flameZ should be more than comfortable in his role even if his exact spots might change.
- 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.
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Known for his aggressive play, pinpoint aim, and sharp utility usage, he helped Vitality win IEM Cologne 2024 and multiple BLAST events. Despite our talk of flameZ as an entry fragger so far, there is not much overlap between he and dupreeh on his default positions on T side. The Israeli actually has a lower overall rating than dupreeh over our sample size of MVP events in 2023, coming in at 1.02 compared to dupreeh’s 1.03. 72% KAST is impressive, but is inflated by how much flameZ would get assists or traded deaths as a bombsite entry for OG. 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).
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- 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.
- The announcement of the Israeli’s contract extension came just two days before the start of Vitality’s campaign in the Perfect World Shanghai Major Europe RMR A, where the team will fight for one of seven spots at the Major on offer.
- Whether that is personal preference or OG’s style doesn’t really matter; either prove that he is willing to sacrifice himself for the win.
- “On the other hand, it got better with time, we always had good chemistry in the game, shared similar ideas, and also he has always been very creative so playing next to him was easy to adapt to as rifler.”
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- Winning Cologne could have marked a new period of success for Vitality after a difficult start to the year, but any momentum they hoped to ride off of the victory was brought to a grinding halt after they were cast out in the quarter-finals of ESL Pro League Season 20 by Eternal Fire.
- Focus in Israel soon turned to international competition and on making a name for yourself in FPL, but flameZ was still under 16 and ineligible to compete in qualifiers for most big events.
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flameZ CSGO Streaming Gear
The team was hamstrung early into their effort, however, when illness befell ZywOo and left Vitality with a deflated superstar when it mattered most. Days after being crowned the 2023 Team of the Year at the HLTV Awards Show, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire’s troops made their way to Copenhagen for BLAST Spring Groups and locked in a spot at the Spring Final. They started their campaign with an imperious 13-0 over OG, but their path through the event wasn’t without trouble, including a lost series to Astralis in the upper bracket semi-final and a pair of tight, three-map series against Falcons and in a rematch against Astralis in the group final to qualify. “The coach, the players, the CEO, everybody in this project made me feel like I could be myself and just grind with them, finish practice and stay in TeamSpeak until late at night playing FACEIT every day.
The Israeli rifler had two stand-out maps against the eventual champions — once in the group stage on Dust2 (1.82 rating) and another in an overtime victory on Anubis in the grand final (1.49) — but also suffered from a few lows in the group stage and on the decider in the final. He improved from a 1.06 rating in groups to 1.14 in playoffs, but it wasn’t enough to make up the difference and edge him past teammate mezii for the final EVP. 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). 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. It’s an interesting change and perhaps harsh on the five-time Major winner, who finally looked like he had adapted to what Vitality’s system required in the last few tournaments before the break.
flameZ
FlameZ wields his aggression differently, without ego and with a teammate nearly always ready to trade. Whether that is personal preference or OG’s style doesn’t really matter; either prove that he is willing to sacrifice himself for the win. FlameZ was Vitality’s third-best player with a 1.24 rating in the Elimination Stage, just 0.01 below Spinx, and he carried that through into the playoffs with a team-leading 1.54 rating on Nuke for a 1-0 start to the series. 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.
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“We lacked closing some of the close games back then, and working on that helped us acquire the trophy in Cologne.” 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. His consistent showings against the best teams, 1.25 playoff rating, 1.02 KPRW, and 99.5 ADRW sealed the case for his second EVP of the year, but Vitality still went into the tournament break without lifting a piece of silverware. 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. FlameZ and mezii headed to Copenhagen for the Major proper looking for their first Major titles, with the added pressure of Vitality fighting to defend their status as reigning Major champions.
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Top 20 players of 2024: flameZ (
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By the time 2023 rolled around, flameZ was on the wishlist of many organizations and his contract with OG was running out. He played at one last Major with them, finishing 12-14th at the Challengers Stage of the BLAST.tv Paris Major, and after IEM Dallas the newly-crowned Paris Major champions Vitality came knocking for his services. “Not making the Majors and being very inconsistent in the important games made me realize I had to start exploring myself and get better at the mental game,” flameZ says. “Then when the new roster came around with F1KU, NEOFRAG, and so on, it became a grind together and I was very committed.” “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 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 https://www.flamezzcasino.ca/ League.
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“Around this time I felt like I met a lot of people that were key to keeping me intact with the game,” flameZ says. “On the other hand, it got better with time, we always had good chemistry in the game, shared similar ideas, and also he has always been very creative so playing next to him was easy to adapt to as rifler.” FlameZ joined Vitality in mid-2023 on a free transfer from OG and quickly established himself as an X-factor player for Vitality. He has earned seven EVP nods for his highlight performances in that time, including four in their title runs at Gamers8, BLAST Premier Fall Final and BLAST Premier World Final in 2023 and IEM Cologne earlier this year. 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.
IGL Dan “apEX” Madesclaire started to use him as more of a brute-force entry fragger on T side, and he was even moved to spots like B Anchor on Mirage. Vitality played BLAST World Final with Audric “JACKZ” Jug as a stand-in for mezii, who took time away after becoming a father, and the event in Singapore started in predictably poor fashion. 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. 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). It must be something that he enjoys, and that can only have made him an appealing prospect for Vitality to pick up. A lot of aggressive players in the current meta are solo space takers, using their timings to find kills for themselves rather than for their teammates.
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