flameZ CS2 Settings, Crosshair, Config

“With Katowice I was sick, so it was the tournament we just throw out the window, we don’t really care about it. It could have been better. Shahar “⁠flameZ⁠” Shushan decided to not renew his contract with OG and leave for greener pastures ahead of the 2023 fall season, ending a two-year stint with the European squad. 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. The 20-year-old appeared on HLTV Confirmed on Thursday and opened up about the issues with OG, his decision to leave, and why he chose Vitality.

ZywOo

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 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. The team was hamstrung early into their effort, however, when illness befell ZywOo and left Vitality with a deflated superstar when it mattered most. FlameZ found immediate success upon his move, making it to the semi-final of IEM Cologne in only his second event with the team and lifting a trophy at Gamers8 immediately afterward, where he was also named an EVP with a 1.12 rating. The roster led by Aleksi “⁠Aleksib⁠” Virolainen immediately made an impression, finishing as runners-up at IEM Summer and reaching the semi-final of ESL Pro League Season 14. FlameZ mustered 1.10 and 1.20 ratings in those efforts, showing he could perform against the best European teams, and slowly OG inched up the world rankings.

flameZ on joining Vitality: “The motivation was to succeed with another Israeli guy”

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.

EVENTS

FlameZ secures seventh place in his debut appearance on the Top 20 players of the year list thanks to an impressive stat sheet in the toughest competitions and against the best teams. “In Malta I was really demotivated sadly, I had a lot of excuses and wasn’t professional at all,” he explains of his up-and-down performances post-Cologne. “But I was really excited for Denmark. Around this time I feel like a lot of things popped up in the team which was tough for me to handle at the time and made my showing wobbly.”

Game Settings

• Stay tuned to our Top 20 Players of 2024 ranking and learn more about how the players were selected in our introduction article.
• ”I think it was pretty good and that we could improve on a lot of things here and we can still find for ourselves what works for us well.
• 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.
• “Two days before the RMR, nexa goes on leave and we take niko from the eternal bench and free agency,” the rifler said.
• “Spinx, NertZ, and xertioN are very good friends of mine, but they are also very good players. The motivation was to succeed with another Israeli guy, reunite and speak my language, some Hebrew, in my free time. I think it’s very valuable for me to have a few people on the team that I am very connected to.

His worst event of the year followed at IEM Rio, where Vitality lost to HEROIC in the group stage upper bracket final and were eliminated in the quarter-finals by MOUZ. A flat 0.94 rating and three maps rated 0.78 or below left flameZ without a VP or EVP for the third and final time in 2024. Vitality’s campaign in Germany started with utter domination over FURIA and a 1.87-rated map from flameZ, followed by a hard-fought 2-1 win over FaZe and 2-0 over MOUZ to lock in a spot in the playoffs. That supremacy continued in the LANXESS Arena, where Vitality shut down SAW’s Cinderella run with a decisive 2-0 to reach the best-of-five grand final.

flameZ

• 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.
• “The Major obviously is a hard tournament, but the challenge of being together for a month with a not-so-optimal relationship was tough on many. In the end, we gave our best, and if you do that you can’t judge yourself.”
• In OG, Nemanja “⁠nexa⁠” Isaković, Nikolaj “⁠niko⁠” Kristensen, and Adam “⁠NEOFRAG⁠” Zouhar were on map control in defaults but because those spread out defaults were so rare, it is unlikely flameZ will be too uncomfortable slotting into Vitality’s pack with apEX and Mathieu “⁠ZywOo⁠” Herbaut.
• There may be teething issues, but flameZ should be more than comfortable in his role even if his exact spots might change.
• FlameZ mustered 1.10 and 1.20 ratings in those efforts, showing he could perform against the best European teams, and slowly OG inched up the world rankings.
• “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.
• The rifler also explained that the possibility of playing with other Israeli players was a plus in any team he joined.

“Spinx, NertZ, and xertioN are very good friends of mine, but they are also very good players. The motivation was to succeed with another Israeli guy, reunite and speak my language, some Hebrew, in my free time. I think it’s very valuable for me to have a few people on the team that I am very connected to. The rifler also explained that the possibility of playing with other Israeli players was a plus in any team he joined. “We are all very good friends, you have to understand. We go once or two times a month to barbeque in Spinx’s house and we talk to his mum and father about everything, with his sister — it’s completely chill. We all know each other very well and we are good friends. 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.

“Around this time I felt like I met a lot of people that were key to keeping me intact with the game,” flameZ says. 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. In OG, Nemanja “⁠nexa⁠” Isaković, Nikolaj “⁠niko⁠” Kristensen, and Adam “⁠NEOFRAG⁠” Zouhar were on map control in defaults but because those spread out defaults were so rare, it is unlikely flameZ will be too uncomfortable slotting into Vitality’s pack with apEX and Mathieu “⁠ZywOo⁠” Herbaut. The Israeli rifler appeared on HLTV Confirmed to discuss the last months with OG, his decision to not renew his contract, and his arrival in 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 Flamez 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.”
“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.