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Top 20 players of 2024: flameZ 7

Posted by AOXEN on February 21, 2024, 03:24 PM
But I think we came here from a bootcamp that went quite well in the sense that everybody got into shape and good form. Discover our team jerseys to choose the version you prefer and to have it printed with your favorite player or your nickname. 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 Flamez 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. 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.

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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. 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. "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."

How to Apply "flameZ" Crosshair

"I'm early on in my career and I'm very glad to have such a big trophy to my name with many more years to accomplish more. 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. FlameZ regularly played for exDT alongside shushan early in his career, recording his first recorded officials on HLTV with the team at Game In Mako Fest in March 2018. FlameZ tallied a team-leading 1.40 series rating in exDT's semi-final win over ShapeShift, but finished as runners-up to Aequus. 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. 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." "In the end, I think everybody felt bad, a lot of players felt burnout and it just wasn't fun to play as it was before in the other part of the year in 2022. Overall in 2023, the last part of OG was not full of good memories for me." "Two days before the RMR, nexa goes on leave and we take niko from the eternal bench and free agency," the rifler said.

Why was flameZ the 7th best player of 2024?

  • 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.
  • Aleksib was traded for Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković at the start of 2022, but a last-place exit at IEM Katowice and failing to qualify for PGL Major Antwerp brought about more changes with Maciej "⁠F1KU⁠" Miklas, Adam "⁠NEOFRAG⁠" Zouhar, and Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov joining mid-way through the year.
  • 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).
  • 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 missed out on an EVP again in Dallas, where Vitality came up short in the title decider to a G2 who completed a fairytale run to the trophy with Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip as a stand-in.
  • "Around this time I felt like I met a lot of people that were key to keeping me intact with the game," flameZ says.
"We were all on the same page, very hungry, very sharp, very friendly with each other," he says. "It felt like we were a really solid family, and lifting the trophy is super nice obviously but the journey there was extremely unforgettable." 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. "Before the season started it felt really good, we came with confidence and I was already thinking ahead of time that this was our year as a team, but I'm not sure if it was the pressure or just that our effort didn't match our expectations." "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. 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. "But it required, as I said in many interviews, to be a close team and have good relationships. "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." 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. "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." "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. 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." "Overall, in 2022, when degster came in and we had NEOFRAG and F1KU, I think we made the semi-finals in all the BLAST tournaments like the Spring Final and World Final. 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. 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • "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.
  • Vitality have been on a great run of late with wins at IEM Rio 2023, the BLAST.tv Paris Major and a grand final appearance at BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023.
  • Stay tuned to our Top 20 Players of 2024 ranking and learn more about how the players were selected in our introduction article.
  • "So it was a big boost to my motivation. He was a big voice in and outside the team, always down to talk about CS, life, or anything else and share his mindset and his view on things. I liked him a lot and still like him a lot, he is a player that I have always wanted to compete with at this high level."

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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. 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. 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. "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 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. "Krabeni deserves a shoutout as well, I feel like they will be super good as a duo. But I was also very happy to play with both of them individually and was super impressed." "I played with makazze in FPL and he seems really nice, he is super sharp in the game," flameZ says. At the turn of the year, four players in HLTV's Top 20 Players of 2020 list named flameZ as their Bold Prediction — a projection that took four years to come true. Four months into 2021, flameZ got called up to OG to replace Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad, getting the opportunity to consistently test his abilities against top international opposition. He spent seven months competing for the British organization in online tournaments as the coronavirus pandemic kept teams away from LAN, and his performances soon drew the interest of other organizations as the return to offline play drew near.

ZywOo

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. Despite fulfilling one of his dreams to play alongside NertZ, flameZ's stint on Finest was short-lived. "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. 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. 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. Vitality grabbed a convincing win in their Austin Major rematch against The MongolZ to head into the IEM Cologne playoffs unscathed. 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.