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.”
Top 20 players of 2024: flameZ (
That changed when Uniquestars, Israel’s best team, lost to MVP PK at IeSF World Championship — to the surprise of players in Israel who did not know any of the other teams at the event – and after Noah „buue” Nethanel Türnpu became the first Israeli player to qualify for FPL in December 2017. 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. 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. 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. „Then 2023 we started out with Katowice and BLAST. It was very close to getting playoffs at Katowice and with BLAST we were very close to qualifying for Washington,” he began.
flameZ on joining Vitality: „The motivation was to succeed with another Israeli guy”
„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 Flamez 2023, the last part of OG was not full of good memories for me.” „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. 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.
- It must be something that he enjoys, and that can only have made him an appealing prospect for Vitality to pick up.
- „On T side I fit because Vitality need a guy that runs and doesn’t give a single fuck and sacrifices, and I think I fit that background pretty well,” he said.
- „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.
- „Around this time I felt like I met a lot of people that were key to keeping me intact with the game,” flameZ says.
- Known for his aggressive play, pinpoint aim, and sharp utility usage, he helped Vitality win IEM Cologne 2024 and multiple BLAST events.
- „It was very weird,” flameZ says of how winning two trophies at the end of the year set up expectations coming into 2024.
- „Then when the new roster came around with F1KU, NEOFRAG, and so on, it became a grind together and I was very committed.”
Vitality extend flameZ contract through 2027
„During my time with apEX, he has always told me that it is never guaranteed you will be on the winning side and even reaching playoffs and being able to compete on big stages is something we should be thankful for,” flameZ says when asked how he reflects on Vitality’s only title victory of the year. „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. Known for his aggressive play, pinpoint aim, and sharp utility usage, he helped Vitality win IEM Cologne 2024 and multiple BLAST events.
flameZ
OG barely missed out on qualifying for PGL Major Stockholm, the first after the pandemic, and exited in groups at IEM Winter to end the year on a sour note. 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. FlameZ took part in a few small tournaments early on, but soon gained motivation to step out of his older brother’s shadow after he was taunted online. Join our Discord community to discuss CS2 utility strategies, share experiences, and get the latest updates with fellow players. Despite a year with only one trophy, albeit at the prestigious IEM Cologne, flameZ says there isn’t a specific moment or memory that he would rather forget. „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 terms of fitting within the existing team structure, flameZ seemed confident about his ability to fill the roles left by Peter „dupreeh” Rasmussen. „On T side I fit because Vitality need a guy that runs and doesn’t give a single fuck and sacrifices, and I think I fit that background pretty well,” he said. „I feel comfortable playing aggressively and giving my teammates the feeling that someone is sacrificing for them, especially in a team with someone that can close any 1vs4 round or 1vs3, or 1vs2 like ZywOo. FlameZ chose to join Vitality and reunite with Lotan „Spinx” Giladi for the first time since 2020, when they both played in the same FPL/FPL-C circles and coincided in mix-teams such as Tikitakan and Elites. The move was one of the highest-profile transfers in the off-season, teaming up the Israeli rifler not only with his countryman, but also Mathieu „ZywOo” Herbaut.
- 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).
- „You get the chance to play with a guy that looks like one of the best teammates there is on the planet, the best player in the world statistics-wise, and he’s so good man.”
- Whether you’re a pro player or a passionate fan, our platform is your one-stop destination for all things Counter-Strike 2.
- 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.
- „I feel like there were many moments or people that changed something for me or my mindset toward going pro,” flameZ says.
„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.
apEX
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. „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.”