Vitality’s recent downturn in form continued at Esports World Cup, a 5-8th exit representing the fourth tournament in a row where the once-indomitable squad have failed to trouble the top four of an event.
“I think sometimes you have to respect individual brilliance,” Shahar “flameZ” Shushan said when reflecting on his team’s quarter-final defeat at the hands of Spirit. “When some player at this level with a rifle takes it to his own hands and makes sure, like, everywhere we go he gets two, three entries, it’s going to be tough to get the game.”
Danil “donk” Kryshkovets’ superlative Mirage showing may have sent Vitality home from EWC, but it does not explain Vitality’s general dip in form over recent months. “I think we’re experiencing not the best moment in Team Vitality,” flameZ admitted, but he went on to assure us he is not worried in the long run.
“There is no other roster that I want to play with and deal with those problems with,” he stated firmly. “We have amazing five players, and we have an amazing staff and club, and everything in this team is just great. I think it’s just a tough time.”
A 2-1 loss to Spirit and you’re out of the tournament, a disappointing loss in your organization’s hometown. Give me your thoughts on the series, the first two maps were very close, but the third one, your team just disappeared.
I think on Anubis we clicked into things on CT a bit too late, like things that we remember and we did really well in the practice. Nuke was pretty close. I think we messed up a lot of rounds, but we won this map so, you know, you let it slide.
On Mirage, don’t feel like we disappeared. I think we did play well in the sense that we tried, like we tried our best and we had like really good situations and some of the calls were in really good positions. Like, you know, some rounds they have 4 B and we get A site and we lose this round, so this obviously a place where we disappear.
I think sometimes you have to respect individual brilliance, and today donk on Mirage was just… He took the show, and when some player at this level with a rifle takes it to his own hands and makes sure, like, everywhere we go, he gets two, three entries, it’s going to be tough to get the game, especially when there is another AWPer that’s so good managing another site. So I think that’s just something that we have to respect sometimes in Counter-Strike, that we won numerous times because of ropz, ZywOo… Like, just individuals popping off, and today it was his time to just pop off and, you know, destroy us.
I think it’s disappointing that it happens here in Paris
You had a six-match win streak against Spirit heading into today’s series, you had to go back to October 2024 to find the last defeat to them. Is that extra disappointing because, for the longest time, you seemed to have an edge over Spirit, and they’re a team you normally face in the playoffs?
Yeah, I think it’s disappointing that it happens here in Paris. You want to do good for the club and you want to do good for the players in your team that are from France. It’s definitely disappointing, mainly for the fans, because we wanted to go deep, and we felt we had a good opportunity facing an opponent we’ve faced so many times. But that’s Counter-Strike. Sometimes, you can’t deal with the pressure, or sometimes you just don’t play well. Sometimes, the other team plays really well. It’s just Counter-Strike, and we just have to deal with it.
Of course we felt confident coming into this matchup, and we knew both teams, like even us and them, were struggling. Right now it’s a lot of disappointment, a lot of negative feelings. I want to watch the game and figure out why we lost on Anubis perhaps and why some of the rounds were close. I think usually every game against them goes really close, and we [normally] edge a few last rounds or we come back, and that’s how we win the match. So this one feels a bit worse because we couldn’t do that, but, you know, we’ve won many games that they could have won as well.
jL is bringing a lot of good mood, a lot of good energy
You’re now turning your attention to BLAST Porto, where you’ll be playing with jL as a stand-in. Do you think that it can have a positive effect because it’s something new, it’s a new player, it’s refreshing, right? Or do you think the timing is just unlucky because you won’t be able to have the time to practice, to work on your issues, with mezii?
I think you’re right on both, in the sense that also we’re unfortunate that we cannot work on our issues with mezii, and I think this tournament he stepped up a lot. So it’s also for him a bit disappointing because now he’s in really good form and he has to take time off. But of course we understand him and Fiona are making that decision because there are not many times when there’s the birth of a new member in the family.
On the other hand, you know, jL is bringing a lot of good mood, a lot of good energy, and I think something that is really positive. I think what’s really good is that we’re so deep in the playbook, us five players and Rémi [XTQZZZ], the coach, that we sometimes forget to remind ourselves of the really basic things. I think with Justin, what’s going to be good is we can’t go deep in the playbook, we can’t have 16 strats on every map. What we can really take care of is that we put ourselves in a really good position to remember the basics. And also with William, you know, he’s going to be watching at home and he’s going to be giving his input.
Sometimes it’s a fresh thing, as you said. Like, a new energy, a new player, a tournament without stress. Obviously, we are going to be really disappointed if we go out last place, but if we manage to do pretty well, we won’t be sad if we lose in the semis to a really good team. We will be in a good position to just enjoy the event without any pressure.
And some of those tournaments… You know, Stewie2K won a tournament in ’24 against us. Not saying Justin is like Stewie, but it’s something that we keep in mind, that we can win this event if we keep our best.
I don’t worry. I trust this roster
This was the third LAN tournament in a row where you went out in the quarterfinals. Not to mention what happened in Bounty. There were obviously some special circumstances in Atlanta, and the match at the Major against Falcons could have gone either way, right? But are you concerned?
I think we’re experiencing not the best moment in Team Vitality, like in the CS department, because we are obviously not going as deep as we used to. I think, as you said, [in] Atlanta there were the circumstances that we took a break, and obviously people can say what they want about it, but we decided as a team that it was the right choice going into the Major. At the Major, you know, I do think that if we won this Falcons match, we would have been in a really good position to win the Major with the way we played and the way we were really deep into our playbook.
I think at this event we probably had the best prep we ever had for any event, so I felt really good coming to this one. I think sometimes we forget, not us as a team, but the best practice is officials, and we lacked officials coming into this, we lacked a bit of LAN play. That’s something we missed. Because Liquid in Bounty, and then they go up and they lose at EWC in the third stage. That’s online and us playing like shit, right? We can’t blame them for capitalizing on it, but I think that created a tough situation for us where we knew we could play really well but we hadn’t done it in officials, so we couldn’t put that print in officials and kind of learn from it. That was for sure on us because we were put in the situations to have this Bounty LAN before that and come here with much more to play with, but we obviously fucked up against Liquid.
To go back to your question: I don’t worry. I trust this roster. There is no other roster that I want to play with and deal with those problems with. We have amazing five players, and we have an amazing staff and club, and everything in this team is just great. I think it’s just a tough time. I’m a big believer in God, and I think sometimes God gives you a challenge to go through to become a better person and team. That’s something that I keep in mind. I’m not too negative about this. Obviously disappointing right now, but I’m not too negative in the long run because I believe in everyone on the team.
