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“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.” His 1.13 rating in arena matches is once again even better than his average and even on par with the next group of players above. FlameZ recovered to a 1.08 average (1.14 playoffs), which was good enough for another VP mention before the team traveled to Shanghai for the Europe RMR. FlameZ missed out on a VP or EVP mention for the second time this year with a 0.99 rating, but wasted no time in entering a renaissance at BLAST Fall Final where he had his best event of the year. “The Dallas one, well we obviously had this game against G2 and lost to a comeback, but this did not make me lose any belief in the team,” flameZ says.
- “I talked to the coach and heard his plans, but told him that there are some offers that if they are going to come, I will go play for them. I told them beforehand in Dallas that if these offers come I will explore them deeper than usual.”
- 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 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).
- “The first one would be the qualification to FPL/FPL-C. This made me grind and sort of push, maybe not with the sole intent of going pro, but enjoying the circuit and improving.
- 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.
- 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.
- “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.
FLAMEZ CHICKEN INC
Vitality then reached back-to-back grand finals at ESL Pro League Season 19 and IEM Dallas, but were stopped short of lifting the silverware by MOUZ and G2. ZywOo was back to his best in Malta and helped his team romp through the group stage undefeated with a 1.71 rating over six maps, with flameZ’s own efforts good for a 1.19 rating ahead of the playoffs. Local LANs offered flameZ and other youngsters the opportunity to prove themselves, but the Israeli scene remained isolated, focused mostly on forming the best teams to win the few local LANs held each year.
Team Vitality
It became too hard for flameZ to juggle school, team practice, and pick-up games, and five months in, he stepped back from Finest to focus entirely on qualifying for FPL-C. 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.
The young Israeli also played his first international LAN when offline play returned at the Play-in stage for IEM Cologne, where he averaged a 1.01 rating in five maps after a poor series against BIG dragged his numbers down. 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. ApEX plays a lot of rotator positions to help his calling, but he has shown a willingness to lose them if the timing is right. Dupreeh has left behind a few rotator spots like A Short on Flamez Inferno, and apEX may well move back to B on Mirage to give flameZ Connector.
How to Apply “flameZ” Crosshair
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. 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. “The Major was a big struggle with the ZywOo situation, but it showed me a lot of character in him,” flameZ says. “He was really sick and playing badly, but he kept giving energy, hyping us, and doing everything he could. For a player who expects and everybody expects him to do well, it was really nice to see him this way, and it made me believe more in the team.” Vitality started 2024 as the top-ranked team in the world, riding the wave of their Fall and World Final trophy lifts into the new year, but would soon find themselves washed ashore in a deflating start to their season. “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.”
apEX
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. “I think if you ask any player in Israel at that time, they all would have wanted to play with NertZ,” flameZ adds.
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. The duo have been on NAVI’s academy roster since October 2023 and put up impressive numbers in 2024, with makazze averaging a 1.19 rating (1.34 impact) over 189 maps and Krabeni averaging a 1.10 rating (1.17 impact) over 203 maps. FlameZ named NAVI Junior rifler Drin “makazze” Shaqiri as his Bold Prediction, becoming the second player to do so after Helvijs “broky” Saukants, and also gave a nod to makazze’s teammate, Aulon “Krabeni” Fazlija. 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.
- ApEX plays a lot of rotator positions to help his calling, but he has shown a willingness to lose them if the timing is right.
- He is no superstar statistically speaking, but he has a selflessness that rarely comes with his type of talent.
- 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.
- OG were far from title contenders, however, with flameZ and degster often relied upon for any upset wins, and one of their only notable playoff appearances came at BLAST World Final 2022 with a run to the semis over HEROIC and Vitality.
- 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.
- 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.
- Vitality then reached back-to-back grand finals at ESL Pro League Season 19 and IEM Dallas, but were stopped short of lifting the silverware by MOUZ and G2.
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. “I had to become more professional. With Endpoint it was the COVID era, we just played online, and I wasn’t professional many times but joining OG and going to bootcamps I had to change for good.”
There may be teething issues, but flameZ should be more than comfortable in his role even if his exact spots might change. 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. Vitality’s newest arrival was ecstatic at the prospect of playing with one of the best payers in the world. “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.” ”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.
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’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. 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. 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).
“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.” 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. He had to step back any time the team wanted to compete in big qualifiers, which at one point caused him to quit playing CS for several months. “But to be honest, I loved sitting behind shushan and watching him play. And later on when I got a PC, it was my place to be social with people, to talk, share experiences, and have a common goal. Also to some extent, it was an escape route that made me feel really at peace.”
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. FlameZ ended the tournament with a 1.08 rating and a VP mention despite Vitality’s immediate exit thanks largely to him having a few solid maps without any real disappearances. “I just know we didn’t push ourselves and just expected to win. It was something big for us that we worked on a lot in the end, just giving energy no matter the opponent.” “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.”
