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.”
Top 20 players of 2024: flameZ (
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.”
Vitality extend flameZ contract through 2027
- The conversation then moved on to his decision to not renew his contract with OG ahead of the summer break.
- “The Major was a big struggle with the ZywOo situation, but it showed me a lot of character in him,” flameZ says.
- 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.
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “I 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.”
“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.
Why was flameZ the 7th best player of 2024?
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.
EVENTS
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 Inferno, and apEX may well move back to B on Mirage to give flameZ Connector.
- 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.
- “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.
- “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.
- “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.
- “We just got mezii and had a staff change and it instantly clicked, we were all hyped and won these back-to-back BLASTs.
- “It felt like we were a really solid family, and lifting the trophy is super nice obviously but the journey there was extremely unforgettable.”
Game Settings
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.
How to Apply “flameZ” Crosshair
“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.” “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 Flamez 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.
