Without a doubt, 2025 was Vitality’s year. The French organization had an incredible season, winning both the BLAST Austin Major and the StarLadder Budapest Major, as well as completing their ESL Grand Slam run, as they ended the year with nine trophies lifted.

One of the biggest reasons for that success is Shahar “flameZ” Shushan. The Israeli entry fragger has positioned himself amongst the all-time greats since joining Vitality, and recently earned himself a seventh-placed finish in the HLTV top 20 for the second year in a row.

With the 2026 season now underway, we sat down with flameZ to discuss the highs and lows of 2025, his strengths and weaknesses within his role, as well as his surprise at Spirit’s moves and concerns for the new BC.Game roster.

An Incredible 2025

You closed out an incredible 2025 by winning your second Major of the year. Given that the second half of the year wasn’t as successful as the first, how good did it feel to lift that trophy?

It was amazing to lift it. The first season set a really high bar, and it was always going to be hard to replicate it, but we didn’t even get close to it because we had such an all-out, dominant season, and that’s pretty crazy.

The main thing was that when we came to the second season, we didn’t have the best start. We kept believing and doing the same things, working hard, and it worked out when we got the trophy at EPL.

ESL Pro League, though, it’s not a stage event, it’s not something we go into and think it’s the same level as winning in front of a crowd of 10k people. We were happy, because we won and played good CS, but we wanted something bigger. Then, when we lost in Chengdu and Hong Kong, the only thing left was Budapest, and if we won that, we wouldn’t care if we had won the others. 

You want to win as many trophies as you can, but Budapest is an amazing trophy to have. I said in other interviews that it’s like the cherry on top of the cake, but it’s not just the cherry, it’s the cake itself, the thing people want to come and eat. It closed the year so well and made a statement for what we’ve done all year in an even bigger fashion.

How did winning in Budapest compare to lifting your first Major trophy in Austin?

I think that the Austin Major was more stressful. We were the favourites, and we went to the tournament knowing that if we played well, we would win. But, on the other hand, you also know that many things can go wrong, and that makes it so stressful to go and play in a tournament like that as the best team in the world by far. You think in your head that you’ve won six tournaments up until that point, but if you lose that one, it’s a bit pointless to some extent.

Austin was special because it was my birthday, a unique day, people were singing me happy birthday before the match started, and it felt like it all aligned. I had a lot of confidence that we were going to win. In Budapest, there was way less stress than in Austin. It was nice to play like that, being in a big tournament but with way less stress. 

The main difference was that with Budapest, there was a lot of grinding and doing things in the practice room that would only help us in the short term, not in the long term, because of the player break. We just focused on the next match, and really put emphasis on how we prepared and how we were going to do stuff, and I think the coaches did really well in that.

In Austin, we all had the same understanding of how we wanted to approach every game and match-up, and to some extent, the playoff bracket in Austin felt a bit harder. We had NAVI in our first game, which was pretty close, then we had MOUZ, then The MongolZ when they were really good. In Budapest, we had Spirit who were tough, but The MongolZ weren’t in form, and then FaZe, they fucked us on Nuke, but we were way more comfortable than them on the rest of the maps.

Budapest could have gone in so many directions, and it all came down to how the bracket would go. That said, I think we were in really good shape and we would’ve won whoever we played, but obviously, they could have done it as well.

Going back to the second half of last year, you guys were in so many semi-finals and finals, despite not lifting trophies. So, do you think it was fair that people criticised you so much for not winning the events?

I think apEX has said that we fed the fans a bit too well. We gave them a season that was unforgettable.

I do think that the criticism was justified to some extent. It’s not the losing, it’s the way we lost that made us feel bad and made fans criticise us. We showed a level that was so high, and then we went and played like noobs. 

That’s the game to some extent; it’s entertainment and esports, and the fans are going to criticize you even if you win and say that you’re lucky. You’ve just got to take what’s good and what’s bad, and if it makes sense, you’ve got to work it out.

At the beginning, we were playing badly in the elimination matches, so some criticism isn’t nice because fans lose money and they bully you in DMs, but on the other hand, it’s just going to be like that.

It doesn’t change anything if the fans want to be fair or not. In the end, it’s just you and your team, and whether or not you play good CS. Even this year, whether we start really well or really badly, people are just going to go on about patterns, where even if we lose every quarter-final, they’ll still call us the favourites when it gets to the Major. 

Our performance coach always emphasises that people will mainly judge you on how good you are when times are tough, so I think us sticking to the semi-finals at a minimum gave us some room to breathe. If we lost earlier on, we’d lose confidence, so getting to the top four and then just playing shit, you still get the big picture, and it doesn’t depress you. That matters a lot in CS. 

Since Budapest, you’ve been named the seventh-best player in the world for 2025 by HLTV. How are you feeling about that?

I was very happy with it. I was thinking that I would get eight or nine in my head; they always send you the interview a few days before, so I was trying to estimate it, and getting seven, I was really happy with.

A lot of people have seven as a lucky number, so it’s a cool number to have. Next year, my goal is to get seven again.

It was your second year in a row coming seventh; would you not like to go a little higher?

No, I’m happy with it. Before getting seventh last year, I cared about the top 20, but not in the sense of where I am on the list. Obviously, the higher you are, the better it feels, but if I help my team and we win trophies, any player in the world would take what we did last year over being in the top 20.

I’m happy with it because if you’re in the top 20, it shows your individual form puts your team in a position to win things. But getting any other number wouldn’t change how I feel. It’s cool to get the better numbers, but winning trophies is all that really matters.

Outside of donk, you’re the highest-ranked aggressive rifler by quite a long way, so what do you think you’re doing differently to the other players in the same roles as you?

I think I have a very good team who are very aligned on the entry side of things. If I die, I get traded really quickly, so it makes the stats look better on the website. In the end, we have a lot more situations where we also open up sites successfully, and that’s what changes the game and shows my impact.

Also, apEX as an IGL, he understands entrying so well because he was an entry himself, so it gives me an advantage when I go into sites because I have the confidence that the strats are built around the entry pathing. Maybe they’re not there for me to get a kill or do something crazy, but for me, gaining the info and making the sacrifice gives me the confidence, and I’m happy to do it. In fact, I want to do it; playing passively bores me a bit.

Me doing that gives my team a lot of space, so I’m happy to do it. Maybe me doing it gives me a bit higher placement, too, because there are players that do the opening role better than me, but I do the entrying role better than them. Maybe opening is more meta, because it’s the players like xertioN, XANTARES, and they have more opportunities to get duels at the beginning of rounds, and they do it better than me. On the other hand, I also don’t care because this year I won more trophies than them, so if the system works and you believe it, what happens is good.

I also need to consider that I have really good players around me, so I don’t need to put everything on myself. Putting them in a 2v2, if it’s ropz and ZywOo, or anyone else, because they’re all so good, as long as I kill one on the entry and gave good information before that, my job has been done well, and I have impact regardless of stats. That’s what matters, that’s the culture that we’ve built here. It doesn’t matter if I’m 18-1 or 1-18, as long as I’m giving the same things.

Surprising Roster Moves

Rostermania hasn’t been as busy as a lot of us expected it to be, so are you surprised that more teams haven’t made changes to try and catch up to you guys?

I don’t think the game is to catch up to us anymore like it was back in June. Many teams understand that they need more time to build, and I respect that a lot. Some roster changes back then were a bit naive; they tried to find players that can replace people, and now they’re making changes again because those players didn’t fit.

I think teams like Falcons, they’ve shown their potential to win; they don’t require change unless there’s an issue internally. I did expect more changes in the top ten teams, though, but the Spirit roster change, I didn’t expect that at all. From knowing a bit on the inside, though, I think that many have tried to change but couldn’t buy players or find replacements they wanted. 

What do you think about some of the new rosters that have formed, like Astralis, 100 Thieves, and BC.Game?

I think Astralis going international is a good choice for them. It opens up way more opportunities than they had before, because playing in a national team, unless it’s like The MongolZ, where you don’t have a hugely competitive scene, but you do have five very competitive players, then it isn’t good.

In Denmark, years ago, you could’ve played in that national market, but now the numbers have dwindled, and a lot of the new talents are already going to international teams. Everyone in Denmark speaks great English, and most of their players already played in international rosters. So there might be some adjustment to get used to it, but it’s a good decision.

I don’t remember 100 Thieves’ full roster, but I will say that having device, rain, and gla1ve brings a lot of experience to nurture players into stars. If you saw this roster four years ago, it would be legendary, but maybe now some of them have lost their form and played in worse teams that we didn’t respect as much, but they’re all very good and experienced.

The last team, BC.Game, I don’t know who they’ve signed, but I know they have s1mple and electroNic.

They’ve signed a core from SAW. It’s MUTiRiS, aragornN, and krazy.

Oh… okay. 

I don’t know if it will click; I think it will clash a bit. I don’t know how the Portuguese play and how they communicate, but I assume the culture will be different from what the others are used to. But they’re all professionals; they can all adapt and do well. 

I’d like to see how it is, but I think that this roster feels like they’re still looking for themselves, and maybe buying a core is a good decision because they’ll get more invites and get to play in more tournaments. Maybe that will help them, but it’s up to them to see if they’re serious about it and not just being there for fun.

You said the Spirit changes surprised you. Why was that?

zont1x coming in was a bit more expected, but chopper going out and magixx IGLing came out of nowhere. Especially because everything happened so quickly after the Major ended.

magixx IGLing, it’s the same as when Vitality did it with apEX and when MOUZ did it with Brollan, you don’t know what to expect, it could be really good or bad, but most of the recent IGLs work around it really well.

I just didn’t expect that kind of change. I thought they’d stick with chopper, and then see regarding zweih, magixx, and zont1x if they think someone is better there. But I’m excited to see it, I can’t wait to see how they play, and every team with donk is going to be competitive. They could have a really good year if it goes well, even if it might look like a downgrade on paper. 

At the end of the day, you build for the long term, not the short term. They might have a rough start, but the Major is what matters, and they’ll have a good understanding of what they need to do to be good by then. They’ve all played together, too, so it’s not like it will be a surprise attack or anything crazy. As long as they adjust, they can be really good.

Looking Ahead to 2026

Looking ahead to this year, you’ve won a Grand Slam and back-to-back Majors, so what’s next for you in terms of goals?

As always, you have personal goals and team goals. As a team, I think we’re in a stage where we don’t look back. Last year isn’t a benchmark; it’s unrealistic, and if it did become realistic, we’d be very happy with that. Instead, we’ll just look forward to regaining our form at the beginning of the year and peaking at the good tournaments like Krakow and Cologne, especially. 

The goal is to play good CS, as always, but the dream is to win as many trophies as we can. We just need to rebuild again and keep our trust in each other, and for that, we need to refine everything and keep improving.

On a personal level, I’d like to get seven on HLTV this year, too, because then I’d have the jackpot number. But that’s not that important. 

Given everything that you achieved last year, how do you manage expectations for this year?

It’s mainly that we don’t compare ourselves to 2025, we just have to look at the present and go off that. Many things can change; there are big question marks because we haven’t even practised yet. We know what works for us, so we want to focus on the process rather than the outcomes. We don’t want to give ourselves stress that isn’t needed.

Do you think it’s possible to match last year’s performance or even surpass it?

If you came to me in 2024 and told me what would happen in 2025, I wouldn’t think it was realistic. After 2025, though, even if it doesn’t feel that way, it could happen; you never know. 

To get there, you just have to believe in yourself and do your best in every moment, because other than that, you don’t have control over what happens. If Spirit comes and donk drops a 2.00 rating with sh1ro also playing really well, or any other team with insane players, it can be random to some extent. But we hope that even if we lose, we don’t have regret and just know that we lost to a better team than us. 

It could be realistic, it could be far off, who knows? We won 30 matches in a row, 33 or 34 best-of-threes, seven tournaments in a row, but before that, if you asked anyone in the scene, then no one would have expected anyone to pull that off. 

Assuming you think you’re the best team in the world right now, who do you think are the biggest threats?

We were the best team in 2025, but right now we need to fight for that title again. Everything could be different after the break.

FURIA have shown a really high peak, although they haven’t beaten everyone yet. But that’s a question mark you always have when you haven’t yet beaqten everyone, because you wonder if you truly are the best or not. They need those matchups, but I still think they’ll be contending.

MOUZ, I don’t know. They could be really good, but they could be more average in the top five like last season. Spirit, I’m excited to see. Falcons will always be a threat and could be the best team in the world for a while, and The MongolZ will always have a case, too, as long as their new player fits.

You didn’t mention FaZe there. Do you think you’ll see them more this year after their Major run, or was that a one-off in your eyes?

Having Twistzz in their roster will give them a lot more, they’ll be in a lot more playoffs for sure. If broky and jcobbb also replicate their performances, they’ll be way more competitive and can even grab a few trophies, but if they don’t, it’ll be a lot tougher. 

They have a really good team, and they’re really good at Nuke, but when they came to the Major, they were still a new team, so we didn’t see that much. There’s a lot of potential there, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s a honeymoon or if the team is actually really solid. 

We just need to see more of them, because FaZe have had really good rosters and been shit, and had bad rosters and been good, but they’re always a team that, if they get to playoffs, will always be dangerous. The lower-level teams deal with FaZe better, but it’s always close when the higher-level teams play them. You never know with them.