Team Vitality are coming into the IEM Cologne Major 2026 playoffs as the reigning and defending champions looking to extend their period of dominance in CS2 esports.
We had the opportunity to speak with Shahar “flameZ” Shushan ahead of their quarterfinal match against Falcons. Here’s what he had to say.
flameZ: Wow, they’re all going to be super fun. The thing is, ZywOo lives in Paris, so I don’t want to live in Paris, because it’s so much traffic. It’s so, so much.
Estonia is super nice, but it’s really cold, but also England is really cold. I prefer to live with ropz, though. Just because mezzi has a daughter, I want the attention on me, not the daughter.
I think because we didn’t practice beforehand a lot, it was easier to prep, because you have so much energy, so much time to give, because you sorted what you needed in the week off or in America. So we had a lot of time to get into things. I think that’s what gave us the energy.
flameZ is hoping to lift his third Major trophy in a row on Grand Final Sunday. Image credit: © ESL
Well, I’m very excited. For Budapest, it was weird, because the BO1s and everything. This one, obviously, I feel like we’re playing a bit worse than the rest of the Majors. On the other hand, in playoffs, we play very different CS, and we’re really a different team and a different animal.
So I’m expecting, I’m really waiting to play that playoff, and I think everybody’s excited. I think in Budapest, it was a bit different, because we played the first game of Budapest was against The MongolZ, and then we played Spirit. So I think now this Major is obviously starting really strong, like Falcons is obviously a really tough opponent for us specifically as well.
And then Spirit or G2, which are also tough opponents, so it’s going to be very competitive, this one. So the bracket is a bit weirder than Budapest, but that’s it. And we don’t care, it’s a Major, you need to win everyone anyways.
I’m very excited to play against them. I think the last few times we played against them, kyxsan individually stepped up a lot in the last match and stuff like that. He played really good.
So, I’m interested to see the difference in terms of like, the calls are different now, but on the other hand, there is the skill trend down a bit, because obviously karrigan and kyousuke… sorry, karrigan and kyxsan, so many K’s in this team.
And so I’m just excited to see how they play, like I want to see how they play against us, but also I want to beat them in order to win the Major, because we haven’t beaten them this year so far. So it’s an enemy that we need to get past.
I think we played like shit, but I think 9z played really good. And you know, they played the day after against Spirit. It was really competitive.
So, I think obviously those boys, they’ve stepped up a lot this Major and I hope to see that level in playoffs. I was very happy to see them qualify yesterday, because it’s really tough when you go from 2-0 to 2-2 game and you just lost a game that you could have won and then you’re tired and you come to a game and you have like 2-2.
I was very excited and it shows character. It doesn’t show only, you know, like sometimes it’s a honeymoon. You win two games, everything was good. Then you go down 2-3, nobody remembers you ever did that.
But no, they made the playoffs, they did good. So you can see the personality.
No wonder flameZ is a big fan of 9z’s personality. Image credit: © BLAST
It feels like a different… Every Major has its own like… The first one was Austin, a very fresh one, a very good one obviously. This one feels really different. I think, I don’t know how yet different because, you know, when you go up on stage you kind of get to feel you’re in IEM Cologne. So IEM Cologne is always a big event, but now it’s a Major. It’s going to be a bit more than the rest, I would say.
flameZ: What position would I change? Like I’d give him a different position?
Bruno: Yeah, like change, for example, with… I don’t know, you anchor A on Mirage, but you’d rather play Con, for example.
flameZ: You know, I started feeling like… Like I want a bit of a mix, but it’s weird, because how I play the game is if I want to play a bit more Con, I go Con even if I’m A player and they deal with it. But a position that I would like to change… I’d like to play… I’ve always wanted to play B Mirage. I miss this position, because it was just so fun to move around, but I’m fine on A as well.
Read also: “Yes, obviously” – Aurora Wicadia on if he’s happy with the IEM Cologne Major 2026 playoff bracket
Featured image credit: @flameZcsgo on X
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