flameZ: “If they give him 1% chance to shoot, he’s going to hit you” – flameZ on ZywOo wallbangs, Mouz “mistakes,” and what makes Vitality special

Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan and Vitality guaranteed their appearance at the first IEM Kraków Grand Final on Sunday by demolishing Mouz 13-7, 13-6.

flameZ spoke to Esports News UK about the team’s victory over Mouz, including Mouz’s ‘mistakes’ and Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut’s insane wallbangs during Dust 2.

The entry also shared heartfelt appreciation about how his teammates inspire what has become one of Counter-Strike’s most accomplished rosters.

FIRST GRAND FINAL OF 2026 🕺 pic.twitter.com/tGRDLIcUlO

— Team Vitality CS (@TeamVitalityCS) February 7, 2026

Congratulations on the win, you’re in the Grand Final of IEM Kraków. How are you feeling?

Feeling great, I think we played good CS. It was maybe sloppy a bit, in some rounds, but I think overall we did good.

We came really prepped, and we were really confident, and we showed that we knew what it’s gonna be like going into it.

What I’ll remember from this game is how you won so many force buys and ecos. How was it that you were able to win those rounds so consistently?

Well, to be honest, it was just this game. I think they made a lot of mistakes.

They didn’t play that badly on the buy rounds, but those eco rounds, we had the best timing sometimes, and we did some things that made sense for us.

Just, you know, we tried to kill one or two, but those one or two kills instantly mean we’re in a really good situation.

I think they made mistakes mainly on those ecos. It’s not about us hitting crazy shots. I think they mostly did bad stuff, but in the end, it’s Counter-Strike, it’s gonna happen

I think for them it was a bit tough because it’s their first tournament of the season, and playing a semi-final with the pressure, it’s a bit tough.

I think if we played that game kind of throughout the season, it would have been way closer because they would have got those ecos a bit more solid and lost less weapons, but I think this is something that you kind of have to get into.

Dealing with the pressure, dealing with the crowd, they obviously did it yesterday, they did it amazingly well.

But in the end, when you get to the semis, and you play a team that punishes a bit more skill-wise, it’s a bit tougher.

What mistakes did you notice from Mouz during those rounds?

To be honest, mostly rotations, they did a lot of rotations that didn’t make sense, and also just unlucky timings for them, I think.

When we went ramp on Nuke, two of us died. The Mouz player gets traded. It’s fine, he killed two, he did his best, but then the rotation dies instantly, we have the whole B-side.

On Dust2, torzsi decides to run CT for some reason, and you never know, it could be because of communication, something that happened in the Teamspeak.

Then I caught him off guard, and three of them were in CT, and they cannot do much.

A lot of, I think, unlucky things, and it’s just gonna be like that.

Against Falcons in G2 on Dust2, Mouse were always harassing them; it feels like they played quite respectfully against you. Did you expect more aggression coming from their end?

Well, I think they couldn’t because ZywOo kept tagging jimpphat and then killing him. I think jimpphat had a tough game to start with, and he couldn’t do much.

When Spinx knows that his teammate is 1 HP on B, he cannot just push and do what he wants because he has to be responsible for the round as well.

I think we knew that that’s the only way they will play against us, and if they don’t play like that, they will give us the space, and they will have tougher rounds.

Once we managed to make sure that they are not doing the aggressive plays that they are comfortable with, the game changed a bit to our side.

Was ZywOo able to confirm every single one of the wallbangs to you during the game?

Yeah, he says, ‘He’s tagged on B; He’s tagged on B; He’s dead.’

Chat, is it over for Mouz? pic.twitter.com/e1yG50Rgrx

— Team Vitality CS (@TeamVitalityCS) February 7, 2026

What I find amusing about that is that they added that overhang so you can’t AWP from spawn, but ZywOo is still hitting those shots. Do you think, like, ZywOo is even too good for the game itself?

Yeah, man, the guy is crazy. Robin [ropz] said to us that when he was in FaZe, they used to HE the doors, but against ZywOo they had to smoke the doors.

It’s just tough because, every game we play, every practise we play on Dust, he’s good at that bullet.

Sometimes he doesn’t go for it because he wants to hold the AWPers peeking, but whenever he does it, I think it’s pretty consistent.

Obviously, if the enemy crosses well with the timing, with the HEs and everything, I think it’s going to be a bit tougher for him, but if they give him 1% chance to shoot, he’s going to hit you.

I talked to ropz a few days ago, and he said he was really inspired by your selflessness as a player and a person. What about your teammates inspires you?

Well, I think I can say so many things about everybody, and I will do that.

I think ZywOo is so humble and so open-minded that it’s really nice to play with someone like that and take him as sort of a role model that is so good and so open to people and so down to earth.

On the other end, you have mezii. I think Will is a remarkable person. He is one of the best teammates that I ever played with. He’s so nice, he’s also open-minded.

But he’s also so good in the game, and he’s so confident, and he pushes everybody to be comfortable because he can take being uncomfortable and do it really well.

Robin is just a big inspiration to everybody in the team because he grinds the game non-stop, and he’s a really good guy, but he also really, he puts a lot of time into the game, and this inspires you to do that.

In apEX, there is so much to say because he’s a big leader, but he played this game for, I don’t know, how many years, like 20 years.

He won all the trophies there are to win in CSGO, in CS2, and he’s still so motivated to win even the smallest tournaments.

This is crazy discipline, crazy love for the game, and it’s an inspiration, definitely