Vitality ended 2023 with the same dominance they enjoyed throughout the majority of the year, rounding it out with wins at both BLAST Premier Fall Final 2023 and BLAST Premier World Final 2023.
However, 2024 has not been so kind to them, and they are still yet to lift a trophy over halfway into the year.
They have come close, they reached the final at both ESL Pro League Season 19 and IEM Dallas, but they capitulated in both of those matches, losing 3-0 to MOUZ in a game that was never truly a contest and 2-1 to G2 when they were using Stewie2k as a stand-in.
With analysts starting to suggest that time may be running out for the roster that was initially so successful, we spoke to flameZ at BLAST Premier Fall Groups about their struggles to win events this year.
“If you think about it rationally, it’s not too bad because we’ve gotten to two finals,” flameZ told us, he says it with a smile, but it's rare to ever speak to the Vitality man without seeing him beaming.
”We can’t cry about not winning, we have to just do better,” he continues, it's realistic, but it's said with his typical optimism. Vitality may have been disappointed at times this year, especially when they crashed out of IEM Katowice in last place, but that will never be enough to get him down.
Realism becomes a key factor in our time with flameZ, he's very open about the fact that the team "just hasn't had the ability to adapt" in what is now a far more competitive scene than the one they had a chokehold on in 2023.
"In 2023, we weren’t challenged by FaZe in the finals we played but now we don’t have the tools to deal with them... There’s so many rosters that can take tournaments now, we need to have an X factor to win." - flameZ
While we're sure winning never gets boring just as losing never ceases to be unpleasant, flameZ seems to be relishing the challenge that comes with such an open era in CS.
”As a player, it’s really nice because every match is so competitive, there’s no games we think we will easily win. Even in Dallas when we lost to G2, I was enjoying myself." He tells us, continuing by saying "In some games now, you need to bring a game you’ve never brought before."
Bringing a game that he has never brought before is exactly what flameZ has done in 2024.
Despite Vitality's struggles at times, flameZ has always stood tall, ascending above his countryman Spinx to stand out as Vitality's second star and even sometimes moving out of the shadow cast by their titan, ZywOo.
We ask him what has allowed him to capture such great form, and he laughs, "I started going to the gym, so maybe it's that," he says.
Although initially disguises this as a joke, he quickly makes it clear he is confident that his new routine has been a big factor in his development.
"I was sick a lot in 2023, but I have started looking after myself more and I think that is what is helping me in-game" - flameZ
When the inevitable does happen and Vitality lifts their next trophy, you can be sure that development will be a key factor in their eventual win.
Currently sitting at a 1.13 HLTV rating for 2024, it's his best year in tier one to date, but the biggest marker is that his impact rating has shot up from 1.11 last year, to 1.20 this year.
There are issues to overcome, and he is honest about that, "We’ve had issues with consistency as a team, energy and communications," he says, but again, it's another sentence he ends with his complete and utter optimism by saying "But I'm not even sure we've done badly in that regard."
Difficult spells come for every player and every team in CS, even s1mple and NiKo have had their blips, but true champions will always manage to overcome these blips and climb to the top of the ladder once more.
Sometimes that can take a new star, other times it can just take a hopeful outlook on the future, fortunately for Vitality, in flameZ, they have both.
After securing qualification to BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 at BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024, Vitality are currently playing in IEM Cologne 2024.
Their next match is against FaZe Clan for a spot in the playoffs, a game that will be played today after the conclusion of Liquid vs FURIA.
Following on from their stint in Germany, they will then play ESL Pro League Season 20 before travelling to Denmark to compete at BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024.
The event is set to kick off on September 25th, and will culminate on September 29th.
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