Vitality Don't Disappoint As They Qualify For Shanghai Major
The #3 in the world faced off fairly easy teams on day 1, beating GamerLegion 13-8 and BetBoom 13-3 before moving on to their qualifying game against FaZe. For those unaware, FaZe is the #9 best team in the world right now, but the way Vitality destroyed them was contrary to an intense game you’d expect between two top 10 teams. Vitality beat FaZe 2-0, specifically 13-5 on map 1 (Mirage) and 13-11 on map 2 (Dust2). After the game, flameZ sat down with HLTV for a post-match interview.
When asked about their flawless undefeated run so far and what it makes him feel, flameZ said
I'm feeling quite good, to be honest. Perfect World has done an amazing job hosting the teams so far. There are no side complaints in this regard, and as a team, we feel good. We had two games, one of them was not the smoothest for us, and then the second game was good.
In the FaZe game, we just threw some rounds on Dust2, but overall we had an amazing Mirage, and we won the Dust2 game [in the end]. We're very confident and happy to go instantly to the Elimination Stage, which is good. You have more time to practice, rest, review, and understand your mistakes. I think we're in very good shape.
When asked about their match with FaZe and how close things got on the second map, flameZ said
Maybe not nerves, but we just didn't figure out the game properly. We didn't play to our best level in some of the key rounds, that's just going to happen sometimes. I'm just happy that we managed to close it out and win. The last few tournaments that we got eliminated in, it was always very close matches, so it's just nice to win those close games.
Even if it's the second map and you're not going to lose the match if you lose, it's still important to close those games, win, and bring out the little energy you need. It's even beneficial for us to have this kind of close win against FaZe to some extent.
When asked about how the momentum they’ve built up right now is going to help them going into the Perfect World Shanghai Major, flameZ said
I'm not so sure about that because now we have to stay in China, and I don't know what the practice will look like. I don't know what we will do in this case, but I don't think there is a better way to go through that. There are benefits if you go to the second stage, and also if you qualify for the first stage and get ready for the setup.
When you have already played for quite a while, there are benefits to being in the first stage. It's just… Nobody gives a f**k, you just come, play your game, and try to do your best. Then you hope your best will win the tournament, and for us, it's the same.
When asked about mezii becoming a father recently and how he has been a beast on the server lately, leading many to call it the “daddy buff”, flameZ said
To be honest, I'm thinking about getting a child right now as well. [laughs] Obviously not, but he's been playing really well. It has been tough for him. Singapore was a bit before his daughter was born and then it got a bit stressful because you don't have much time even though you're home.
But he put a lot of time into the game, he's very sharp, I think he did a lot of deathmatch. He is shooting very well right now and he's winning us a lot of important rounds. Daddy buff or not, keep getting children if we're going to play like that.
When asked about how much this Major title means to him, given that Vitality have not made it to a final since IEM Cologne earlier this year, flameZ said
The Major is in two weeks, so it's weird in some sense to say that. It's my way of thinking about it, and I always want to be humble with myself. The game is really competitive right now, but we want to come and do our best. I believe our best can win the tournament, but the competition is so high right now. There are many good teams, G2, MOUZ, NAVI, and a lot of teams that do well.
We want to come, do our best, show what we are made of, and redeem some of the tournaments we've had. As you said, we didn't get finals after Cologne, but also looking back at the year, there aren't many tournaments in which we did as well as we wanted to do. We want to win this tournament, it's the last one of the year. There is a player break after, so we just want to focus on it. I think everybody will put hours into the game and get into good shape, but that goes for every team. Nobody can say he's going to win the trophy before he wins it.
