Vitality player Shahar flameZ Shushan gave an interview to Players correspondent Danylo Shevchenko and Sofiia Pikhalo during media day ahead of the IEM Kraków 2026 playoffs in CS2.
So, what's the toughest opponent in the group, and how do you think, who can give you some problem in the playoffs?
Well, Falcons, MOUZ, Aurora, all of them, 3DMax, f***ing CS is so competitive.
How do you think, is it possible for s1mple to back on tier 1 CS on the regular time? And what should he do for this, is it possible?
I think for s1mple, it's going to be, first of all, finding the ground in the game. I guess he's already good, from playing against him you can feel he has a lot of good game sense. He takes a lot of angles that other people don't have, and he catches people off guard, even the top level teams. On the other hand, if he's going to do it grinding with the team, he has to be a bit more positive and open-minded, because they're a three-weeks team, and from what it looks, they're full of emotion over there.
And obviously, it's going to happen, mistakes are going to happen at any team, and you need to be able to accept them. And I think that if you grind from tier 2 or tier 3 to the top, and obviously by that he also reaches the top, then you'll need to be more open-minded, unless you go into a big roster and then he just shines and enjoys.
Do you think that BC should do some changes in the roster?
No, I think they have a good roster, I think the Portuguese are really good, and I personally always liked them, and I took inspiration from their game.
On the other hand, they need to figure out stuff, but they're a three-weeks old team, and they made a cut of its first stage, so they're already doing quite good. But obviously, if BC are going to use all their money to buy the best players in the world, it could also work out, and then you have two Falcons in the business.
What separates a team like yours, that doesn’t seem to need roster changes, from a team that might be considering them soon?
Support.I think for us it's something that is very key and that's a reason that we don't feel burned out, we don't feel fatigued, we just come to every event with full power and like you saw it last year, we had like seven tournaments in a row that we kept pushing each other towards winning. And the second thing is, I think the individuals are all in good form and nobody is in, nobody is you know, very bad or very not fitting a role. The team is built very correctly, like everybody plays the role he wants to play, everybody plays the things he wants to do, so nobody is a lurker that's entering and stuff like that. In some teams you have a lot of those role clashes, two players who are very passive, three players who are very aggressive, and for us it's pretty accurate, it's built very correctly.
As you said about support, so who has been your biggest supporter through your journey?
In general?
Yeah.
Well I think obviously the first thing is a girlfriend, I think it's, if you look at the career for six, the six years I've had my career, five years, six years actually,obviously it's including many people but I think the last year and a half were very tough because we played so many tournaments, obviously we, sorry the last two years of 2024, played so many tournaments, 2024 was really up and down, 2025 was really up, like really upwards, and my girlfriend Emily was with me since 2024 and she has been amazing, just support, you know, just like sometimes there is a need to be outside of the game, disconnected, you know, like if I would have a vacation per se I would probably spend it in the computer half the time and with her I'm, I really want to see the world with her to some extent and it helps a lot to regain a lot of energy and even in a two weeks, three weeks time that you're home or even like three, four days that you're with her and then you have a tournament again. You're still energized and you want to play and you want to do good and you feel fun, maybe the only thing is that you want a bit more time with her but I guess that's part of the job and obviously a family that support and always enjoy watching and like actually I'm very fortunate to have many people in my life that are very nice, very cheering and very supporting and honestly very real, you know, if they, if I need to get a slap in the face because I'm not doing something well, they also will say that and it's good, it's needed.
Ok, thank you, and the last one, can you say something for your fans, or CS fans, or fans of your opponent?
Well, to all the Turkish fans that I tweeted GG EZ, please don't hate me, it was a joke, and it was a gamble that I lost, it was bad. And yeah, see you in the semis.