flameZ: "We said to ourselves it doesn't matter how we make playoffs"

Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore spoke with Shahar "flameZ" Shushan after his team qualified for the playoffs following a 2-0 win over Virtus.pro at the BLAST.tv Austin Major.

flameZ spoke about Vitality's focus, playing in front of the American crowd, and how the team has remained focused during the long season.

You can watch the full interview on YouTube below, or read the transcription underneath. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for clarity.

Everyone expected Vitality to make playoffs, are you still excited to lock in top eight at the major?

Yeah, we started off with a loss, but we didn't pay too much attention to it. There are some lessons that we needed, but we didn't mind because the goal was to make playoffs, we know the best-of-ones can go both ways and Legacy fucking owned us.

We said to ourselves it doesn't matter how we make playoffs; 3-2, 3-1, 3-0, we need to get to the stage and we know how good we can be on the stage. I'm very glad we made the playoffs, and I'm excited to play in the arena. It's going to be my third Major playoffs in a row and I'm hoping this one will be the best one so far.

And your fourth arena in a row now, having just come off of winning Dallas. When you were in Dallas, did you enjoy the American crowd?

I think America needs more chants, I feel like the whole game was "FUCK YOU apEX" or "Stew". I want to hear more chants. Overall, at least in Dallas, it was quite loud. I think the arena was big but it was small around the stage. So, you felt like you heard a lot, and I was hearing a lot of people on the stage. Overall, it was nice to play an official where I feel like people were really cheering. But, we just need more chants.

There's gonna be a lot of eyes on this team to win the Major because you've won everything else this year. How's the mood in the team? Are you guys pretty confident in continuing your run of form?

I think even during our 30-match win streak, we've never been confident in the sense that we're gonna beat everyone. I think we're very confident in our level and improving game by game. We just need to not beat ourselves, and we will do very well here. Spirit has been playing well, there are a lot of teams here playing good CS, and some teams here that are good with a lack of depth.

Also, for us, it's important how MOUZ, G2, or NAVI go. Knowing how you are playing in the quarterfinals and getting prepped is really key to getting your mindset. There's going to be a lot of pressure and nerves. I think we dealt with a lot of pressure in Melbourne, but this is a new pressure. We will need to deal with that in order to do as well as we can.

Vitality has had a very long season. You've played the maximum amount of matches for any one team to play in a season, having gone to so many finals. That doesn't really show when you guys play, there's lots of energy and excitement. The team looks pretty fresh and ready to go. What's the key for the team to stay fresh, hungry, and motivated in this long season?

The things that have been the worst are the practices before some tournaments, because there's so much excitement after you win a final, then another final. At some point, you feel like it's not the same to practice and it falls on the online practice. The key for us was that every time in officials, we stepped up and we always attended with energy.

Some games we didn't have energy or we didn't have the right mindset, but during the game, we transitioned and stepped up phenomenally. The last few officials we played were sloppy. Against The MongolZ in Dallas, we could have lost that one. Against Legacy in Dallas, we could have lost . We've had matches that we could have lost, but there was a little magic that every player got 0.5% better, and we did well. It might not be because we're excited to win the game, we just want to play good CS, and it carried us in a lot of those games.

Vitality will play v. NAVI in the quarterfinals of the BLAST.tv Austin Major.