Vitality player Shahar "flameZ" Shushan shared his thoughts on the tight tournament schedule, which limits the team’s ability to prepare thoroughly for each championship, including the upcoming BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024. He expressed these views in an interview with HLTV.org.
"We would like to prepare for every tournament, but the schedule doesn’t allow it. We just finished competing in Cologne, and a week later we were in Malta for Pro League for two weeks, and then we immediately headed to Denmark. We didn’t even return home; we just stayed in Malta. So, while we wish we could be better prepared, we’re not as ready as we’d like to be.
A lot of this is related to the major taking place too late, so we need to gather our strength. We don’t want to overexert ourselves right at the beginning. On the other hand, every tournament matters. We’ll try to give our all here, and we know we can win. We just need to perform well and not lose to ourselves. I feel like this year we’ve lost many matches due to our own mistakes at major tournaments, so now we need to aim for victory in every event.
Vitality's approach to these matters will never change, but we haven't had much time. Therefore, it’s not just about wanting to peak later or earlier, but right now we can’t dedicate too much time to preparation."
FlameZ also discussed the team's goals for the tournament in Copenhagen, stating that they are not focused on a specific result but rather on demonstrating consistent performance.
"The main goal is to show stability. I don’t think we can say we’ll be satisfied with just a trophy; we need to reach the quarter-finals and semi-finals first because we’ve fallen short in that regard at some tournaments. The focus will be on stability and not losing to ourselves, and I believe that if we do this, we’ll have a very high chance of reaching the finals, which we would be happy with.
Of course, Vitality doesn’t come just to reach the playoffs; we always come to win. Even if we lose in the finals, we’ll be upset and tell ourselves that we could have played better. The main goal is to be as stable as possible and show our best game for each other. However, we won’t be angry with ourselves if we lose in the quarter-finals against a very strong team that plays great CS, but only if we also show good CS."
The BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 will take place from September 25 to 29 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a total prize pool of $425,000 to be shared among the eight teams. The top team will also secure a spot at the BLAST Premier World Final 2024.