"The gesture was not aimed at any opponent". BLAST apologizes for flameZ's middle finger

Tournament operator BLAST has commented on the incident that occurred yesterday during the BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1 broadcast – Vitality's Shahar "flameZ" Shushan showed his middle finger to the camera. The full text of BLAST's statement looks as follows:

Yesterday there was an incident involving Vitality player, flameZ, where a middle finger gesture was caught on camera.

This moment, which occurred in an out-of-context interaction between the player and the camera crew, should not have been aired as this interaction happened before the match started. We want to clarify that the gesture was not aimed at any opponent or fellow competitor.

We deeply regret that this has led to a hoard of abusive messages being directed at the player online.

We sincerely apologise for the negative attention it has caused and we do not condone any abuse towards any player in any shape or form.

Note that the LAN final of BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1 is taking place from January 23 to 26 at the BLAST studio in Copenhagen, Denmark. The total prize pool of the competition is half a million US dollars. The final will play out in a BO5 format, all other matches will be BO3s.

Origin: x.com