mezii on defending IEM Cologne title: “Usually we’re pretty slow out the gates coming out of a break… there’s no excuses”

William “mezii” Merriman is leading the charge for UK Counter-Strike. A Major and Grand Slam winner, mezii has picked up seven trophies throughout 2025 with Team Vitality. Coming into the season, he and his team have remained in good form as they look to defend their IEM Cologne championship.

A Semi-Final berth has already been secured for Team Vitality, and we had the chance to speak to mezii ahead of the start of the Playoffs. We spoke about putting UK CS on the map, Team Vitality’s next test at IEM Cologne 2025, and more – the full text and video versions of this interview are below:

mezii talks putting UK CS on the map at IEM Cologne 2025

Daniel Morris: mezii, as a Brit, I have to ask: you’ve recently appeared on the BBC. How does it feel knowing that you’re putting UK CS on the map and what you’re doing for that scene at the moment? 

William “mezii” Merriman: I mean, it feels great. I think sometimes it’s a bit harder to actually realise the impact it has. It’s been nice to just see the reaction online and quite a few people have just messaged me and just say like how it’s helped them or the impact as well. Like I say, putting the UK CS on the map a bit more. And that’s like always been one of my goals as a player to try and help the scene grow, whether I was actually with a team there or outside trying to be an idol or to motivate the UK players. So yeah, it’s been really nice to just be one of the names that can help push the scene forward as well.

Daniel: You guys obviously haven’t dropped a map so far at Cologne. So what did you do just to make sure that you’re able to start the season in that same form?

mezii: I mean, it’s always tough of course, coming out of the player break. You never know what form you’re going to come in, even with a bootcamp or with practice. I think it’s always… the practice results are always different to what is when you come to an event, especially after a break. I think for us as well… I think usually we’re pretty slow out the gates coming out of a break. But of course the first tournament after the break is Cologne. You have to make sure you’re ready. It’s the big one. So for us, we put a lot of time in as individuals at the bootcamp and also just trying to reinvent ourselves again. Add new things and make sure that we’re staying on top of our game and not becoming too predictable for other teams. So I think that helps. And also a lot of other teams are making changes, so they’re also trying to find their way of playing and get the new players in. I think for us, we’re feeling good, we’re feeling confident. And like I say, with Cologne, we have to make sure we’re ready, there’s no excuses. And we want to make sure that we’re at our best level as well.

Daniel: That was part of what I was going to ask you next, actually, because, being on top. That basically means that you’re the team to beat. What sort of adaptations do you make when you know teams have got the tape on you?

mezii: I mean, for us, I think it definitely helps having a captain, an IGL like apEX. he makes sure to push us as individuals and as a team, just watch back games and make sure we’re trying to make new things. Sometimes it’s not always about making new rounds or new things as individuals. Sometimes, maybe we did something, I don’t know, a few months ago that we don’t do so much now and maybe we can bring that back and try and, maybe, we add a new flash that just changes the strat a little bit. So I think for us, it’s just important that we do that. Because I think we’ve seen so many teams in the past that have become number one but it’s so tough to stay number one and to keep winning. And for us, something that we always try and make sure that we as a team and as individuals, we’re constantly evolving and trying to improve. Even if apEX brings loads of new rounds and we evolve as a team, but if I’m still doing the same stuff, it’s going to be easy for teams to counter me. So I think it’s been really important that we constantly try and improve on that side of things and take the responsibility as players to do that as well.

Daniel: Well, you guys have obviously brought Overpass straight into your map pool, you even picked into it against Astralis. What’s the team’s thought process behind that?

mezii: I mean, honestly, in the first game, we were definitely not expecting to pick Overpass. I think they banned Dust2, which we were prepared to play and prepared to pick. And then they banned it, like, the coach come over, we were warming up, he said, “Ok, we’ve picked Overpass.” Ok, that’s fine. I mean, for us, we had the most preparation we could on Overpass as a team. And we know, of course, Astralis, they had just played the FISSURE tournament when Overpass came out. They hadn’t had time to prepare or play as much. So we were confident playing Overpass. I think as a team we played it before and it hasn’t changed so much. Like, the meta and stuff is still very much the same. So for us, we’re confident playing it and we’d practiced it and everyone knows the nades and everyone feels comfortable as individuals and so on. I mean, it’s nice for a new map to come in and we can instantly adopt it and play together.

Daniel: So there is a chance that you could face MOUZ in the Semi-Finals this time around. That has been a pretty banger matchup this year. Is there a team that you’d prefer to face out of the two that you could face?

mezii: I mean, for me, it would be nice to play FURIA just because it does mix it up a bit. They’ve been playing very well. Like, I think not many teams would have expected them to make Playoffs in the first place. So it’s been cool to see them improve as a team and get steps forward. So I would like to play FURIA, but if we have to play MOUZ and beat them again, then we’ll do that as well.