mezii at IEM Kraków: “To get to number one is hard, but to stay is even harder for us”

Another day, another playoffs for Team Vitality. Currently, the team is awaiting either G2 or MOUZ in the Semi-Finals here at IEM Kraków. I got to speak to William “mezii” Merriman about the teams run so far in Poland, keeping the good times rolling, and fatigue amid the never-ending CS2 tournament calendar.

mezii: “Of course it’s always tough when Valve makes the decision to change map a few days before a tournament”

Sophie McCarthy: How you doing, mezii?

William “mezii” Merriman: Good, doing well. Excited to be here and make another playoffs. So I’m excited.

Sophie: Absolutely. And we’re both English so we have to talk about the weather. How you doing with that?

mezii: I mean here it’s been.. I’ve never experienced the cold like this. I think it’s, of course in the UK, the weather’s not great, probably a bit more rain, but here it’s been.. I think it’s improving now, but the first few days were really cold. It’s tough to go outside.

Sophie: Yeah, I think it’s going to go cold again over the weekend as well. So I love that for us. Okay, so first question is obviously it’s not surprising that this roster stuck together after the end of last year. What impact does the stability have on your guys’ performance?

mezii: Yeah, I mean I think it’s always helpful when of course, when you’re successful, of course you’re not going to make changes. But I think as well, even for other teams, I think it always helps when you build so much experience as well over the years with the same type of guys and you all go through the same type of things and learn so much together and how each individual will react in certain situations and so on. So I think, I think for us as well, it’s. It just feels good to keep the same group together… The same stuff, everything. It keeps everything consistent and as a player. Of course the main focus is on the game. But when you’ve got everything around you staying consistent, it also helps to keep your mind on the game consistently.

Sophie: Yeah, that’s good because you guys, I think you guys did 17 tier 1 events last year and you made deep runs at all of them. How do you deal with that fatigue? Is there any?

mezii: Yeah, I mean it’s. Of course, of course winning definitely helps with that. I think in 2024, we had some good runs as well, but we would, we weren’t winning anywhere near as much. So it can be quite tough as well. But even when you win it, it’s still, you get very tired. Of course, a lot of the traveling and stuff going around, it can be tough. But I think when you win, it makes it all worth it. It makes it feel a lot better. But yeah, I think something that Vitality do and all the staff around Vitality make sure that we get enough rest in between tournaments and we try and plan around that as well. We’re not trying to just keep grinding the game because sometimes that can burn you out a bit too much. You go from tournament to tournament, traveling so much, and then they don’t want to force boot camps and stuff. We just. We try and make sure we plan these types of things at the right times. And I think that’s what Vitality do best as well, is just getting our feedback on that and also trying to implement a schedule that helps us as players as well.

Sophie: Yeah, for sure. Because, I mean, you guys have kind of reached the heights that Counter-Strike has to offer. It was an amazing year.  So how do you foresee 2026 going, how do you think you guys are going to stay on top?

mezii: Yeah, I think it’s always going to be tough to stay on top. I think like a lot of teams have seen in the past, of course, last year was incredible. But to get to number one is hard, but to stay is even harder for us. We want to make sure that we don’t focus too much on the previous year and focus on. Of course, we want to still have high expectations of ourselves and make sure that we stick to high standards, but at the same time, we don’t want to think just because last year we won these tournaments, doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy this year or we’re just going to turn up and win. So I think we want to make sure that we kind of play consistent, come back to CS and make sure that we play to a high standard and know, because we know we can do it consistently, we just need to make sure that we all keep doing, putting the work and keep grinding the game as much as we can. And we kind of know if we do that, then the results will come as well. We don’t want to focus too much though, on, “Okay, we’re coming to Kraków now. Okay, we need to win this all. We expect to get to the final.” We want to take it game by game, see what happens. And yeah, I think 2026 is, we’re confident as well. We know what this team can do and we know it’s, you never know what’s going to happen, of course, but we want to just make sure we keep focusing on each tournament as it comes. And you never know when the next final, the next playoff is going to be. So for us, it’s just yeah, we just put as much work in as we can and see what happens.

Sophie: Yeah, for sure. Because we are seeing some teams like G2 for example are really starting to get into their form now. Are there any teams that you have your eye on?

mezii: Yeah, I mean I think for us, or at least for me, it would always be nice to play FURIA because I think towards the end of last year they, they had our number a little bit. They were beating us at a few of the tournaments and it’s always nice to get revenge against teams. So I think whenever we have the chance to play against FURIA, it’s always good. I think they’re a really strong team and like you say, a lot of these other teams like G2 are showing some good form. Their individuals, they’re showing up. Of course they don’t have, like I would say, compared to some teams that don’t have their ZywOo, that full stop player, but they have a lot of individuals that are really strong. And it’s the same with teams like MOUZ. They also don’t have that one star player but they have a lot of individuals that can come together and play really well. So it’s also hard to play against those type of teams in their own way. So you never know what’s going to happen because even, look at teams like Falcons who have got their star players, but sometimes it doesn’t always work out. So it’s exciting to play any of these teams for sure.

Sophie: I mean I think everybody had their eyes on the s1mple and ZywOo matchup, right?

mezii: It’s always an interesting one. I think it’s. It’s definitely good for the socials and stuff. Everyone enjoys to see the s1mple–ZywOo matchup. It would also be nice to see how they develop as a team. Obviously only a short amount of time BC.Game have been together, so you never know what can happen.

Sophie: Yeah, for sure. Okay, great. So I just had one last question for you. So personally you do have a pretty strong start to this year and you do look particularly comfortable on Anubis, I think. How do you feel about the changes that they made to this map?

mezii: Yeah, I mean I think it’s been… I mean I play towards B. For me on CT side and T side, there’s not a huge difference. But I think the overall changes to the map can still help. It’s like, I think it’s cool that they’re changing some things. I think they definitely needed it. And a new update, there’s still some newer things that could be changed to it. In terms of the spawns on T side, I still think it’s still quite heavily T sided but at least the change does give more options to the CT side and kind of opens up the map a little bit and more options for them. So yeah, I’m looking forward to playing it a little bit more. Of course it’s always tough when Valve makes the decision to change map a few days before a tournament.

Sophie: Oh yeah.

mezii: But it is what it is. It’s kind of how they want to do it. It’s fine. But yeah I think I’m just looking forward to playing a bit more, learning the map more as well because with each practice and each game we watch or see teams play as well you’re learning new nades new ways of playing so it’s always exciting when this happens.

Sophie: Okay. Yeah. That was everything I had for you. Thank you so much.

mezii: Thank you.