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Update (November 8th 2023): Mezii has today completed his move to Vitality.
Original article (November 2nd): UK Counter-Strike pro player William ‘mezzi’ Merriman has today said a public goodbye to Fnatic, the team he’s been with for more than two years.
Mezii has been linked with a move to Vitality, as per this report by HLTV, and this move is expected to be announced soon.
He said on social media, ‘thank you for everything’ to Fnatic, followed by hearts in the team colours of black and orange, before quoting a longer post by the London-headquartered organisation.
He added: “I’m more than grateful to Fnatic for making this transition so smooth. It was a really tough decision after spending the best part of two years with Fnatic, I’ve enjoyed every single day working alongside the team and staff. I’ve achieved many personal goals here including making my first major and major playoffs, winning my first LAN at Elisa Masters and consistently competing at tier one events.”
“For over two years, Mezii has been a leader, an incredible player, and generally a great part of our roster. We see him as part of the family and are thankful for his contributions.”
Fnatic
Fnatic said: “As you may have heard, William ‘Mezii’ Merriman will be leaving our team to further his career elsewhere. He has been an incredible team member and a vital part of our roster.
“While we intended to continue our journey together, he had an option to be acquired in the final year of his contract, which after discussing it with him, we respected his wishes and facilitated the move.
“For over two years, Mezii has been a leader, an incredible player, and generally a great part of our roster. We see him as part of the family and are thankful for his contributions. We know our fans and everyone within Fnatic will miss his explosive plays and attitude. We wish him all the best in his new adventure.”
Fnatic added they haven’t had the best start in CS2.
“We have significant ambitions in CS2 and have a lot of work ahead of us to build a world-class roster that can reach the absolute top,” Fnatic said. “We will not rest in this mission and know this will require investment, which we’re prepared and ready to make.”
The transfer to Vitality is set to be made in time for the Blast Premier Fall Final 2023, which takes place in Copenhagen and will see Vitality take part.
Other teams involved include NiP, Heroic, Faze Clan, Navi, Astralis, Cloud9 and Complexity.
“It was a really tough decision after spending the best part of two years with Fnatic, I’ve enjoyed every single day working alongside the team and staff. I’ve achieved many personal goals here.”
Mezii
With Faze and Complexity now owned by the same parent company, this of courses causes a conflict of interest, and Faze’s new owner GameSquare is aware of this and looking into it.
Mezii has played for several UK orgs over the years, including London Esports, Vexed Gaming and Endpoint, where he moved after being a part of the Cloud9 project with HenryG.
When Mezii makes his move to Vitality, he will join another former Endpoint player, flameZ, and others including apEX, ZywOo and more.
The news also comes a few days after former Vitality player dupreeh joined Heroic, and a few weeks after the Blast CS Wembley Arena event was announced for 2024.
Related article: ‘I’m not your typical UK CSGO player’ – Fnatic Mezii interview conducted by James Banks for Esports News UK
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
