William ‘mezii’ Merriman has come under fire on social media in recent months after HLTV-ranked world no.2 team Vitality registered arguably lower-than-expected finishes at events like the Blast Premier Spring Final (semi finals) and the Esports World Cup (quarter finals).
Esports News UK’s Reece Barrett brings his Mezii analysis to show why the Englishman is helping his team much more than the scoreboard shows. (photo above by Jonathon Yau from the Blast Premier Spring Final in London).
Upon mezii’s arrival from Fnatic in November 2023, Vitality became untouchable.
The Englishman walked in and won the Blast Premier Fall Final – Vitality’s first trophy in three months – and then helped his new team win the Blast Premier World Final 2024 without even dropping a single map.
Mezii looked to be a revitalising final piece of the puzzle, even when replacing a legendary anchor like Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, but the honeymoon soon slipped away.
In 2024, Vitality went eight months without winning a trophy.
A podium finish at the PGL Copenhagen Major was nothing to scoff at, and some narrow defeats in Dallas and Malta saw them finish second in a few events, but the Golden Hornets just could not win any silverware.
Typical of all frustration in life, a scapegoat had to be named, and Mezii fell into the crosshairs of the Counter-Strike faithful – especially when it came to games in which he bottomfragged with low numbers of kills.
But now, eight months into 2024, Vitality won IEM Cologne 2024 and took home one of the most prestigious trophies in the circuit’s calendar.
In an exclusive chat with Esports News UK, Mezii said: “I’m super happy we were able to win IEM Cologne, it’s an incredibly prestigious event. This is our first trophy of the year, and hopefully just the start of our tournament wins for the rest of 2024.
“Tier-1 Counter-Strike is really close at the moment and while it’s nice to be ranked number 1 right now, we know how quickly it can change. We just need to continue to work hard and be hungrier than ever to keep our spot at the top.”
William ‘mezii’ Merriman on the state of Counter-Strike’s top level
Mezii may have finished the series with the lowest number of kills out of all 10 players on the server, but the Englishman proved why his game goes much further than what you see on the scoreboard.
Superstar performances from fraggers Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan and Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi certainly helped Vitality win this final against Natus Vincere, but there is no space for these stars to shine without support players.
In Round Seven on Nuke, Mezii is constantly scanning between Hut and A Main, and for 28 seconds he jiggles back and forth to check each position over and over.
Spinx is waiting at Second Vent, a position that can trade enemies pushing from both Hut and A Main, and upon any information from Mezii, Spinx can swing out for the multi-kill spraydown play.
Mezii scans between Hut and A Main for 28 seconds while Spinx is ready to swing out at Second Vent
This is what Mezii’s job is for this round – make contact with the enemy push, draw them in towards A site and grab their attention so that Spinx can catch them off-guard and get the trade kills.
Mezii checks Hut and A Main eight times during that 28 second scan, before Spinx takes over and holds Squeaky.
First contact is exactly what he wants to find – on this Nuke CT side Mezii either got the first kill or died first in 42% of the rounds.
Eventually 10 seconds remain in the round and Navi push out on B Site, so with Mezii anchoring on A, he does not have the opportunity to get many kills this round.
This is a small reason why his low kill games will not worry the Englishman – if the other team does not push his anchored site then he does not get the opportunity to get kills at all in some rounds.
The A site anchor works in his favour here though, because Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavičius kills Spinx at Second Vent, so Mezii is able to trade to prevent the Navi IGL from saving a rifle.
Mezii gets a reward for anchoring and stops jL from saving
There will be occasions where Mezii gets first contact and goes down without getting anything, especially in situations where wrong calls elsewhere leave him alone on a site.
In Round Four on Nuke – the first gun round – Mezii is playing on A Site with Spinx supporting him from Heaven.
Navi send two smokes and two players Outside, with the obstruction from the smokes allowing them to panic ZywOo into backing off and giving them control of the main outside area.
Vitality acknowledge the loss of map control, so Spinx and flameZ make a co-ordinated, clearly rehearsed double peak and spray the smokes from Heaven and Hell.
Spinx and flameZ make a rehearsed peek on Outside, but leave Mezii alone on A
But the outside push was only half of Navi’s plan, as their remaining players execute onto A, and Spinx is not able to get back into position inside in time to assist Mezii.
The Israeli is fully blinded by flashes on Heaven, and Mezii tries to get a kill with some aggression towards Hut but is taken out without trade by jL from Hut.
Mezii tries to be aggressive on Hut but is killed by jL
His patrotism and mezii’s custom St George’s Cross keyboard did not spur him on enough to get the frag!
Ideologically, Mezii makes this aggression because it increases his chances of getting the first kill if he can move towards an off-angle where jL will not have his crosshair waiting for him.
Perhaps the two-man peek on Heaven was Vitality’s way of throwing something new in the mix, as they tried to figure out what Navi would do in these two teams’ first meeting since December 2023.
But in an exclusive chat to Esports News UK, Mezii insisted that Vitality were just bringing their own game.
Our preparation was the same going up against NaVi as we would usually do and even though we had not played them this year, as a team we felt confident going up against them given how we had been playing and improving throughout the tournament.
William ‘mezii’ Merriman when asked if Vitality had taken a different approach to the IEM Cologne final when they found out that they would play against Natus Vincere
Mezii continued: “Leading up to the final, I was super excited just to get up on that stage again and play in front of that crowd.
“The nerves and pressure were there mixed in with the excitement but that is normal going into the Grand Final of IEM Cologne, I also had my team who had been there before and gave me all the confidence and support I needed to perform on the stage so that also makes it a little easier.”
The double peek heaven play was “wrong,” but these types of “wrong” calls happen all the time in games and are just part and parcel of a tactical shooter.
Their repercussions can however leave certain individual players with an awful lot to do, and Mezii in this round cannot be expected to do much more than to delay the Navi push onto site.
This is why Mezii’s positions are often considered the hardest to play.
The 25-year-old is an anchor player, occupying areas like Pit on Inferno, lone B Site on Dust 2 and Bench on Mirage.
This essentially means that Mezii stays alone on bombsites when his teammates rotate – he becomes the first and last line of defence if the enemy team decide to come to his side of the map instead.
That is what it means to anchor, and it is not always easy playing 1v5 defence on a site.
Even though he plays this position for Vitality, Mezii was once a star rifler for Fnatic and has always changed his shape to fit whatever hole needed, wherever he has played.
Mezii acknowledged to Esports News UK that his responsibilities for Vitality have shifted since his arrival.
Mezii said: “My role has definitely changed in Team Vitality since I joined, I’m now fulfilling the anchor role within the team whereas before I had much more of a mix of roles and positions. While I know there’s always room for wider improvement, I am happy to have one role to work hard at, to master, and become the best within that role.”
So in situations where he is rushed 1v5, Mezii and his team will probably be happy with one kill in those situations, like in Round Four on Dust 2.
Spinx is holding with the Englishman from Doors, and Mezii is sat on B Site, but when Navi move down Mid, Spinx has to go and help from CT.
This leaves Mezii alone, so he smokes off Tunnels and moves forward to an aggressive off-angle outside Tunnels.
Mezii switches position on Dust 2 B Site when his teammates rotate
He loves to move forward into more attacking positions that can catch the enemy off-guard – remember when he moved up to Hut when Spinx and flameZ left him to peek Heaven in that round we analysed on Nuke.
These professionals will have natural muscle memory when making mechanically peeks onto a bombsite – put yourself where they will not expect you and your chances of getting that kill go up massively.
So Mezii waits here as Navi come up Lower Tunnels, and Spinx comes back up to Door and throws a crucial grenade.
Spinx throws a nade from Doors, shown from Mezii’s POV
The trajectory of this grenade appears as though it came from the bombsite, so Navi push out and try to clear the site, which goads Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen into not even checking Mezii’s position – giving the Vitality rifler a free kill.
Mezii gets a free kill on Aleksib, who does not clear the off-angle
Fans will constantly call for his head because when you play on a team of three superstar fraggers and a legendary, auteur-like IGL, Mezii seems to be the only “replaceable” name.
But put almost any player in the world in his role and they will struggle.
Mezii’s positions are not high performing positions.
He exists to support his teammates, so low kill games will not worry him, but his inconsistencies to get the kills that he should get, will.
Mezii acknowledged that he and the team sometimes do not capitalise on advantaged moments when mezii spoke to Esports News UK at the Blast Premier Spring Final in June.
“I think we got a bit unfortunate [against Team Spirit on Anubis in the semi-final], especially on the CT side, there were a few aggressions where we felt we had the advantage, but just didn’t get the kills. I think sometimes we struggle with making the right decisions in the mid round. We know we want to be aggressive, but sometimes we’re a bit too solo in the aggressions.”
William ‘mezii’ Merriman speaking on Vitality’s semi-final loss to Team Spirit at the Blast Premier Spring Final
This round that we have analysed on Dust 2 is an example of this.
Mezii gets the kill on Aleksib, but cannot capitalise on a blind jL
Mezii gets Aleksib, who again is not looking at him, yet fails to get the follow-up on a blind jL.
The Englishman gets half-blinded from the flashbang too but he knows exactly where the Navi IGL is, and it is not unfair to say that a player of Mezii’s ability should have the natural spray control to be able to take out an enemy right in front of him.
Mezii gets multi-kills in 18.5% of his rounds on CT, and while that is not an awful percentage, it is the lowest out all of anchor players in the top five teams.
But his role is a somewhat poisoned chalice regardless, and Mezii is doing a pretty good job of sipping the solution.
Vitality win 72.2% of rounds where Mezii gets the opening kill, and on CT side, he gets the first pick 61.3% of the time when he goes for it.
Plus when he gets the space to frag, he often capitalises.
Mezii was struggling on Inferno CT side in particular in the final, only getting two kills in the first seven rounds of the half as aggressive pushes on Balcony and Mid in search of the opening kill were punished by Navi’s b1t.
In Round 20, Vitality recognised the problem during a tactical timeout and pulled Mezii and Spinx into more passive positions on B Site. Mezii is sat further back than Spinx, who is on the box.
Mezii secures a three-kill multi-kill against an attacking Navi
Spinx is molotov’d out of position as Navi push, and this ironically benefits Mezii, as all attention goes onto the Israeli who is out in the open with an MP9.
As Mezii waits at the back of site with a rifle, he is able to kill an unsuspecting Valerij ‘b1t’ Vakhovsjkyj who is checking Mezii’s usual, often aggressive positions of Balcony and Pit.
Mezii is not entirely quick enough here as he does not kill b1t before he can turn around and face him, so the Ukrainian is able to see where Mezii kills him from and can relay his position to his teammates.
But here the Englishman’s composure takes over, and we see him get two nice kills onto w0nderful and Aleksib who push him in search of securing the bombsite.
His celebrations after winning the round are not even too animated, and we see the calmness of a star rifler take over to round out the three man multi-kill.
Mezii celebrates after getting a big three man multi-kill
Mezii has the ability to do these things, and as we importantly noted above, he was a star rifler at Fnatic before moving to Vitality to replace one of the greatest anchors in Counter-Strike history in Magisk.
It was a change of roles, but one that the 24-year-old is actually excelling in, and there is clear talent to be seen when you look beyond the scoreboard.
Mezii acknowledged this switch-up in a previous interview with pley.gg.
“I’m showing definitely a lot more and feeling more comfortable in my roles now. It’s different from what I had in the past, but I think I have enough freedom, and enough space within this team to be able to perform at a better level than what I have shown already.”
William ‘mezii’ Merriman on his role at Vitality and how it is different from his previous teams
There are still steps for Mezii to take to become more consistent, but his ability in scanning for information, making aggressive plays at off-angles and then capitalising with multi-kills when given more space all point him in the right direction in this Vitality side.
After all, Mezii has only really been at the top tier of Counter-Strike for eight months, and there is still time for him to adapt to the highest level.
When asked about the next steps of his development, Mezii said: “In-game I am always trying to evolve and improve my gameplay to be the best I can be within my role, and to produce consistent performances that the team can rely on.
Out of the server I would say I’m just trying to learn from each experience I get, especially when we get the chance to go deep in playoffs and play on a stage like Cologne, and continue to learn how to deal with the pressure and continue to play my game to the best of my abilities
William ‘mezii’ Merriman on how he has been progressing off of the server with Team Vitality
The future remains uncertain, but with first place finishes at Blast Premier Fall Groups and IEM Cologne, Vitality are looking back at their honeymoon best. And long may king mezii’s reign continue.
Reece is a sports journalist who has previously worked with the likes of BBC Radio Solent, Southern Daily Echo, Salisbury Radio, VAVEL and many more. He is currently studying a degree in Sports Journalism at Solent University.
