Darragh Harbinson takes a look at the effects of Robin ‘ropz’ Kool on Vitality’s roster and points to how ropz has enabled mezii to flourish in the major-winning squad.
As the confetti fell at the BLAST.tv Austin Major, Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire gave a winner’s speech for the ages in which he made two bold remarks, one right after the other, which perfectly encapsulate mezii and Vitality’s improvement in 2025.
First off, celebrating Vitality’s newest member, he stated, “I’m sorry Magisk, but ropz is the best move of all time. Seven trophies in seven tournaments. What else can you do?” Moving on to the next member of the roster, he bit back at historic criticism of William ‘mezii’ Merriman, remarking, “All the mezii doubters as well, last year ‘remove mezii, remove mezii,’ and look we still win seven trophies with him!”
2024 struggles vs 2025 glory
As Vitality lifted their major trophy, a seventh title in a row, it was hard to think back to that time, but what apEX parodied was common sentiment at the time. In 2024, mezii’s place on Vitality was severely under scrutiny. Averaging a 1.03 HLTV rating, mezii was first on many people’s lips when it came to a scapegoat for Vitality’s struggles, which saw them only win one trophy in 2024 – IEM Cologne in August 2024.
A year on, he top-fragged a Grand Final of a major, the second-highest rated player in the server after his IGL. Of course, it is not every series that mezii will outfrag Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, but statistics bear out that mezii’s form is significantly improved in 2025, even beyond the usual improvement brought about by a higher win percentage.
mezii individually has produced several key moments in Vitality’s golden path, but besides just clicking heads, we can think of mezii’s wider improvement as part of a long-standing pattern of ropz elevating his teammates.
How ropz signing fixed mezii’s Vitality roles
In 2024, mezii spent the vast majority of his time on CT-side coordinating with star-rifler and passive-lurker, Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi, with mezii taking the anchor roles and Spinx playing the rotation roles.
To put it kindly, Spinx and mezii were not a great pairing. Not because Spinx could not deliver the required numbers, but because Spinx’s latent passive nature while playing proactive roles constricted the space around Vitality’s bomb sites, forcing mezii to play anchor positions in an equally passive way, which does not suit his playstyle as a hybrid anchor.
This year, those sites are held with ropz, with the pair sharing anchor and rotation roles. This benefits mezii in two ways. Firstly, star roles, of course, lead to greater impact. Free to rotate to where the action is on Dust 2 and Inferno, mezii showed exactly why the dynamic role suits him in the Grand Final against The MongolZ, going a combined 24-14 on CT-side on the two maps.
| Map | 2024 | 2025 |
| Anubis | B Anchor | B Anchor |
| Dust 2 | B Anchor | Mid |
| Inferno | Pit/Apartments | A Rifle |
| Mirage | B Anchor | B Anchor |
| Nuke | A Floor | A Floor |
Esports News UK asked mezii for his reflections about his 2025 role changes following their IEM Katowice victory:
Yeah, overall I feel really comfortable. I think it’s something I’ve always had within a lot of teams. It’s the best of me, usually, when I have this good mix of roles where some maps I’m rotation, but some maps I also like to anchor and play those positions.
William ‘mezii’ Merriman
On T-side, mezii noted to Esports News UK that he is also more involved in a proactive sense, again with mezii taking certain passive positions off the Brit, such as the lobby lurk on Nuke. Overall, mezii is in far more positions to do damage, which far better aligns with his history as a star-rifler in such teams as Fnatic or Endpoint.
How ropz improves mezii’s anchor roles
The second aspect of ropz’s effect on mezii comes less directly, as an emergent property of ropz’s unique approach to Counter-Strike. As Launders put it on the BLAST broadcast, “ropz doesn’t take space; he makes it.” mezii is the chief beneficiary of that space on CT side, able to advance into areas ropz has opened up, and playing dynamically with the Estonian to shut down attacks before they begin.
mezii also noted in interview the mental improvements that ropz gave to the roster, stating “as soon as ropz joined the team we definitely saw the switch in terms of not just the atmosphere in the team or how we were playing. What he brings is he’s a real hard-working player inside the game. He’s constantly looking for new things and how to evolve and so on.”
For Vitality, ropz’s effect on the roster are both empirical and intangible, supported by an undoubted statistical impact, and also by a mental elevation of his team.
Certainly, Vitality shows no signs of dipping in terms of work ethic or hunger as they go into the second half of the season looking to defend their IEM Cologne title. With ropz in the roster, Vitality look extremely organised, as well as flexible and robust in their set-ups.
While rostermania will certainly result in many teams stepping up their firepower, can any player quite replicate the ropz effect?
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
