mezii: "It's easier for me to come in as an IGL because everyone has really good communication"

fnatic's new IGL William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman caught up with HLTV after upsetting HEROIC.

fnatic came into the Pinnacle Cup Championship after a turbulent start to 2022 that has seen the squad revamped several times, only recently having added Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen and Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi to their ranks.

Despite sporting a brand-new roster, and fielding Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg as a stand-in, fnatic beat the odds to triumph narrowly over pre-tournament favourites HEROIC in their opening game.

Newly-minted IGL mezii sat down with HLTV after the match to talk about settling into his new role, what it has been like playing with his new team, and their expectations for the event.

First off congratulations, how does it feel to beat the favourites for the whole event?

Really good to be honest, I think Heroic are always one of the hardest teams to play, just their playstyle is super hard to read against because they’re always gambling, they’re always over-rotating, so it’s super hard. For us, since we made the changes, it has always been about communication. I think when you play a team like that, when your communication is really good, that’s how you beat them. I think we played super calm and were able to react well against them.

Like you say Heroic have a style that is difficult to read, so it must have been a hard first test as an IGL for you. Were you sweating at all over this game?

No not really, I think I was pretty calm about it. I think in this team it’s been a lot easier for me to come in as an IGL because everyone around has really good communication and can always put ideas forward so, it’s making my job a lot easier. I’m not having to sit there, tell each person “do this, do that”, so it doesn’t take away from my game as much. It’s been really good to have ideas put forward.

Is that something you think is particularly important, keeping your individual level high?

Yeah I definitely think so, and I think you have to have it now. Even with IGLs that in the past that maybe didn’t frag as well, like Karrigan for example, he is individually playing really well. You have to have five players that can frag well and step up when they need to, so it’s important for me to be able to always be able to give a good level as well.

I know in the past you have said you have been a secondary voice on teams, but has it been a big change to switch to being the primary caller?

I think it is because there is just more responsibility. When you are a second caller you can give ideas whenever you feel like it, there’s never that responsibility at the end of the round where you have to be the one to make the call.

Obviously there are always going to be ideas in the round, but it’s your choice to take the idea, or use it to make something different. There’s a bigger responsibility, but it makes it a lot easier when you have a team that can really come together and give ideas as a collective.

Were there any expectations for you guys coming into this event?

Not really. Obviously we all want to do well, no one that competes wants to lose. I think when things are against us, we have a stand-in and we are a completely new team, the expectations aren’t there to win the event, but also we’re here to take each game as it comes and just win as much as we can.

That’s what happened even in the past when we had stand-ins, if you set the expectations a bit lower, it takes some of the pressure off people and we can play full confidence. When you play against a team like Heroic, you have to play with confidence or they just run over you. I have experienced that in the past, when you’re trying to figure out too much against them or are playing a bit scared they just run over you, so it’s important to keep that confidence and not worry too much about what’s going to happen, just keep going and keep the motivation.