mezii: "You can't just sit there and hope that the IGL makes the best call"

The former in-game leader sat down to speak thoroughly about fnatic's off-season changes and his own move away from calling.

fnatic have a perfect record so far in Cologne after beating Complexity and 9INE in the play-in followed by a close 2-1 victory in their group stage opener against Cloud9.

William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman took some time after the match to share his thoughts on his team's restructuring, which included the addition of Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong as in-game leader and Aurélien "⁠afro⁠" Drapier in the AWPer role, as well as his own move away from calling the shots.

You're no longer reined in by the IGL role, how do you feel about being able to get into the pre-IGL form?

It feels good, obviously. I've been joking around a little bit saying that I can enjoy the games now, but even then it was a really good experience for me. I definitely didn't see it as a waste of time, I think we did some good things.

For me now, I've kind of added something new to my game as just a normal rifler in the team and even now just some of the opening attemps... before they were super low and even as IGL it was semi-low, but now I think I'm really adding a lot more to help the team not play so passive. It feels really good to have those options and feel the confidence that I can just call and say to dexter 'Hey, can I do this?' And he's like, 'Yeah, no problem.' So it feels good.

It's often said that when a player has a stint as an IGL it allows him to then go on and see the game in a new way and apply the things he learned as an IGL. Can you give me a bit of insight into what that's like?

My CT positions haven't really changed at all, but my T-side positions are switched around now, so I'm playing a bit more lurkey or side positions. Before IGLing I was much more passive and kind of staying alive for the clutch situations most of the time. Now I definitely see the game a bit differently and know what my team needs form me.

We usually have KRIMZ in more of those passive lurks and I'm a bit more aggressive on the sides, taking a bit more duels. That's kind of what I've learned from being IGL, that you can't just sit there and hope that the IGL makes the best call.

Especially now, in our team, I think everyone has a lot of ideas and for me it's making sure that I can contribute as much as I can to that, but also take some space and pressure the opponent team as much as I can. Now it's even getting myself into positions where I can help the mid-round. Something I've been enjoying a lot is getting myself into those aggressive positions and lurking from that point on.

Another big change is getting dexter, a new in-game leader who is taking over calling. How has that adaptation gone? How is the team changing with someone coming into such an important role?

I think the team's doing really well. It's been good for dexter, as well. He's come in and it's not like we were the number one team before, so it's not like we had all of these things that always worked for us. We were really open to initially just say to him 'Bring whatever you want, put your stamp on things,' and I think that's what we've done.

We already have players who have a big opinion and like to put their ideas forward, so I think that's definitely helping him. Also with keita, our coach, he's doing a lot of the work in terms of the tactical side, bringing new rounds for us, doing a lot of the anti-stratting and so on. That's allowing dexter to focus a lot more on his game, which is also a big plus for us. At the moment we're contributing a lot for him and he's doing a really good job mid-rounding.

The difference between him and me is that the inexperience was kind of hard to keep control of during the round and now he does a really good job making sure that we transition really well into the end-rounds and we're not making too many oversteps and so on. He has a lot of control and I think that's a really good thing for us. We're not too loose now, as we were before.

The other big change is bringing on a new AWPer, afro. He was very good in tier 2 and proved why he should get the call up to a bigger team, but at the same time he doesn't have the experience. How has bringing him into the fold been?

Overall he's been a big surprise. Me and keita, when changes were happening, we were obviously looking at different AWPers, but when we looked at him we could see his natural ability straight away. His mechanics are very good, so obviously the biggest question mark was his experience. With AWPers you can often get people who are like 'Let me go kill, let me just go all out and be aggressive,' but with afro it has been a really big surprise in terms of how much he actually thinks about the game and why he does certain things.

At least for me, he's one of the AWPers I've played with that has the least experience but it feels like he has the most, pretty much. I think he has really shown his game knowledge is really good. He knows when he wants to reagress, when he wants to go for different peaks because the team is doing this and that.

Like I say, he's been a really big surprise for me and at the moment it's just more the cope with chaotic situations. He's still working on his English, it's new for him being in an international team, so on that side of things it's a bit of work in progress, but overall he's doing a really good job.

I want to talk about the last few rounds against Cloud9 and especially your mental fortitude. You lost two advantageous situations late on Ancient, went into overtime, but then really crushed it. How was it, ending those tough rounds and then becoming so resilient in OT?

Ever since I've been in fnatic we've really tried to build that kind of culture to make sure we always, no matter what happens — 2vs4s, 2vs5s, completely throwing some rounds —, we just refocus on the next round. That's something we're trying to build straight away with the team in bootcamps and just making sure that we constantly have the energy. It's something I've tried to focus on now, whereas when I was the IGL I had a lot to focus on, but I really try to bring that more and the energy to a team.

We lost FASHR, who was a guy who really liked to shout, so now we're five guys who are pretty chilled and a bit quiet, so I'm focusing a bit more on that, on keeping the boys positive and knowing that we messed up some rounds but it's not the end of the game. We can still push on.

We showed today in the buy rounds, even on Vertigo where we messed up some of the low buy rounds, but in the big buy rounds we were very confident and strong. On Ancient we knew we needed to keep on with the same plan, especially on T side. We knew we could take Mid and end rounds pretty easily, we just needed to make sure we didn't go too aggressive and give away kills. Same on the CT side. We played pretty aggressive on Ancient and at the start dexter felt really confident that we could just fake it out a little bit and take it chill because we were really confident in the end-rounds.

Cloud9 are a team that uses a lot of utility to take space and didn't have much to end, so we were pretty confident that when they came to us we just chilled because we could do it in the end-rounds. I think we're very positive as a lineup at the moment and obviously that honeymoon period can help as a new team, but everyone wants to make sure that we can keep that for future games.

Do you feel a little bit of that, of a honeymoon period?

Yeah, I think it's always a thing for most teams. Sometimes it lasts longer for some teams, other times it takes a while before they hit that period. I think for us, we're doing a good job, especially in practice, to try and treat them as officials as much as we can to just make sure that we're constantly trying to have that feeling of officials.

We could be having it, but I'm not sure. I think at the moment we're not playing our best CS, we didn't blow them out of the water, we're still making a lot of mistakes, but we've shown that we have the foundations that we can be a strong team and hopefully we can continue.

You've won your play-in matches and you've won your first match in the group stage now. What potential do you see in this team? Can you break barriers and reach new heights?

Yeah, for sure. A lot of the changes we made maybe surprised a few people and we didn't get some of the big names. We weren't seen as one of the teams that made the best changes and so on, but for us, we're calculating and analyzing what roles we needed.

I put it forward that we could do with an IGL, and with an AWPer that... nicoodoz lost a lot of confidence towards the end and now we brought on afro who has all of that confidence. I definitely see the potential in practice every single day and now at this event now that we're building the right foundations.

I hope we can continue to have this foundation because I think we kind of lost it towards the end in the previous team. We maybe lost some confidence in how we were playing and for now I think we're really doing a good job at pushing on the potential. I think we have really good potential.

Are the officials mirroring your practice? And what expectations did you have taking into consideration that practice and the little time you've had together?

The honeymoon period was strong in practice, [laughs]. We were owning a lot. Then we went to bootcamp a couple of weeks before this event and it was up and down. We had some good and some bad, but coming into this event we were still confident to make it to this stage, through the play-in, and then kind of going from there.

We're obviously still a new team, but the good thing is that we're taking things from practice into officials. A lot of times, even in previous teams, like before the Major with the last lineup, we were smashing everyone in practice. Then in officials the stress is there, the chaotic situations are there, and people can really fall off. It can get to them.

Now I think it's really good that even in these games, in the play-in with some close and intense games, everyone is showing up and keeping it calm. Even though we don't have that much experience we're kind of showing some sort of experience because everyone is kind of staying calm. Everyone's doing a good job so far.

Like I say, we're just kind of taking it game by game from now on and at least for me I kind of hope to make it to playoffs at one of these events. We've played two or three Katos and this is my first Cologne. We've been a few rounds from each playoffs, so hopefully now this can be the one.

You played Cloud9 today, but with a bit of an asterisk because they had a stand-in. As the tournament progresses you'll get harder and harder teams. How's your confidence going into these matches, can you bring it to the favorites?

Yeah, for sure. Even though we never really made a lot of deep playoff runs or were contenders with the previous lineup, I think we have a very strong base and the individuals are all playing really well in our team. That's what really matters now and you can see it with a lot of top teams making changes because they want that extra firepower even when they're winning tournaments.

As long as our individuals stand up and we just keep working hard, I think we can definitely bring it to a lot of these top teams. Cloud9 obviously had a stand-in, but you've still got some of the best players in the world and they've made one of the biggest changes in the scene at the moment, so we're definitely confident going up against any team right now.