XTQZZZ: "It was mandatory for us [to get mezii to the arena]"

The French coach says their quarter-final bout is wide open.

Vitality have made back-to-back grand finals at ESL Pro League Season 19 and IEM Dallas, but lost out in both to remain without a trophy in 2024. The event in the United States was especially painful, as they were defeated by a G2 that was missing their in-game leader, Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen.

Their last event of the season, BLAST Spring Final, has also been far from ideal. Vitality lost to Virtus.pro before exacting revenge over G2 to make the playoffs and ensure that William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman makes an appearance in front of his home crowd at the Wembley Arena.

After the victory over G2, Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam sat down with HLTV to talk about mezii's and Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan's form, their expectations for the event, and how Vitality is working on how to better their mentality going forward.

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You're back in the playoffs. Was it good to bounce back after yesterday's loss?

Yeah, especially with the situation for the game. It was very hard to be focussed because we had to wait ten minutes, then twenty minutes, then thirty minutes, to see if m0NESY was here or not. So, I'm happy. We started pretty well on Inferno, failed on Anubis, and showed up on Mirage.

How do you even prepare for a game like that? Obviously, if there's no AWPer, you might want different maps and everything.

Honestly, just focus on ourselves because what can we do? We knew he could come after map one. We just prepared the game; new pistol, new things. Nothing much to say about m0NESY or not.

I wanted to ask more generally about tech pauses. You've been a bit unlucky with VP yesterday and the m0NESY situation today. What's it like trying to keep the guys focused?

Today, we didn't care because it was a mess. So, just stay focussed. We were ready for that. Yesterday, it was a bit of a weird situation, but just before they say it's live we talk about the round and the strat, and we are fine with it honestly.

How important was it for you to get mezii to the arena?

Honestly, we got a bit scared of being eliminated because of that. It was mandatory for us. I don't know if a lot of people will come tomorrow because it's a Friday, but we are happy at least to be in playoffs.

FaZe will be a banger. I don't think we have the best Vitality, but I don't think FaZe are at their best either. Maybe they are tired or something else. It's going to be interesting. We played them a lot: at Pro League, the Major, and the last Fall Final. Let's see.

mezii has come under a bit of scrutiny, but stats-wise, even if his role isn't too key for stats, he is on the uptick. What do you think that's down to? Is he getting a bit more space?

I just think he needed time, but in this sport, you don't get time. You need to be good as soon as possible. He has new roles, not on every map, especially onthe CT side. On the T side he has his roles, he's fine. But we saw after the Major, before the Major, some improvements. He was good in playoffs, but he needed more confidence as well.

He knows it's not easy. He was... I don't know if you can say a star player in Fnatic, but now you have Spinx, ZywOo, and apEX. It's not easy for him at all, but he's improving. I'm very proud of him; so many times, I can see it's because of mezii.

I can say we sometimes made mistakes letting him play alone on the site as well. Just sometimes, we need to accept the fact that it takes time to be good. He's not young, but he's still young for a top team. It's a different mindset. He can still improve.

Similar story with flameZ, I guess? He's been in Vitality for about a year and is still having to adapt to anchor roles. How do you look at flameZ's first year, how has he changed in these CT roles?

I don't think these roles are an issue for him. He likes to play as a crazy anchor, moving. It's not a problem. The problem for Shahar is that sometimes he can feel the game, but he needs to start really well to play really well. That's the issue right now. When he has a bad start, we don't get the best flameZ on the server.

We tried to figure out how he can come back when he has a bad game because he's still young. He needs more routines. He's still young, we are not worried. On the T side, he is amazing, and on the CT side, it's not because of the role.

I wanted to ask as well about the team's stability. In peak Vitality, you had the bedrock of experienced players like Magisk and dupreeh. Now, with a younger team, is there a bit of mental fragility?

Yeah, I think it's the biggest issue for us right now: the mentality part. As soon as we lose a key round, a shit round, we go down because of a lack of experience or character. It was the strongest point when we lost Magisk because we lost not only a second voice but the second character of the team.

We need to find a good balance. Everyone needs to give a bit more, maybe 20% more from Spinx, flameZ, and mezii. Of course, mezii helps apEX a lot in terms of calling, but character is different. We tried to work on it with the performance coach, me as well, and definitely it's not the best Vitality yet.

Of course, you hear this all the time. It's because of mentality, right? You can lose mentality when you are a bit tilted, but it's not the case. It's just that if we go down, we have a lack of communication instantly. And so we don't make any decisions. For six months we've been working on that. It's hard to say that all the time. Of course, it's better, but you know there's a long way to go.

Is that an area for ZywOo to grow into? Someone like Magisk is known for holding his teammates to high standards, and it can't just be apEX, right? Is there a gap for ZywOo? When he's that good, people will respect what he has to say.

Honestly, he is doing it, but not enough. I don't think he has the character to do it all of the time. We want him to do more but at the same time we want more from mezii or Spinx. flameZ is a bit crazy but he's a different person on the server, honestly.

You know how many times I've heard, as soon as ZywOo says something, "I want to follow." So, it's really easy for him, he's trying to realize that. I think we can improve by 30 or 40%, but not all the time. He doesn't have the character for that. I don't want to change him — I hear all the time, "Mathieu needs to be more selfish," but he's himself. I cannot change that. You can improve things, but you can't change the guy. It's so fucking hard to do that. [laughs]

Like you said, it's maybe not the best Vitality, but you made two grand finals in a row. This team has so much firepower, so much know how, we can see that. What would you be happy with for the last event of the season?

I would say, if we lose, to lose on our terms at least. Because of course Spirit are really good. VP played well yesterday, we have to be honest. I feel like NAVI are better this tournament. At least we are in playoffs.

We have two goals: First, to be here for mezii and, second, to get the trophy. But we know that if we don't get the trophy, it's not a disappointment. What's important is our mentality and our way of playing.

So, more about performance than the result? Is that something that, as a coach, you want to drum in?

Of course I want to win titles, but it's about how we play. As a coach, you want to see improvements to work on after.