flameZ on mezii's performances: "I'm thinking about getting a child as well"

The 21-year-old heaped praise on mezii after the Brit returned to action at the RMR as a father.

Vitality became the second team to qualify for the Shanghai Major through the European RMR after breezing through GamerLegion, BetBoom, and FaZe.

Their early form in Shanghai has once again thrust them among the biggest Major favorites despite winning only one title during 2024, and Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan and company now aim to end their season on a high.

After Vitality beat FaZe in the 2-0 pool, flameZ spoke to HLTV about their RMR campaign, his expectations for the Major, and William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman's daddy buff.

If you cannot see the Soundcloud embed above, listen to the interview here.

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Congrats, you've made the Major after a 3-0 RMR campaign. How do you feel right now?

I'm feeling quite good, to be honest. Perfect World has done an amazing job hosting the teams so far. There are no side complaints in this regard, and as a team, we feel good. We had two games, one of them was not the smoothest for us, and then the second game was good.

In the FaZe game, we just threw some rounds on Dust2, but overall we had an amazing Mirage, and we won the Dust2 game [in the end]. We're very confident and happy to go instantly to the Elimination Stage, which is good. You have more time to practice, rest, review, and understand your mistakes. I think we're in very good shape.

Talking about the FaZe match. The first map was very comfortable, as you said, but then the second one was a bit rougher, and in the end, it was your clutch that got you over the line. How did it feel on the server? Did you feel nervous about closing it out?

Maybe not nerves, but we just didn't figure out the game properly. We didn't play to our best level in some of the key rounds, that's just going to happen sometimes. I'm just happy that we managed to close it out and win. The last few tournaments that we got eliminated in, it was always very close matches, so it's just nice to win those close games.

Even if it's the second map and you're not going to lose the match if you lose, it's still important to close those games, win, and bring out the little energy you need. It's even beneficial for us to have this kind of close win against FaZe to some extent.

You went through 3-0 after just two days of competition. How much of a buff will this be for the Major?

I'm not so sure about that because now we have to stay in China, and I don't know what the practice will look like. I don't know what we will do in this case, but I don't think there is a better way to go through that. There are benefits if you go to the second stage, and also if you qualify for the first stage and get ready for the setup.

When you have already played for quite a while, there are benefits to being in the first stage. It's just… Nobody gives a fuck, you just come, play your game, and try to do your best. Then you hope your best will win the tournament, and for us, it's the same.

Since Cologne, you haven't made a final. In many interviews before, you said that the Major is the goal. How do you feel coming into this? Do you feel ready to challenge for the title?

The Major is in two weeks, so it's weird in some sense to say that. It's my way of thinking about it, and I always want to be humble with myself. The game is really competitive right now, but we want to come and do our best. I believe our best can win the tournament, but the competition is so high right now. There are many good teams, G2, MOUZ, NAVI, and a lot of teams that do well.

We want to come, do our best, show what we are made of, and redeem some of the tournaments we've had. As you said, we didn't get finals after Cologne, but also looking back at the year, there aren't many tournaments in which we did as well as we wanted to do. We want to win this tournament, it's the last one of the year. There is a player break after, so we just want to focus on it. I think everybody will put hours into the game and get into good shape, but that goes for every team. Nobody can say he's going to win the trophy before he wins it.

You say it's hard to predict. Who would you say is the top team coming into the Major? Previously it would probably be NAVI, but they lost today to MOUZ and were eliminated early at the World Final. How do you feel about the scene?

I think the level of competition is quite high right now, but it has been high for the rest of the year, too. FaZe were good at the start, Spirit [too]. I think the [favored] team is the one in the best individual shape right now, or in three weeks, because it's going to be a draining four weeks for every team. The team that is the closest, the human beings who like each other the most, the closest family that there is in CS, will probably be the one with the most tools to win this Major.

I don't know if you read Twitter or HLTV forums, but the mezii daddy buff has been mentioned a lot. He's had a wonderful tournament, did you notice anything different in him when he came back to the team?

To be honest, I'm thinking about getting a child right now as well. [laughs] Obviously not, but he's been playing really well. It has been tough for him. Singapore was a bit before his daughter was born and then it got a bit stressful because you don't have much time even though you're home.

But he put a lot of time into the game, he's very sharp, I think he did a lot of deathmatch. He is shooting very well right now and he's winning us a lot of important rounds. Daddy buff or not, keep getting children if we're going to play like that.