mezii: "MOUZ said in multiple interviews that they're ready to beat us, now it's time to show it"

The Brit is looking forward to the semi-finals as Vitality continue to play against the crowd. "apEX loves to be the villain, he's definitely taunting them a little bit," he said after his team moved past NAVI in the Major quarter-final.

Vitality locked in a semi-final berth at the BLAST.tv Austin Major after beating Natus Vincere in a two-map series. The teams last played each other in the IEM Cologne grand final 305 days ago, making this the first time that they faced off since Vitality brought in Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool.

Vitality were adamant about not underestimating their opponents despite having a six-event winstreak and being the heavy favorites for the Major, and that mentality proved crucial to fend off a late comeback attempt from Natus Vincere on Nuke.

William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman ensured that comeback was halted in round 24 with a quad kill hold on A, putting a bow on a 1.26-rated series where he also had several multi-kills and clutches that kept Vitality in control and set the crowd alight.

"It's really exciting to play, especially when you're getting these clutches and these multi-kill rounds," mezii tells HLTV after the victory. "It's always fun because you can always hear them. The crowd goes crazy. So, it definitely pumps you up a little bit more. As players, it's something that we always enjoy playing on the stage."

The Brit also spoke about Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire enjoying taunting the crowd, Vitality's upcoming match against MOUZ, and his team's goal to not slip up at the final event before the break.

Listen to the interview here.

---

Congratulations, through to the semis. It wasn't an easy game, but you did get the 2-0 in the end. Just tell me how you're feeling after that, you ended it in style with a little quad kill as well.

It feels really good. Especially going up against NAVI, a team we haven't really faced much at all this year. And yeah, it always feels a bit nice when it's this close of a game, a bit back and forth, and we definitely threw a few rounds on the CT side.

We didn't really click off each other and communicate the best we could, but I'm just happy we closed it out, and I'm happy I had the AK in the last round. It helps with the headshots as well.

It was the first time you faced NAVI in almost a year and the first time you faced them since you brought ropz in. Can you tell me if anything changed in the matchup, in terms of how you were playing, and if ropz added anything to the dynamic?

Overall, especially in these arena games, ropz brings a lot in terms of just being calm. He's a guy that's always really locked in on these types of games. He's really focused on doing his job well and especially against a team like NAVI who are really structured and have a lot of these protocols.

It's important that we're really focused on that communication and moving around really well, and ropz always brings that. He's a guy that's not afraid to make any moves on the stage and when it gets to these close rounds, he's always communicating on what he wants to do and how he wants to exploit the other team. He brings a lot in terms of that.

You have a difficult side of the bracket, and you talked about not underestimating NAVI. They're still the Copenhagen Major champions, so there was an element of not underestimating them even though they've not played super well this year compared to last. Coming into this game, what was your mindset in terms of that, other than just not underestimating them?

We always know NAVI are a team that prepares really well. So even though maybe they're not playing the best throughout Stage 3, when they come up against us, when you're the number one team a lot of teams want to beat you, and NAVI are always going to be really prepared.

That's on us to make sure that we're switching things up and also we do our job at preparing as hard as we can. Because when it gets to these stage games, B1ad3 does a really good job at trying to exploit the opposition, and that's our job to make sure that we can not be too readable.

It's also tough because they play seven maps, so it was a bit harder for us to go into it knowing exactly what map we were going to pick because you never know what they're going to ban. So for us today, it was just focusing on ourselves on a couple of maps and just hoping it could go as well as possible.

The crowd booed you when you came in. Obviously, you've known that you're up against them the whole time. There's also the whole, 'Fuck you apEX' chant, and when you did the red carpet, I saw some UK flags and then the crowd were chanting, 'USA, USA.' Tell me about playing against them because I know it doesn't get into your heads anymore, you are very experienced, but it must be a little fun to try to play against that.

For sure, it's always fun. Whether the crowd is for you or against you, it's always fun. Even when you're playing, you can hear it. It's really fun to play in front of this crowd because you know it's all a bit of fun and a bit of banter, so it's nice to have this against you because apEX loves to be the villain.

Coming in, he's definitely taunting them a little bit, so for us as a team, we really enjoy playing in front of this type of crowd because they always cheer for good Counter-Strike. So whether we're winning or losing, it's always fun.

Does it help you play better at all? Cause you seemed to have a really hot start to the series. You had a clutch and then you played well throughout the course of the two matches. Does that help you at all?

Yeah, like I said, it's always fun. It's really exciting to play, especially when you're getting these clutches and these multi-kill rounds. It's always fun because you can always hear them. The crowd goes crazy. So, it definitely pumps you up a little bit more. As players, it's something that we always enjoy playing on the stage. Of course, it's nice to play, you always have to play the group stage to get here, but when you get on this stage and in front of the crowd, it's the best feeling because you can feed off them and feel the energy, and it's something that we do really well as a team.

Lastly, you're on a six-event win streak and now it's the Major, end of the season. You have the hard side of the bracket and you've been saying you're going to take it one step at a time. NAVI first, MOUZ next. How are you feeling about going into that one and a potential grand final appearance as well?

Feeling pretty good. We had a lot of matchups with MOUZ this year. There's been some close games and some a bit more one-sided for us, but it's the Major. We've already seen a lot of upsets, a lot of results people didn't expect, and coming into this, we've just got to treat it the same as we've done all year.

They've got a bit closer each time, and they're looking for revenge. They've said in multiple interviews that they're either ready to beat us or they feel they're getting closer, and now it's time to show it. As players, we want to make sure that we continue that.

It's the Major now, we don't want to slip up here, and that's our main focus, on MOUZ. We're feeling confident and we know that we can't think too much about past results. Of course we beat them in the past, but those results have gone until tomorrow when we play them, so that's the main thing.

How are you feeling about Spirit being out? Are you happy with the matchup you got then?

To be honest, I wouldn't have minded either. It would have been nice to play Spirit because we played MOUZ so many times this year. It's always much more fun to switch up the opponents. That's why it's nice to play NAVI now because we haven't played them all year. Either way, it would have been fun to play whichever team, and MOUZ is the opposition for tomorrow. We're looking forward to it.