mezii: "We need to focus more on team play; we've been a bit messy on that aspect"

mezii talks playing at home again, Vitality's issues in the new season and their quest to return to title-winning form.

Two months into the new season, the once indomitable Vitality are still seeking their first trophy after back-to-back-to-back semi-final exits.

They look to break the rut at BLAST Open London after making it through to the online group stage unscathed and advancing straight into the semi-finals, where they'll face off against the winner of MOUZ vs. M80.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open London 2025 Finals
06/09/2025	Vitality 16:30 MOUZ	Match

Ahead of the playoffs, HLTV spoke with William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman about Vitality's quest to return to title-winning form and the issues they've faced so far in the season.

The Brit shared that the team has been disappointed not so much with the results rather than the fashion in which they've lost matches. "We've played some CS that's not been very well connected, and for us that's been our main focus," he said.

"When things are going bad, individuals are trying to make more moves and trying to make things happen," he went on. "We need to make sure we focus more on the team play and the trading aspects, doing stuff together. This season we've been a bit messy on that aspect, and that's a result of why the T sides have been so bad for us."

He also spoke about playing at home again, his Rating 3.0 "buff" and pressure to perform at an event where some of Vitality's biggest rivals such as Spirit, The MongolZ and Falcons are missing.

You can watch the interview or read the transcript in full below:

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What's it like to be at an event in your home country?

It feels good. Not many opportunities to play in your home country and in front of a home crowd, so I'm really looking forward to it. Last year was a great experience, hopefully this year will be a different result and we can get a step further.

Does it feel different this year, coming in as much heavier favorites than last year? Are you feeling that expectation?

Yeah, I mean first of all, we had such a good start to the year, and then now we're still trying to find that win. It would be great to find it here. We're growing in confidence, improving a lot, and in the team we're working very hard. It feels nice to be back here and hopefully we can get back to winning trophies again.

In your own words, how would you sum up the start to the season? Because obviously online, everyone overreacts and everything, but internally what is the judgment to the start of the season?

To be honest, in CS, we always knew that at some point we're going to have to lose. For us it's not like... I mean, we still had top-four finishes, which is not the end of the world, but the way we lost some games has been a bit disappointing with the way we've played.

Last season, we were very good in those high-pressure moments, or those moments where even when it looked like we were going to lose or we had to make a comeback, we would do it. Then, in this part of the season, we've played some CS that's not been very well connected and not been on the same page, and for us that's been our main focus: to get back to our DNA and our foundations of just playing good CS.

We didn't do anything crazy in the first part of season in terms of the way we played CS, it was very much based on the team aspect of trading and making sure that we were doing those things well. And in this part of the year, we've started very bad in those things and our focus is on this. We haven't been worried too much about the overall performances or worried about our placements; it's just CS at the end of the day. Sometimes it can switch, especially after a player break, it's just how our focus is getting back to our high level.

So you wouldn't put it down to anything like, you know, over the summer, everyone is spending four weeks just looking at Vitality demos and stuff and trying to ruin your practice. Is it not things like that?

It definitely plays a part in it. It's always tough to anti-strat a team or to fully find solutions against them during a season. Last year, of course teams had time to study us and had a lot of time, but at the same time, it's also tough for them to implement things.

Over the course of the break, they have more time to actually find solutions on how we play, and in some games you can definitely feel like they have anti-stratted us and found some solutions to our game which is bound to happen. But it's also down to us to try and switch up some more things and find new ways of playing. That's been our main focus. It's been a big learning curve for us, to figure that out and try and focus on newer things and new approaches to the game, and like you say, it definitely plays a part in people being able to have more time over the break to do this.

Everyone's finding T-sides a bit harder after the economy changes and everything, and ZywOo specifically is dropping a little bit on T-sides. Is that kind of something you care about internally or is it just noise?

It's become a bigger problem in terms of just... I don't know for other teams, but for us at least, just being on the same page. We've been very disconnected on our T-sides, like a lot of not falling back on the team play. We're focusing more on individuals and it's not working for us.

When things are going bad, individuals are trying to make more moves and trying to make things happen, and like we said in the first part of the season, we shouldn't be doing this. We need to make sure we focus more on the team play and the trading aspects, going and doing stuff together, and this season we've been a bit messy on that aspect. It's not been the best thing, and I think that's kind of a result of why the T-sides have been so bad for us at least. We haven't been as one, it's not been as connected, so I think that's been a reason.

For other teams, it might be something different, but for us, we've been trying to focus on this in our T-sides because we want to make sure that we're playing some good CS. This season, we've been showing some glimpses of this, some games it feels good, like we take a step forwards, and then sometimes we take a step back, which is kind of disappointing, a bit annoying at times. But like I said, we're still finding our groove and our confidence in this part of the year and it's definitely improving.

What would you put that change in team play down to overall, because obviously the roles fit amazingly and everything. Is it just a bit of rustiness after the player break?

Yeah, I think so. I wouldn't say we've been complacent, of course when you have such a successful first part of the year, sometimes you don't want to change too much because you're scared of it going the opposite way. We want to make sure we're still focused on our way of playing, and like I said, I think we've gone away from that. Like you said, when there's a bit of rustiness, when we as individuals are not playing at our best as we were in the first part of the year — I think all of us have taken a step down compared to what we were — of course that also plays a factor.

If you look at most teams now, like The MongolZ for example, all five individuals are playing insanely well whenever we play against them. The evolution of when we first started playing them to now, it feels like you can't miss any bullets against them, like they're so instant.

It's also been a factor for us that we need to make sure we're at our highest level individually, because in the first part of the year, sometimes we would get away with things because we were so good individually and now we're getting punished for those. So it's also important for us that we're playing some good CS as individuals and then altogether it will come as a team as well.

There is no MongolZ here, no Spirit here. Does that affect you at all? Is there extra pressure now?

Of course there's always pressure, but for us it's always nice if they could have been here. We always want to be a team that can get revenge. I mean, Spirit, we haven't really played this part of the year, and we would like to get revenge on The MongolZ, so it's a shame they're not here. But we still have a chance if we do play MOUZ to get revenge from Cologne as well.

The pressure is always going to be there no matter what tournament we play at or what teams are there. Our focus is just, like I said, getting back to improving more. We want to make the next step. Of course we had some top-four finishes, but we want to get back to the final now and hopefully lift a trophy. It would be the perfect place to do it here. That's our main focus, we're not really focused on what teams are here, who we have to play, and so on. It's more focused on what we can do as a team to improve and get back to winning.

I also wanted to ask about your own form. Maybe it's just the rating 3.0 buff or something like that (mezii laughs), but how are you kind of feeling individually this season? People think of you as the supportive element, but you've leapfrogged flameZ this season. Is that playing in your mind at all?

No, I mean of course the rating 3.0 has been a nice surprise, but it's not something I focus on too much. The last event before this and so on, I've been trying to improve a bit. I think there's been a bit of a slump and maybe it's also due to our performance as a team as well, like sometimes it happens. I'm just trying to make sure I find the impact where I can.

That's the nice thing about 3.0 at least. Sometimes it was tough before to find, like... I think people just look at the stats and are like, 'Okay, this mezii guy, he fucking sucks.' But now it's nice to get some recognition, like obviously the clutches play a big part now as well, in that side of the impact.

But yeah, the stats are not something I focus too much on, it's more about how I feel in the game personally, and if the stats show that and show a good side of it, then great. But if not, then I just want to find the impact where I can for the team, whether that's in communication or helping the team in terms of morale and vibes and so on. But yeah, it's been a nice change to see the stats fly up like this, but it's not something I focus on.