mezii: “I never thought winning a Major was possible as a UK player”

UK CS has been continuously making history this year, as King William ‘mezii‘ Merriman has been sitting on his throne at the top of Counter-Strike with Vitality.

For anyone who has been living under a rock this year, since the addition of Robin ‘ropz‘ Kool, Vitality has been the undisputed best team in the world. They have won seven Tier-1 events in a row, including the likes of IEM Katowice, BLAST Open Lisbon, and IEM Melbourne, where they claimed Season 5 of the ESL Grand Slam. Vitality further proved their dominance as they went on a 30-match win streak lasting over 139 days.

At the end of the season, Vitality got their crown jewel when they lifted the Major trophy in Austin, marking mezii as the first player from the UK to do so.

mezii has not just been a passenger; he reinvented himself into a mean fragging machine, culminating in the BLAST.tv Austin Major finals, boasting a 1.32 HLTV rating against The MongolZ.

Counter-Strike has come home

Since the Major, mezii has garnered a lot of attention from the mainstream media. Notably, he appeared on Radio 1 Newsbeat, a national radio station. Alongside that, the home-grown hero was recognised by X when he became the first esports player to receive their own hashtags.

Simply put, mezii has single-handedly this year put UK CS on the global map in a way it never has before, and never dreamed of. As said by mezii himself, “I never thought winning a Major was possible as a UK player”. There aren’t a lot of opportunities as UK players, but what mezii has achieved this year shows that it is all possible. “If all of a sudden a team disbands, it’s not time to take a step back and relax, it is time to put even more hours in”.

The now-Major-winner once walked the halls of EPIC.LAN and Insomnia, even being grouped at some of his first events. For players who are grinding their way through UK CS, it is possible, if enough effort is put in, to go from the LAN halls of Kettering to Kingship.

UKCSGO had the opportunity to sit down with mezii at the end of the player break, and ahead of their first tournament of the year, IEM Cologne.

In the interview below, mezii discusses the pressure to perform at the Major, what it felt like to win a Major as a UK player, attention from mainstream media, and how becoming a dad has influenced him as a player and as a person.