William “mezii” Merriman has been a key part of Fnatic’s Counter-Strike roster since joining from Endpoint in Summer 2021. But now he has made the hop across from the black and orange to the black and yellow colours of Vitality ahead of the BLAST Fall Finals.
We just signed Messi too pic.twitter.com/uFdAVT7tbf
— Team Vitality 🐝 (@TeamVitality) November 8, 2023
The BLAST Paris Major champions are rumoured to be losing Emil “Magisk” Reif, anchor for the team over the last two years. According to HLTV it is a “done deal” that Magisk will reunite with coach Danny “zonic” Sorensen, with whom he has won four Major titles, at the Saudi Arabian organisation Falcons. This leaves Vitality needing another player to fill Magisk’s shoes at short notice, and it seems they have chosen mezii. Magisk is also listed on Vitality’s roster for the event, but it is expected the Dane will not play with his move to Falcons pending.
This is not the first move Vitality has made since the Major. In the summer, they replaced Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen with free agent Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, a move that commentators noted seemed designed to “future-proof” their roster by replacing the 29-year-old dupreeh with the Israeli, some 9 years younger. The exit of Magisk means Vitality no longer have any Danes on staff, with performance coach Lars “ROBL” Robl also joining Falcons alongside Zonic, and dupreeh having left the team, currently standing in for Heroic.
mezii has been highlighted as a future UK star ever since he was hand-picked by Henry “HenryG” Greer for Cloud9’s ill-fated “Colossus” project in 2020. A short stint on Endpoint where he was usually at the top of the scoreboard followed before Fnatic snapped him up. As part of the famous organisation’s first international lineup, mezii and co were victorious in REPUBLEAGUE Season 2 and Elisa Masters Espoo 2022, but their best finish at a Major was a quarter-final finish at IEM Rio where they lost to eventual champions Outsiders.
mezii playing for fnatic at the Blast.TV Paris Major earlier this year
A stint on Vitality alongside fellow Endpoint alum flameZ could give mezii the chance to fight for tier 1 titles, an opportunity the Birmingham native will no doubt relish.
Vitality’s roster is as follows:
Daniel “apEX” Madesclaire
Mathieu “ZyWoo” Herbert
Lotan “Spinx” Giadi
Shahar “flameZ” Shushan
William “mezii” Merriman
Remy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (coach)
