Two years ago, Into The Breach made history by being the first UK team to not only make a Major, but qualify for the playoffs stage at the BLAST.tv Paris Major. Fast forward to 2025, William “mezii” Merriman makes history in Austin by being the first UK player to qualify for a Major final.
During that Cinderella run in Paris, then EIC of UKCSGO Dafydd Gwynn wrote a piece that resonated with many UK CS fans, “It feels good to hope again”. The point was that for years, UK CS had nobody to root for, but for the first time, there was a champion to cheer for. However, in the UK, we are told that “it’s the hope that kills you”, and that may be true; it just feels good to hope again.
ITB went on to give UK fans something to celebrate for years to come as they beat some of the best in the world to qualify for a Major playoffs. Amusingly enough, ITB beat mezii, who was playing on fnatic at the time, to qualify for the Champions stage.
Now, mezii on Vitality has been sitting on his throne at the top of Counter-Strike in 2025, winning six Tier-1 events in a row and is only one step away from claiming his crown jewel, the Major.
Vitality had a rocky start to their campaign in Austin as they got blown out of the water by Legacy in their opening BO1, and subsequently ended their win streak, which was sitting at 30 games.
Since that one blip, Vitality dropped only 20 rounds across four maps to qualify for the playoffs, showing that was truly just a one-off against Legacy. Once in the arena, it seemed like nothing could stop them as they left Natus Vincere in the dust.
The biggest threat to Vitality on their road to the final was MOUZ, the #2 ranked team in the world, only second to Vitality. Even though the German organisation took map two in an unexpected, ruthless manner, Vitality won map three without even breaking a sweat.
Up until the semi final, Vitality had not lost a single map after their opening loss to Legacy.
Mimicking his team’s dominance, mezii is currently putting up his best stats at a LAN event in 2025 in Austin. Especially in the quarter final, mezii boasted an impressive 1.26 HLTV rating, proving to be a key piece of the puzzle for Vitality.
The winner of paiN versus The MongolZ will play against Vitality in the Major finals.
UK CS has hope in Austin – Credit: Adela-Sznajder & BLAST Premier
Hope is a dangerous thing, but mezii has already made history by making a Major finals and has given UK CS fans something to cheer for as Vitality are the favourites to lift the trophy tomorrow. Combine this with the fact mezii is playing on arguably the best team ever in Counter-Strike, UK fans finally have someone to root for consistently, a beacon of light for a struggling scene.
What mezii is achieving should give hope to every UK CS player or fan. He, like all of us, came through the UK grassroots scene playing at EPIC.LANs, Insomnia LANs and in ESL Premierships, now eight years after he placed 5th-6th at EPIC.LAN 20, a Major victory is in sight.
In the wise words of Dafydd Gwynn:
As I said in the beginning: it feels good to hope. Maybe mezii wins, maybe mezii loses, but it doesn’t matter. Either way, he has given me hope.
To me… that’s enough.
.@kingmezii makes history in Austin by being the first UK player to make a Major final 👑🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/kVFxiYUbdd
— 🇬🇧 UKCSGO (@ukcsgo) June 21, 2025
