Vitality sealed a spot in the upper bracket final of StarSeries Fall after a resounding victory over FURIA, looking far more like the dominant side they had been at the start of the year after a dip in form to begin the Fall season.
William “mezii” Merriman, who missed BLAST Open Porto for the birth of his second child, told HLTV after the match that he is happy to be back on the server after watching from the sidelines.
“It’s never fun watching from home, I definitely had a different viewing experience to probably most people,” he said. “Got my two-year-old, almost two-year-old running around screaming with toys whilst I’m trying to watch the boys play. Still a bit rusty, and also when you have kids, you somehow get ill all the time, so I’ve come back, and I’m sick, but I’m just happy to be back.”
He also touched on Vitality’s focus on returning to form and the rest of their season, saying that their main focus is on the Major and the team is just doing its best to find its stride with Dan “apEX” Madesclaire also set to miss PGL Masters Bucharest in October.
“For us, it’s just to prove to everyone that we can still win trophies, and it is important to, as this five, just make the most of these tournaments, not to take it too easy, because even though we’ve had so much success, you never know when the next win’s going to be,” he said.
Listen to the interview here.
So it’s the end of day two here at StarSeries Fall. I’m with mezii, who’s back on the team. First of all, congratulations, of course.
Thank you.
What’s it like to get back into it, get back on the server?
It feels good. It’s never fun watching from home, I definitely had a different viewing experience to probably most people. Got my two-year-old, almost two-year-old running around screaming with toys whilst I’m trying to watch the boys play. Still a bit rusty, and also when you have kids, you somehow get ill all the time, so I’ve come back, and I’m sick, but I’m just happy to be back.
I think it’s just fun being back with the boys. It’s so weird when you’re not there; it’s like all your friends are at a party, and you’re not invited to this party, so it’s just good. Yeah, it feels good to be back on the server.
Yeah, and especially two days, upper bracket final… Is it extra satisfying to have done it with a good performance today against FURIA?
Yeah, definitely. Especially with this format, it’s quite important to try and stay in the upper bracket because when you go into the lower bracket, you’ve got these double best-of-threes. Even on the final day, it’s like a best-of-three and a best-of-five, so no one wants to be there.
So it’s nice, especially against FURIA, who, I’m sure they’re very tired as well. I think they’ve been going back-to-back events non-stop, traveling, doing the FURIA World Tour, so it’s obviously going to be tough for them, but for us, they’re still obviously a really strong team. They have really good foundations; individuals are always strong.
So it’s nice to show that we’re still trying to get back to our level. Of course, take it game by game, as individuals, for myself, trying to get back to my level as well. But I think with each game it’s coming back, and it’s nice to get a more clean game. Of course, the start of Mirage was a bit slow, but we came back into it and everything was smooth after that.
That winning mentality and the way of winning trophies doesn’t just disappear over a few events
And also, you’re talking about kind of Vitality getting back into form and getting back into it. They played with jL last event. He’ll come back at some point. So how is it kind of managing all of that, with you being a new dad and then another new dad, and all of that going on is kind of a little bit hectic? So how do you do it so you can kind of get back to that form?
Yeah, I think for us, like I say, it’s definitely a season that’s probably not going to happen too many times. It’s a bit chaotic, it’s a bit of a mess, but from the start of the season we knew exactly what the plan was going to be, and it was important for us that we make the most, especially with VRS, because we know how quickly things can change. Within a few events, you’re going down the rankings, and you can be back to the top.
So for us it’s the stand-in events that are, of course, going to be tough with jL, but I think the boys did really, really good reaching the semi-finals. Of course, we’ve got the same in Bucharest, where we want to try and make sure we get far as well.
But it’s just important that these events, where we are the full five, the full team… first off, we want to get back to winning trophies. That’s the main goal, but also I think it’s important that we secure good points VRS and also just secure the confidence that we know we can still win trophies, because I think it’s still there — that winning mentality and the way of winning trophies doesn’t just disappear over a few events. It’s still there in our DNA, so we know exactly what we need to do. We just need to get that one win, and hopefully it’ll be here. But yeah, that’s our main goal at the moment, just whenever we’re as a five, get back to winning trophies.
Vitality are trying to make the most of the season despite apEX also set to miss an event
Yeah, and especially as you kind of mentioned with being the core five, does it make it kind of a little bit extra important to have a good tournament here?
Yeah, of course. I think especially with how the season’s been going so far, it’s not like in the past where we’re winning back-to-back trophies and if we lost this, okay, we can rego again. But I think for us it’s important that, as a five, we just show everyone because I don’t think we’re doubting ourselves as a team. I think maybe some people out on the socials are probably doubting us, like ‘Oh, we’re not sure if they can still win again,’ or whatever it is.
But for us, it’s just to prove to everyone that we can still win trophies, and it is important to, as this five, just make the most of these tournaments, not to take it too easy, because even though we’ve had so much success, you never know when the next win’s going to be. As this five we want to win as much as we can. We know how special this five is, and with all the coaching staff as well, it’s one of the best rosters of all time, so we just want to make sure that we can win as much as possible, and it’s going to start here, and hopefully the trophy can be lifted.
We want to make sure we get to the Major fully ready, and if we’ve got trophies before it, great
apEX will go away for an event, but then after that you guys will have some time to sort of regroup and get ready for the Major. Is that sort of the Holy Grail, what everybody’s kind of looking towards?
Yeah, for sure. Like I say, of course it’d be nice to pick up a trophy too before apEX goes away on his paternity leave, but at the same time, the main goal has always been the Major for this season. Any of the ones we can pick up on the way, of course, is great, but the Major is the big one, especially just because of how Cologne went for us — it was quite disappointing.
We were so close to beating able to beat Falcons, who, of course… it’s always annoying to lose to the team that always wins the event as well, because you always feel like if we’d just got over that hurdle, maybe we could’ve just kept the momentum. But especially after Cologne, it was really important for us. That’s the main goal: we want to make sure we get to the Major fully ready, and if we’ve got trophies before it, great. If not, then we just know our eyes are fully set on Singapore.
And so you’re already experienced, second time you’re a girl dad, but what tips are you going to give apEX when he has to deal with that? Because it’s going to be his first one, right?
Yeah. I basically just said good luck to him. I saw a lot of people on socials as well, maybe on the picture HLTV took or you guys took, everyone’s saying to me, ‘Oh, he looks tired.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, no shit, I’ve got two kids, of course I’m tired.’ But I said to apEX as well, ‘You get tired, and tired is just the new normal. It’s fine, it’s how it is.’
I think there’s nothing better than being a dad and having a family, and I think apEX is looking forward to it as well. So I can give him some advice, but I’m sure he’s the captain; he knows exactly what’s best, and I’m sure he doesn’t need my input as well.
