William “mezii” Merriman spoke in an interview with HLTV about returning to Vitality after missing BLAST Open Porto for the birth of his second child, the team pursuit of trophies and why the Singapore Major remains their main goal. After returning to the lineup, he helped Vitality reach the Upper Bracket Final of StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 with a 2:0 win over FURIA.
mezii finished the series against FURIA with 27–22 K–D, 80.8 ADR, 84.6% KAST and a 1.45 Rating 3.0, second on Vitality behind Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.
MEZII HAPPY TO BE BACK WITH VITALITY
mezii spent BLAST Open Porto watching Vitality from home while taking care of his family. Justinas “jL” Lekavicius replaced him for the event, where Vitality eventually reached the semi-finals before losing 0:2 to MOUZ.
Returning to the lineup in Barcelona, mezii told HLTV that he was still feeling rusty — and had also returned while sick — but was simply happy to be playing with the team again.
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. 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.
Vitality have won both of their matches at StarSeries Fall so far and now sit one victory away from reaching the Grand Final.
VITALITY WANT TO RETURN TO THEIR WINNING LEVEL
The 2:0 victory over FURIA was one of Vitality cleaner performances since the start of the second half of the season. They won Mirage 13:8 before completely shutting FURIA out after halftime on Dust2 to close the second map 13:5.
mezii believes the team still possesses the mentality that helped them dominate earlier in the year. The priority now is turning that belief back into trophies.
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.
The situation is complicated by Vitality unusual schedule. jL already replaced mezii in Porto and is also expected to stand in at PGL Masters Bucharest when Dan “apEX” Madesclaire takes paternity leave.
EVERY EVENT WITH THE FULL FIVE MATTERS
Because of those planned lineup changes, mezii stressed the importance of making the most of tournaments where Vitality can field their regular five-player roster.
The team entered the second half of 2026 after an exceptional run earlier in the year, but recent results have been less consistent. mezii said Vitality are not doubting themselves despite outside questions over whether the lineup can return to trophy-winning form.
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.
StarSeries Fall therefore gives Vitality another opportunity to rebuild momentum with their complete lineup before another temporary roster change.
THE MAJOR REMAINS THE MAIN GOAL
Even with Vitality looking to collect trophies before the end of the year, mezii made clear that the Singapore Major remains the central target for the season.
The rifler described the team result at the Cologne Major as disappointing and said Vitality want to arrive in Singapore fully prepared, regardless of whether another trophy comes before then.
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. 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.
Before that, Vitality still have an opportunity to win StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026. They will face Aurora in the Upper Bracket Final on September 19 at 17:00 CET, with the winner advancing directly to the Grand Final.
