Vitality player William mezii Merriman gave a post-match interview to Players reporter Sofiia Pikhalo after winning IEM Cologne 2024.
What does this win mean to you?
It's great to win here. I think after the first part of the season where we couldn't get a trophy, it was definitely tough. But winning here, in one of the biggest tournaments there in CS, it definitely makes you forget about those other finals that we lost. So, it means the world to us as players and me as an individual, because it's a tournament where I grew up and watched CS and saw all the teams play here. And it's... look at the crowd, the support has been amazing. It feels really good to win.
What can you say about the importance of this trophy for Vitality as the last win here was in 2019?
I think as an organization, Vitality wants to win trophies. It's been a hard start of the year. We obviously had a really successful 2023. Coming into this year, we want to keep pushing on. So, for Vitality, it's really important that we can win these trophies.
Like I said, it feels really good to win here in Cologne because it's one of the biggest trophies. And we want to prove that we're back to number one and prove that we can push for number one in the world. That's where Vitality belongs. As an organization, that's what we deserve as well.
There were overtimes on two out of four maps. From your point of view, why did it happen?
Well, it’s finals, it's always a bit crazy. The CS is really messy now. I don't think NAVI played the best CS. We didn't play the best CS, as well.
It's always back and forth. I think the spectators and the fans definitely enjoyed this final because it was really close. But it was tough to play.
When you go up against the number one team in the world like NAVI that have won tournaments, it's always going to be really tough. But we're really confident in how we can bounce back and how we can stay mentally strong in these overtime games. So, we're happy with this.
Do you think those teams who made more mistakes lose the map and match at all?
Yeah, like I said, I think we made a lot of mistakes in these overtime games. And even in the last map, we made a lot of mistakes. Like I said, when it gets like this, NAVI also makes a lot of mistakes.
It's down to us to make sure that we do the extra details and really try and bounce on that, emphasizing that we can also fight back. We should be sure that if they make a mistake, we're the ones to go forward and take it because it was definitely tough.
Were you surprised by the first half of the last game? The score was 10-2.
Yeah, I think even before the game, we had a strong game plan on how we wanted to play against them on Inferno.
When we watched their semi-final match on Inferno against MOUZ, we were really confident going up on that map and how they played. I think our styles match up pretty well against them on this map. So, of course, it's always a bit surprising that you can win that much and easily in the first half. As for us, we were always confident that we were going to win quite heavily on the T side because it's our better side and also we were confident against them as well.
At which moment did you realize that you can actually win this final?
It's always tough to think about it when you're in the game. Especially when I messed up on the second round of Inferno after we won the pistol. You never know when they can come back.
It's down to us to stay focused on the round and stay focused until we hit 13. That's when it will happen and it all happened so fast. It was incredible. Like when we got to that 13th round and we won, we had this relief that it's over and we've actually won the event.
apEX was everywhere, he was in every round, in every map. How did it happen that he was so unstoppable?
I think when apEX has these games, he’s pretty unstoppable. He's played really well individually in this event and it definitely helps because he makes players really confident, especially on the stage. He makes plays that no other player really can make and also he makes it hard for the individuals of the other team because they never know what's going to happen.
He's unpredictable and today in Inferno, he was incredible. He really pushes the team further and shows that we need to have confidence in ourselves. Like I said, he played a great game.
