mezii makes HLTV Top 20 debut at #12

Vitality's anchor and two-time Major winner William "mezii" Merriman makes his first ever HLTV Top 20 appearance at #12. The British rifler was introduced to Counter-Strike by his father who would frequently attend local LANs. Like many others mezii did not embrace Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fully when it released in 2012 and stuck to Counter-Strike: Source. Four long years later the Brit fully switched to CS:GO. mezii jumped from team to team frequently before getting GamerLegion and Cloud9 callups with both orgs exposing him to a tougher pool of competition.

His breakthrough came with Fnatic when he led the team into the quarter-finals of IEM Rio 2022. While calling the shots, mezii still maintained impressive individual numbers. mezii eventually stepped away from the leadership role going from being the centerpiece of Fnatic to Vitality's overqualified anchor and the rest is history. The Brit got off to a dream start with Vitality, winning BLAST Premier Fall and World Finals in to close 2023. However, Vitality choked the majority of 2024, managing just a single title win at IEM Cologne 2024.

2025 was where things picked up for mezii and Vitality. The French org brought in ropz, giving apEX one of the best closers to work with. Combining an overqualified anchor like mezii, a stellar closer like ropz, a do-it-all superstar like ZywOo and a fearless, mechanically gifted entry fragger like flameZ gave apEZ the perfect formula for success. In the first half of 2025, Vitality went on a legendary S-tier win streak, winning seven events in a row and mezii posted 1.00+ ratings across all of them, even bagging an EVP nod at BLAST.tv Austin 2025 Major.

Vitality couldn't maintain their first-half dominance throughout 2025, hitting a rough patch mid-year with semi-final exits at IEM Cologne, BLAST Bounty Season 2, and Esports World Cup. mezii's individual form dipped noticeably during this stretch, including a disappointing 0.99 rating on home soil at BLAST Open London where Vitality fell short in the grand final against G2.

After a solid bounce-back at ESL Pro League Season 22, mezii struggled again at IEM Chengdu in what became his worst showing of the year. A measly 0.94 rating across the Chinese event saw Vitality fall to FURIA in the grand final, raising questions about whether mezii and his team could recapture their early-season magic.

mezii's standout performance of the year came in Vitality's historic Budapest Major grand final victory over FaZe. An impressive 1.41 rating, the highest on the server in the first-ever best-of-five Major final dragged Vitality to their second Major trophy of 2025 and into the history books. After Vitality fumbled the opening map against FaZe, mezii led the charge in Vitality's comeback maps on Dust2 and Inferno. On Dust2 mezii put up a 1.70 rating game alongside ZywOo's 1.60 rating to level the series and then destroyed FaZe with a 2.00 rating performance on Inferno, stealing the lead away from FaZe and tilting the grand-final in Vitality's favor. It was ropz who sealed the deal for FaZe in the deciding map with a 2.89 rating on Overpass boasting a colossal 22-7 K-D at an ADR of 144.

The 26-year-old snagged three EVP awards- two at Majors and one at ESL Pro League Season 22, while stepping up massively when it mattered most. All things considered, mezii's exceptional peaks at both Majors and massive contribution to Vitality's trophy haul earns him a comfortable spot in HLTV's Top 20. His struggles against top-five opposition and inconsistent form in the second half kept him from cracking the top 10 despite his decorated year.

HLTV Top 20 (2025) so far:

• #12 mezii

• #13 Senzu

• #14 XANTARES

• #15 YEKINDAR

• #16 xertioN

• #17 torzsi

• #18 NiKo

• #19 iM

• #20 b1t