mezii: "I would love for Cache to come back"

Yeah, we're feeling good.
Of course, we didn't play our best at BLAST Bounty, but it we were always hoping that success would come because the way we started off individually after bringing ropz in, we'd just been working so hard.
We're happy with the win in Katowice, so we just want to use the momentum to keep going and keep playing good CS.
Looking back at the previous year, we only won one tournament, so we know that we're never guaranteed these tournament wins, you know?
It's important for us to maintain that level of hard work, and at the moment, it feels really good to be a part of this team.

Apart from the Major, they're two of the biggest tournaments, so as a fan growing up and watching, it means a lot as an individual.
Also, for Vitality as an organisation, these are the ones that you want to be winning and want to add to the collection. It feels amazing to have them.
But it's something that I don't want to spend too much time thinking about, I don't want to get complacent. Of course, they're tournament wins and they'll be nice to look back on at the end of my career, but for now, it's time to focus on the next tournament and making sure we can carry on our good performances.

Of course, getting success early on with a team gives you a sense of confirmation.
We already knew what we were getting when we brought ropz in, but to have that extra confidence to know that we all made the right decision and that the work is paying off, it's always nice to have that great start as a team.
I think a lot of teams have a honeymoon period, but even for us, it was important to get that first win on the board. We knew that we came so close in a lot of tournaments last year and couldn't get the win, so it's nice to get a good start to the win.

I think we'd be lying if we said it isn't something in the back of our minds. It's definitely doable with the two wins we have, but it's important to know to not think too far ahead.
You never know when the next win will be and we have to win two more to get the Grand Slam.
One thing that we did really well at a lot of these events, even though we didn't win a lot last year, was make deep runs and not focus too heavily and what the end result would be and who we would be playing. We have to make sure we take every game as they come and go far that way.

Instantly you can see the experience that he has, especially in the playoff games and on stages. It's insane to have that.
He's extremely calm and everyone knows it, when you're in clutch situations he's so confident and comfortable in those moments. It's nice to have someone like that on your side.
Even when we had played FaZe in playoff games, it was always ropz who was stepping up and making the big plays. That's one thing he adds.
He also brings his work ethic, it's insane. We already had a lot of players working hard in the team and working on mastering their role, but with ropz, it even spreads across the team and motivates everyone to work even harder not only in their role, but in terms of what they can add to the team.

[laughs] I think there's a number of reasons. Being in Vitality for a bit longer now and having the full season to know where I stand is an important thing.
Also, not focusing too much on the outside noise or each individual game that I play, just putting the work in and knowing that the success and skill will come, that has helped a lot.
At the moment, I'm in a good place. I have the right mindset and I'm really comfortable in the team and how everyone is.
For me, it's just a case of making this consistent across the year. I think I showed glimpses of it last year and I had a bit more consistent end to the year, so this year it's just about finding the higher performances and keeping them there.
Some of the role switches since ropz arrived have also helped, which is always nice, so it's just a number of things.

Even in the rankings now, NAVI are pretty low down, but I still think that ourselves, Spirit, and NAVI are the teams around the top.
There's a lot of teams in CS right now that can win events, it's not like in the past where you saw teams dominating for longer periods of time. Even with NAVI last year, there was still other teams coming in and winning the events.
Now it's exciting because you have teams like The MongolZ and Eternal Fire coming through and for them, it's tough to put them into the conversation of winning the events, but they'll definitely make deep playoff runs just because it takes a lot of time to gain the experience to go on and win.
They're definitely showing some good stuff, though. Eternal Fire have a good record against us and The MongolZ have made some playoff runs.
It's an exciting time, at least for the viewers. For, us we'd probably prefer if we could just go out and win all the events, but there's no guarantees over who will win and who will even make deep runs.
It's no longer just the same big organisations making deep runs at every event, there's new names coming through and playing some good CS as well.

I haven't played too much of it or even looked around it, but I've always enjoyed Cache. It's a map that I played so much in the UK scene, it was the original pug map and it's always fun to play.
I would love for Cache to come back, there's a couple of maps that need changes. Anubis is one that needs changes, it hasn't had much done to it if anything, and I definitely think it needs some tweaking.
Taking something like Anubis out so it can have some time for those changes and bringing Cache in, even without time to look at it, it hasn't changed and it's still the same map.
It would just be fun to add something fresh to the pool. Even with Train, we haven't played too much of it, but it's been fun to play even if it's not the same as the old Train.

It'll be really cool to get to Lisbon, I've heard a lot of good things about it from the other players.
It's also really nice to be able to go to new players as a player and see the culture and the fans, switching it up and going somewhere new is always fun.

I hope so. We're looking to carry on the momentum and put another notch onto the Grand Slam, but you never know, especially with Pro League which can be a bit longer and has a new format.
We're all trying hard to get into the position to win the events, we have a long stretch of them now with EPL and Open, so we just want to continue our momentum.

Yeah, it's obviously my goal and my dream, to put my name on that list of players who have won one.
But it's also one of those things, the Majors are different. They feel different when you're playing them and you never know what can happen when you get there.