mezii: "NAVI are confident, but we wanted to remind them who the big dogs are"
Fresh from beating NAVI 3-0 in the grand final of BLAST Open Rotterdam, we caught up with Vitality’s mezii to discuss the tournament win.
The Brit, who was once humble as he struggled to adapt to Vitality, is now oozing with confidence, and is keen to point out that he doesn’t think Vitality’s winning ways will come to a halt any time soon.
“It's insane when [flameZ] plays like this because he doesn't need a lot of resources”
How are you feeling after lifting the trophy?
I'm feeling good. It's nice to keep the unbeaten streak as well, that was one of our goals, but also, it's nice that the CS we've been showing has been good, and we wanted to show NAVI that, yeah, they're feeling confident and looking good, but who the big dogs are and that we're still the final boss.
You've had loads of success, but you didn't get to lift the trophy at BLAST Open London last year. Was it nice to right that wrong here?
Yeah, but also to just continue what we've been doing since the start of 2025 as well. Even though we had a slower second half to 2025, we're picking up the trophies now, and we came out of a break before it and wanted to get back up to speed and show some progress, so the way we played today, and all throughout the tournament, was great.
The whole team is performing, but flameZ has been exceptional despite not being in the star roles that players with similar ratings have. Is there anything you guys are doing as a team to help him perform like this?
Not much, honestly. I think he just does it himself; he does such a good job of playing on his own feeling, and he's so smart despite the crazy plays, so he knows exactly what he wants to do.
It's insane when he plays like this because he doesn't need a lot of resources. As you say, he isn't really in star roles; he does a lot of space taking on T side, but CT side, he isn't in those roles, so it makes it so easy to follow him in, and I don't even have to trade him a lot of the time.
Throughout the event, it was flameZ and ZywOo, and then ropz really stepped up in the arena. When you speak about your dominance right now, how does it balance between the firepower and the tactical edge over the other teams?
The firepower we have is insane. At any point, anyone in the team can step up if needed, and the way apEX calls and the preparation all the coaches put in, we always know what the game plan is and how we want to play. But even then, if that doesn't go well, apEX is so good at switching it up and adapting. It's so good to have an IGL and a captain that can do that.
The start of this year looks similar to last year, but how does it feel different?
Last year, the only difference was that we were still riding the high and the momentum; we weren't used to it as a team because we were still new. We knew we could keep it up, but we were riding it.
Now, I think that there's always constant confidence and belief that we can win every game we play. It never gets old winning trophies, and the way we are as a team, we're all always looking to improve and innovate, so I don't see it stopping any time soon.
As you said, though, the second half didn't see you lift as many trophies. How do you keep the tournament victories up throughout the year this time around?
I think just having that experience where you're never as good as you think you are, you need those losses and that kind of experience, where teams could put us down a few steps. Once we had that, we knew we didn't want it to happen again. We go into every tournament now wanting to play even better and taking nothing for granted.
That's why we've started this year this way; we don't expect anything, we always put the work in. We're not just going to take a step back and let other teams win, unless we don't attend a tournament like with NAVI at Pro League, but for us, we're always looking to win the trophy.
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