Vitality are well on their way to a playoff berth at PGL Masters Bucharest after a flawless opening to their campaign, picking up four straight map wins in victories over 9z and The MongolZ. This has been achieved despite playing without Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, with Justinas "jL" Lekavicius returning as a stand-in and William "mezii" Merriman stepping in as IGL.
"I've got a lot more experience now, and also learned a lot from apEX," mezii said of taking over the leadership reins for the first time since his stint in fnatic. "Everyone is doing a good job with the communication part, helping with ideas, and MaT and apEX as well with the game plan part. So that's going well."
mezii stated he is not only enjoying the experience, but seeing it as a useful one for his potential future career prospects. "Of course it's only going to get more difficult with the better teams we play, but it's only going to help me for the future. I'm getting old, so maybe at some point I might have to do this job as well."
You can listen to the interview here.
Four maps played and four maps won, it feels like it's pretty smooth sailing thus far.
Definitely today, against The MongolZ, it was much smoother. I think we had a good game plan, they're clearly not too comfortable on Cache and we saw it from the prep as well, so we knew it was going to be a good pick. I didn't even have to call too much on Cache, it was just everyone was killing, so I guess that's the apEX life sometimes.
Yesterday was much harder. First officials always can be a bit more messy, and 9z played well and definitely tried to... We had to definitely solve a lot more problems against them. But yeah, still 2-0, 2-0. We can be happy with it.
I was going to ask you about what's it been like being back in the IGL seat. I know you've done it in the past, but how's it been?
It's very different. I've got a lot more experience now, and also learned a lot from apEX. Also, of course, the guys probably won't mind me saying it, but it's obviously a much better team now compared to what I had in fnatic. That obviously helps, and everyone is doing a good job with the communication part, helping with ideas, and MaT and apEX as well with the game plan part. So that's going well, but it's a lot more work than I remember. Maybe I just didn't do it right the first time, and now this is how you do it.
It's been going well and it's nice to have this experience as well, and nice just to have this different responsibility just to see it from... Because of course, you know what apEX does and stuff, but until you actually experience it, it's a very different story. He does a very good job at being able to manage and control the mid rounds and get his idea across. And at least for me, it's still trying to gain experience to make sure it's as smooth for the other players to understand what I want to call.
I'm enjoying the experience, at the moment anyway. Of course it's only going to get more difficult with the better teams we play, but it's only going to help me for the future. I'm getting old, so maybe at some point I might have to do this job as well, so we'll see.
Was the plan automatic that you would be the IGL when apEX went away for a bit? Was that just kind of default?
Yeah, I think it was always going to be the plan, it always made sense. But of course, like I say, when you've got the players that we have, everyone does a really good... Especially flameZ, he helps a lot with his ideas, his preparation and also in game as well, I think he does a really good job. He's also a space taker, he takes a lot of entries and stuff, so he does a lot in terms of helping ideas or at least giving the initial idea, and I try and build around it. And then also even same with ZywOo as well, he does a good job as well. He obviously kills a lot, but he also gives a lot of ideas, especially when he's feeling it and wants to do certain peeks or plays.
But yeah, I think it was always the plan for me to do it. I think it's definitely helped as well [that] we've had a bit of practice before this event just to try and... it would be really tough going straight in with no reps and so on, but it helped with the practice before to know what the guys are gonna get from me, and what I'm gonna get from them as well.
How much are you trying to lead like apEX, and how much are you just trying to do your own thing?
To be honest, I try go in with the idea of trying to not obviously fully replicate, but try and do it, but I get in game and I'm going back to my own stuff.
It's not because I think it's just so hard to replicate what apEX does. Honestly, I think people... Even today, you see, of course there's maps or there's games where individuals take over, and you don't actually have to call too much. It's just kind of we default, we give the initial idea and people, the individuals take over and kill.
Of course it happened with apEX as well, but 90% of the time, all these games, especially when it's getting close and these comebacks we've made, I think people don't understand or anything like the work that he does. It's a lot harder when you're actually in the game and things are going bad and maybe individuals aren't talking as much or giving as much input that the IGL has to take over and really manage and control the mid round and say, "Okay, no, this player do this, this player does that." He's creating a whole thing that's not pre-done. It's not in the prep, and he's having to do it on the fly.
I think that's the hardest thing, at least for me now, is trying to do that, because a lot of the rounds, of course I'm kind of preparing before and I know exactly how I want them to play out. Then some rounds can get a bit messy and you have to change it, and I think that's what apEX does very well, and it's almost impossible, at least for the experience I've had, to just replicate this in one event. It's something that you kind of... For him, he probably has been able to evolve over the years that he's been IGL.
We've obviously spoken a lot to the other members of Vitality because they played with jL before. What's the experience been like for you?
Good. His vibes, inside and outside the game, he's just... He's doing well at his content creation stuff because he's definitely got that personality now as well. But I think it's good to have... Because you have apEX who's a big personality in the team anyway, and just overall he has a lot of fun as well. So it's good to also have another guy when you take apEX out, we've got jL that also has a lot of fun, very chatty and so on. I think in game as well, it's tough for him to have a huge amount of input on our game, because he's trying to come into our system.
At the same time, I think in game as well he's doing a really good job. There's so many new things he has to learn, there's a lot of roles that are changing. It's not just one-for-one like he did with me last time, it's very a mixed bag across maps that he's having to try and adapt to, and I think in game he's doing a really good job as well of just trying to adapt to us and also not to worry too much that he has to play a certain way, but do his own thing. I think having these couple games now, he's starting to get used to that as well.
I think it would've been easy to get frustrated because it felt like Vitality were finally back on the horse, winning a couple of tournaments, and then it's like, "Oh God, now we have to go play with a stand-in." But it looks like the team are having a lot of fun, it looks like you guys are playing with no pressure.
Yeah, I think it's tough to say we have any big expectations or we should have a lot of pressure because like I say... of course when they played with jL in Porto they might have a certain amount of expectation. Of course it's a stand-in, but at the same time they can still make a deep playoff run from it.
Here it's similar but it's still a bit different because we don't have the IGL. It's not just a stand-in, it's also no IGL. There's a lot of different, I'm playing a lot of roles that I've never played before, I'm having to get used to. There's a lot of variables that we have to take into account here, so it's very different.
Overall, everyone's doing... Like I say, everyone's having a lot of fun, everyone's enjoying it. The main thing is that we just keep enjoying it, keep having fun. There's no pressure to have to make finals, we have to do this, we have to lift a trophy, but it would be nice to keep the trophy streak even without apEX as well.
The MongolZ
Yesuntumur 'nin9' Gantulga
Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren
Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold
Usukhbayar '910' Banzragch
Anarbileg 'cobrazera' Uuganbayar
Erdenedalai 'maaRaa' Bayanbat
Vitality
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam
Justinas 'jL' LekaviciusPast 3 months
9z
Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez
Franco 'dgt' Garcia
Ignacio 'meyern' Meyer
Luciano 'luchov' Herrera
Matias 'HUASOPEEK' Ibañez Hernandez
Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima
Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePast 3 months
William 'mezii' MerrimanPast 3 months
fnatic
Rodion 'fEAR' Smyk
Dmytro 'jambo' Semera
Nikita 'jackasmo' Skyba
Artem 'cairne' Mushynskyi
Volodymyr 'mazay' Iorhachov
Miks 'Independent' Siliņš