William “mezii” Merriman is leading Vitality while apEX is on paternity leave, and he says the team has not simply swapped roles one for one. He warned that Vitality cannot rely on ZywOo and ropz to win rounds on their own, before Vitality and The MongolZ meet with both teams unbeaten at PGL Masters Bucharest.
With apEX at home for the birth of his child, mezii has taken over the in-game leading for Team Vitality at PGL Masters Bucharest 2026, with jL in the lineup as the stand-in. It is not a new job for the Briton, who took over as Fnatic’s caller in 2022, but it is a new one in this team.
Before Vitality’s opener against 9z on Saturday, he told PGL’s broadcast that the change asks something of all five players, not only of him. Vitality had about a week at home to practise with jL, and mezii said the first official match would still be different.
It’s a lot of new things to get used to, and also for the guys as well to get used to someone else that’s calling. And of course, none of us are apEX, I’m not apEX, so it’s a lot harder on that end to kind of control a lot of things, so it’s very much a team effort in some sense.
Vitality won that first test 2-0, and on they meet The MongolZ, who opened by beating the defending champions. The winner is one series away from the playoffs.
“Not as easy as one for one”
When jL last played for Vitality, at BLAST Open in Porto from late August to early September, he came in for mezii and took over his positions. This time the gap is the captain’s, and the obvious solution would be for mezii to take apEX’s spots and jL to take mezii’s. He said it does not work like that.
Even for us, there was a big discussion on how it’s going to be and how it’s going to work out. Without giving too much away, it’s not as easy as just one for one, him taking mine and me taking Dan. So it’s very much a mix across a lot of maps.
Asked whether other players had moved too, he described the changes as compromises that the whole team was comfortable with, and said there was one player whose role had not changed, because Vitality want to leave him to do what he does.
The 9z series showed what he meant. On Mirage, flameZ moved into the aggressive spots towards connector that apEX usually takes, and jL anchored the A site. On Cache, jL played apEX’s positions one for one. Our report from the match has the details.
Team Vitality2-0
9zStatsMirage 13-10, Cache 13-10
| Team Vitality | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 flameZ | 37-29 | +8 | 82.6 | 71.7% |
 ZywOo | 31-30 | +1 | 81.7 | 69.6% |
 ropz | 30-29 | +1 | 71.7 | 69.6% |
 mezii | 24-24 | 0 | 59.1 | 69.6% |
 jL | 25-27 | -2 | 51.9 | 71.7% |
| 9z | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 dgt | 33-29 | +4 | 80.0 | 67.4% |
 luchov | 34-32 | +2 | 89.1 | 60.9% |
 HUASOPEEK | 30-28 | +2 | 67.5 | 69.6% |
| meyern | 27-26 | +1 | 59.8 | 78.3% |
| max | 15-32 | -17 | 48.7 | 47.8% |
mezii was Vitality’s best-rated player on Mirage. Cache was harder: ZywOo did not get a kill in the first nine rounds, 9z led 6-2 and 7-4 on Vitality’s own pick, and it took a CT half led by flameZ to win the map 13-10.
apEX followed the series from home and, at one point, could not resist a call of his own.
No shortcut through the stars
The interviewer pointed out that Vitality finished in the top four in Porto even without mezii, and that they now arrive with more practice and a winning run behind them. mezii first joked that they would of course win the trophy, then turned serious. Without apEX, he said, it is not a matter of handing the rifles to ZywOo and ropz and letting them get the kills.
Of course, it’s going to be tough, like harder than it was for them in Porto. But with our practices and the talent that we have in this lineup as well, of course, we’re still confident that we can make a good run. We don’t put too much expectation on it and say we’re going to go this far or make a deep playoff run, but just see how it goes game by game.
The comparison with Porto is the point. jL’s first spell replaced a rifler, and apEX was still calling. This time the voice is new as well.
jL was handed the microphone at the end. Asked if he would be stronger than the last time he wore the Vitality shirt, he answered “a hundred percent” and added: “I know what to expect now.” His numbers against 9z were modest, 25 kills and 27 deaths with the lowest ADR on his team, but he has more than his own form riding on the event. Under the roster rule in Valve’s Regional Standings, five matches in Bucharest would put jL in apEX’s place on Vitality’s invitation for PGL Major Singapore, as we explained before the event. The MongolZ series is match two.
A new MongolZ, an old opponent
The MongolZ arrive with momentum of their own. They beat defending champions Aurora 2-1 on Saturday, won Aurora’s Nuke 13-2, and had all five players finish the series with more kills than deaths. The AWPer 910 led the way at 53-33. Two days earlier, they won 1win Private Club Season 2 in Belgrade, the first event for a lineup that added nin9 and brought cobrazera back less than a month ago.
Vitality have the better recent record against them. The MongolZ beat Vitality 2-1 at the Esports World Cup in August 2025, but Vitality have won the four series since, at the StarLadder Budapest Major in December, twice at PGL Cluj-Napoca in February and at BLAST Open Rotterdam in March. Vitality also come in on a nine-series winning run that includes the titles at StarSeries Fall and ESL Pro League Season 24.
None of those wins came with mezii making the calls.
