A Birmingham father has traded a career in accounting and finance for the lucrative world of professional gaming.
Will "Mezii" Merriman, 26, now earns substantially more than his previous profession while dedicating around 10 hours daily to online play.
He is now a professional esports player and became the first Briton to win a major Counter-Strike title in June 2025.
Despite holding an accounting and finance degree from Birmingham City University, Mr Merriman has pursued his passion for the online action game, which he has played since the age of nine, turning it into a full-time career in 2020.
Within a year, he said it was clear he would be able to earn enough to leave his career in accounting behind – though he said he cannot disclose his exact earnings for contractual reasons.
Mr Merriman became a father in October 2024 and says it is a challenge being at the top of his game while looking after his daughter, Amelia, who is now nine months old, as he has to travel extensively.
In the past year, he said he has spent roughly 200 days abroad, playing in tournaments in places including Sydney, Australia and Austin, Texas.
In June 2025, Mr Merriman said his five-man team, Team Vitality, rounded off the “best opening season ever”, following six consecutive tournament victories with a major Blast.tv title in Austin worth £500,000, making him the first Brit ever to take home the trophy.
He says he has occasionally received negative comments on social media from people who do not believe he has a real job but, generally speaking, he has always had positive interactions with people who want to know more about the sport.
“People outside esports don’t realise just how big it is – we have support staff, training teams and coaches, and we often play in front of crowds of 10,000 people,” Mr Merriman told PA Real Life.
“I hope to give younger players a role model to help push them to play more and keep improving.
“It’s definitely tough for my partner, Fiona, being at home with a newborn, but her support is the greatest thing to have.
“Winning makes it all worth it.”
Mr Merriman grew up in Birmingham and was first introduced to Counter-Strike by his father in the early 2000s.
Described as a team-based, first-person shooter game, players either join the Terrorists or the Counter-Terrorists and complete various objectives.
“I had three brothers, so we all used to play a lot,” Mr Merriman said.
“By the time I was 10, I was always trying to get on the computer to play.”
Growing up, Mr Merriman did well in school and enrolled at Birmingham City University in 2017 to study accounting and finance – but he could not properly commit to gaming alongside his degree.
“I was taking it seriously, but I wasn’t able to focus 100% because of my studies,” he said.
However, by his final year, he began making progress in the world of esports, a term used to describe competitive video gaming, networking with various professional organisations.
When he was signed by professional esports organisation GamerLegion in 2020, he says, he took time out of his degree to focus on the game properly, realising there was a potential career path playing the game he loved.
He said he soon reached GamerLegion’s European team, playing in the top flight and earning about £15,000 a year.
“I had a trial period playing practice games and the coach decided to select me,” he said.
Mr Merriman said he was then bought by esports organisation Cloud9 in September 2020, for a transfer fee of 83,000 US dollars (£61,800).
There, he said he was earning some 140,000 dollars (£104,000) a year.
In August 2021, he was bought by another team, Fnatic, before he joined Team Vitality in November 2023, for an undisclosed fee, playing Counter-Strike 2 – the latest version of the game which was released in 2023.
When not competing, Mr Merriman’s day-to-day life involves a strict training programme, beginning at 8am or 9am in the morning.
The first few hours he will focus on his own game, reflect on past performances, watch old matches and develop his game theory.
In the afternoon, he will come together with his teammates and play four or five practice games, each lasting roughly an hour, in which they will practice tactics and strategy.
He said an average day will include some 10 hours of play.
“It can be tiring but we work hard on the mental side of things and I make sure I stand up and stretch between each game,” Mr Merriman said.
“I do quite a bit of running, as being physically fit helps your stamina and stress management.”
Mr Merriman is careful to eat good, nutritious food in the run-up to games as he says that helps his performance massively.
He is not required to play at the weekend, though he still likes to “get a few hours in” because he loves the game and wants to remain sharp.
Mr Merriman’s at-home gaming set-up is also something to behold – he said he has a Secretlab gaming chair worth roughly £500 and a custom PC which he estimates cost £5,000.
He said it only tends to last about a year, so upgrading it is his biggest cost.
“As a professional player, you always want the best technology and you can often tell when your equipment feels a bit old and not quite as smooth,” Mr Merriman said.
Mr Merriman said he spends more than half the year abroad, either preparing for competitions at gruelling boot camps or competing.
He said the travel is both a blessing and a curse – allowing him to see the world and compete in front of fans but also taking him away from his family.
“If I had any other job, there’s no way I would have travelled as much as I have,” he said.
“Playing the game that’s my hobby as a job is great, but the travel can be exhausting and I miss a lot of milestones with my daughter which can be tough.”
This year, Mr Merriman said his team has had an unprecedented run of form, winning six trophies in a row before clinching the most important of them all: the Blast.tv Major in Austin, Texas, which brought the team £500,000.
“There are two major tournaments a year and winning those is the dream – that’s what cements you in the history books,” he said.
Mr Merriman hopes to continue playing Counter-Strike for as long as he can, saying that in 17 years he has never got bored as there is “always so much to learn”.
He is now preparing for upcoming tournaments, including the Blast Premier London Open at OVO Arena Wembley in September.
To find out more, visit: ovoarena.co.uk/events/detail/blast-premier-open-2025.
