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It would seem like poor writing in fiction, but it is actually true: Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut was born on the day the original Counter-Strike was commercially released into the world, on November 9, 2000.
The prodigal son of CS was long seen as a fantastic talent in the making, and he has never looked back since his tier one professional debut with Team Vitality at the tail end of 2018, being one of the top three best players of every single year statistically since then.
Here is the story of ZywOo, the French AWPer who helped Vitality rise to greatness and who wielded the big green with a prowess never before seen in the game of Counter-Strike.
2018 was the year when ZywoO's Counter-Strike esports career began in earnest, but he was already making the rounds in early 2017 on account of his incredible individual performances. Having started his CS career in the 1.6 era, he played his first LAN tournament at the tender age of nine, with his first HLTV appearance going all the way back to 2016.
Dig through the archives of the social media presence of elite players in the mid-2010s, and you will inevitably find references to ZywOo here and there and everywhere – here's one from shox himself back in April 2017, saying, "I didn't know ZywOo but I really, really like him."
Je ne connaissais pas ZywOo mais j'aime beaucoup, beaucoup.
— Richard Papillon (@shoxCSGO) April 16, 2017
So why the (relatively) long wait to kickstart his career? Turns out, it was a family affair. Like some other players in the scene, ZywOo was only let off the parental leash to fully pursue his esports career after fully completing his high school education – a prudent decision should the gaming dream not pan out, as it won't for most people. But, of course, ZywOo was not like most people and made this clear very quickly after signing his first professional contract with Team Vitality in the autumn of 2018.
Featuring the former Envy core of Cluj-Napoca Major fame, the team was a good place for a burgeoning young talent to make a mark alongside players like RpK – and ZywOo immediately did so by scoring incredible ratings in his debut event, DreamHack Open Atlanta – but it was his first full year on the professional Counter-Strike circuit where the then-18-year-old set the incredible standards he has been meeting ever since.
In his very first year dedicated to nothing but his Counter-Strike career, ZywOo established himself as an elite AWPer and ultimately topped the entirety of the HLTV end-of-year charts, too, marking him as the best individual player in the world.
In retrospect, looking at the 2019 lineup of Team Vitality is a wild trip down memory lane. A roster consisting of NBK-, RpK, ZywOo, apEX, and new addition ALEX should not have been able to punch as high as they did – and it was mostly due to ZywOo's individual heroics that they did. It is worth noting that apEX was still fully a rifler at this point – posting fairly poor ratings, at that – with IGLing duties first delegated to Happy, then ALEX.
At that time, ZywOo had to absolutely hard carry the team to succeed, and questions remained whether it was ALEX's team setup that helped get the most out of him (perhaps to the detriment of the other players) or if it was a case of the same "star player on a poor team" situation we have seen with players like NiKo and s1mple in the past.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, the answer is crystal clear: ALEX never again left a notable mark as an in-game leader at any of the teams he played in, while ZywOo continues to go from strength to strength to this day, with the team's performances and tournament results getting markedly better as he got stronger teammates to work with.
But even if the tournament results were somewhat limited in 2019 – with playoff appearances and the occasional win at events like cs_summit 4 and the ECS Season 6 finals – ZywOo's individual ratings were incredible throughout the year, winning EVP and MVP awards at all but the first two events he's played in the year, including the StarLadder Berlin Major in August/September, where they exited in the quarterfinals at the hands of AVANGAR, one of the eventual finalists.
At this point, NBK- was replaced by shox, and while the team's results continued to go back and forth, their most notable success in 2019 came at the end of the year, when they won the annual EPICENTER event with only a single map dropped throughout. Like coldzera before, ZywOo was named the best player in the world in the very first year of his professional Counter-Strike career – but unlike the Brazilian, he remained glued to the top ever since.
Of course, the world had changed a lot in 2020, as the pandemic upended all facets of life, including esports. While the so-called "online era" is often seen in retrospect as an aberration, with teams like BIG and Gambit dominating events, only to never again reach the same heights when LANs returned, ZywOo proved that he had real staying power after 2019, and once again ended the year as the #1 player of the year, just ahead of s1mple.
With the exception of the early parts of IEM Katowice, all meaningful Counter-Strike events in 2020 were played online. While Vitality made it to six different grand finals over the year, they only won half of them – then again, it was never on account of ZywOo that they fell short, who posted 1.30+ ratings in all of the title deciders.
It is worth noting that Vitality ended the year as a different team than they started it as because of ALEX's sudden resignation from the active roster. This was the beginning of what became a hugely exciting and successful IGLing career for apEX, with misutaaa coming in as an ultimately underwhelming replacement in the rifling department.
An odd and transitional year in more ways than one, 2020 saw no Major competitions held. Nevertheless, it is a testament to ZywOo's relentless focus that he maintained his #1 position by the smallest of margins in the HLTV end-of-year rankings, barely eking out s1mple, courtesy of key showings in the biggest matches of them all.
As has often been the case with ZywOo and Vitality, they ended the previous year strong and had a rough start to the new one. Messing around with a six-player roster concept in the second half of the online era, they never quite found their footing, and ZywOo himself also had a few uncharacteristically poor showings at the beginning of 2021, too. After a third-place finish at the BLAST Global Finals – which usually takes place at the tail end of the year, but this time, it was shifted over to January – a 9-12th finish at IEM Katowice followed, then an exit in 13-16th at ESL Pro League Season 13, and further bad results at DreamHack Master Spring and Flashpoint 3. ZywOo himself steadily ramped up his production, but the rest of the squad couldn't quite keep up with his efforts despite bringing in Kyojin as a replacement for RpK.
LANs returned with IEM Cologne, and while it was yet another poor result for Vitality, the post-summer break period made it clear that ZywOo was comfortable making the leap from the virtual world to real competition once again as the team turned a corner in imperious fashion after resting and recharging their batteries.
As ZywOo himself said in an interview with HLTV, "I think my best moment of 2021 was returning to LAN, as we showed at the end of the year. I particularly like that environment, be it because I'm with the team, because of the atmosphere, but also on an individual level. I just feel a lot more at ease on LAN with its particular adrenaline."
He also added that "the feeling of being on LAN back again after two years playing from home was very nice. I really missed playing a LAN, even in this odd context, playing from the hotel, etc. Just thinking about traveling to a LAN makes me happy."
A far cry from his former IGL's feelings about travel.
A grand final appearance at ESL Pro League Season 14, featuring many scalps and a close-fought series against NAVI, a third-place finish at IEM Fall, and a nervy recovery from an 0-2 start at the Stockholm Major, with a playoff spot and an eventual exit at the hands of the winners-to-be in the form of s1mple's NAVI, who didn't drop a single map at the event.
ZywOo's team was heavily involved in the post-Major shuffle, with zonic and Magisk set to come in, but they closed off the chapter in style, courtesy of a grand final appearance at the BLAST Premier Fall Final and an outright win at IEM Winter – and banger after banger from the man on the big green throughout.
The BLAST World Final brought along another confrontation with NAVI, and the CIS side once again won the derby of the black-and-yellow teams – confirming for good that despite another excellent year, ZywOo would end up second behind s1mple in the year's individual HLTV rankings.
Looking back through ZywOo's stellar Counter-Strike pro career, 2022 feels like the most hollow of the years he has been involved with the game. It is a testament to his excellence as a player that he still bagged a #2 finish on the HLTV lists – and this very roster would go on to win the Paris Major in 2023, too – but the results for their first year of play together are, let's be honest here, lackluster.
First, you could chalk it up to Vitality's customary slow starts to the year – 9-12th at Katowice and 13-16th at ESL Pro League Season 15. (Worryingly enough, ZywOo wasn't even the best-performing player on the team for these, with dupreeh leading the charge on both occasions.) Another disappointment followed at the Major in Antwerp, where they fell short in the Legends stage, with ZywOo himself once again putting up an uncharacteristically muted performance in the decider against HEROIC.
Yet again, Vitality fell short of expectations at IEM Dallas, even if ZywOo did show up to be counted and produced an incredible series against Astralis with a 1.67 rating across the match, heading into the defeats against FaZe Clan and G2 that would end their tournament.
A grand final appearance at the BLAST Spring Finals was one of the highlights for the French-Danish mix, but they couldn't keep the same level for IEM Cologne, where they went out in 9-12th. Again, ZywOo kept racking up the numbers, bringing a 1.31 tournament-wide rating to bear, but despite the infusion of ex-Astralis talent, the team was still less than the sum of its parts. It was time for a change – and misutaaa had to make way for Spinx.
Just like in 2021, the summer break proved to be a blessing for ZywOo and his team, and they roared back in Malta with a commanding performance, winning all group stage matches and dominating the playoffs to lift a well-deserved trophy, courtesy of what was one of Monsieur Herbaut's best-ever tournament runs, underscored by a monstrous 1.42 rating for the event.
It may have seemed like a prelude for the Rio Major, but it wasn't to be. The upset-ridden affair in Brazil also claimed the hopes and dreams of the Vitality squad, who lost to GamerLegion and eventual winners Outsiders in the Opening Stage, and even though they barely squeaked into the next Swiss bracket, narrowly avoiding elimination, the French-Danish mix team eventually went out with a whimper rather than a bang, with ZywOo once again falling somewhat short on the biggest stage. The BLAST Premier World Final would mark an improvement of sorts, but it was a far cry from their EPL heroics: a 5-6th-place finish and a regression to the mean of sorts from ZywOo himself, posting a 1.16 tournament rating, quite close to his showings at the start of the year.
All this makes the 2023 turnaround all the more notable and impressive.
The best player of the year and the winner of the final CS:GO – on home soil, in Paris, no less: 2023 has been an absolute banner year for ZywOo. It was the only Major of the year, and he has arrived on the big stage in style, with the team peaking just at the right time.
Despite early playoff exits at IEM Katowice and ESL Pro League Season 17 to start off the year, it was clear that ZywOo was going to continue where he left off the year prior and may, in fact, ascend to new heights along the way. His individual scores were fantastic at these two tournaments, too, but he especially turned on the jets for IEM Rio – Vitality's first event win of the year – and then the Major itself, which the French-Danish roster won without dropping a single map along the way. Despite the controversies with seeding, upsets, and the eventual playoff bracket, such a commanding result deserves to be commended – especially with plays like this involved:
Vitality went on to lift further S-Tier trophies, winning Gamers8 and IEM Cologne in the summer, and while a dip followed at the next Pro League season and then at IEM Sydney – no doubt a hangover of sorts and a loss of motivation for everyone as the community eagerly awaited the launch of Counter-Strike 2 –, ZywOo and his team finished the year strong as he and his team took early scalps in CS2 by winning the BLAST Fall Final and then the BLAST World Final as well. Even more impressively, these results came under a new roster configuration, too, as zonic and Magisk decamped for Team Falcons, with XTQZZZ and mezii replacing them.
ZywOo ended the year with the highest rating, KPR, impact, KAST, and KDD metrics, according to HLTV, who duly listed him as their #1 player of the year, an accolade that saw him equal s1mple's all-time record in this regard.
Heading into 2024, the big question on everyone's mind was how teams and players would adapt to CS2 proper as more time had passed. With a change to an MR12 format without big adjustments to the in-game economy, the role of AWPers was especially coming under the spotlight. Snipers with limited impact, or those who died often, have become a much greater burden on their teams due to just how expensive the big green is – and the many public complaints and flameout of s1mple, arguably the best player of the CS:GO era, also added to the intrigue.
Despite Vitality's strong end to 2023, they couldn't quite make a meaningful dent in the FaZe-NAVI duopoly over the course of 2024. While the team did end up winning IEM Cologne, it was their only trophy win of the year – in no way due to ZywOo, who was just as consistently excellent as always, with perhaps the exception of the PGL Copenhagen Major, where he only posted a 1.08 rating. However, at every other event, he was the best-performing player on his team and still ended the year in the #3 position on HLTV's end-of-year list behind donk and m0NESY.
Team Vitality's signing of ropz from FaZe Clan will go down as one of the most consequential roster moves in CS2 history. It was exactly the firepower upgrade that an already strong team has needed, and they went on a rampage the likes of which we have not yet seen in the Counter-Strike 2 era. The closest comparison is perhaps FaZe's own run in the early months of CS2, but nothing – nothing – could hold a candle to the level of dominance Vitality displayed in the first half of 2025, heading into the Austin Major.
After a slow start to the year at the BLAST Bounty Spring event in late January (again), Vitality went on to win every single one of the six consecutive S-Tier tournaments they entered, taking down the fifth season of the Intel Grand Slam along the way. These events were, in order of appearance:
Even more incredibly, they have gone on this romp without dropping a single series, racking up 30 in a row heading into the Major – a clear record in the modern era for best-of-three and best-of-five matches. A truly incredible achievement for ZywOo and his team.
30 wins in a row
— Team Vitality CS (@TeamVitalityCS) May 26, 2025
6 tournaments in a row
this team 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/jT1PbcwG6Z
Because, make no mistake, ZywOo played an integral part in this run throughout, as evidenced by his stats. He has picked up the HLTV tournament MVP title at each of these events, extending his all-time lead over s1mple by five (26 to 21) heading into the Austin Major. In the first five months of 2025, the young Frenchman posted an HLTV 2.1 rating of 1.38 with an eye-popping 1.42 impact rating and an 89.4 ADR to match, putting him far ahead of the competition.
For comparison, here are the stats for the rest of his team for the same period (up to June in 2025):
No wonder ZywOo and co. were the runaway favorites heading into the Austin Major. And as for a record-breaking fourth number one finish on HLTV's yearly leaderboards, he is certainly in the running.
With a player as frighteningly consistent as ZywOo, it can be tough to compare his various yearly accolades strictly by relying on the eye test or a highlight reel. So, without further ado, here are his HLTV stat breakdowns for each calendar year, with a separate mention for his top 20 finish:
While it's a tough argument to make that one individual player rises so far above the field that they can completely outshine two decades' worth of excellence and greatness across the entire Counter-Strike franchise and its various forms – and it would be somewhat disingenuous to compare ZywOo's in-progress career with those who have hung up the mouse a decade ago.
Still, the Frenchman's performances in CS2 so far mean that you can definitely see him as the best player in this iteration of the game, an assertion that is backed both by the eye test and the statistics like that of HLTV. For the Global Offensive era, the sheer longevity of players like s1mple and device – just to only name AWPers – pushes him to the fringes of the conversation.
And really, how can you make an objective comparison with the legends of 1.6 and Source? There can be no doubt that the quality of play is much higher today than it was back then, but all sports fans know that this is not a valid conclusion to a debate like this. There is a lot of nuances to be considered. How high do you tower over your contemporaries? How long were you able to dominate? Did you do it on one team, with one roster, or were you able to maintain a high level across multiple organizations? For the context of modern Counter-Strike, how do you compare a Markeloff with a FalleN, a prime coldzera with the star player era of karrigan? How about the Source-period shox or ScreaM? At some point, the comparisons inevitably become subjective in some way. This is especially true when the clutch factor comes into play – one of the oft-repeated criticisms of ZywOo is that he doesn't go nuclear in the biggest matches quite as often as he should for a player of his caliber, wilting somewhat when the going gets truly tough.
But when it comes to the early period of CS2, it is clear that ZywOo has not only survived the transition from Global Offensive but thrived, reaching even higher heights in his already pristine gameplay and competitive performances, making him an absolute must-watch player for any Counter-Strike esports fan.
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out other player profiles on the Bitsler blog, like that of donk, s1mple, Stewie2K, and Aleksib – with more to come in the future!
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