CS:GO – The Rise of the Chosen One: zywOo

On November 9th 2000, Counter-Strike was born and so was a man who’d go on to become a god in it. Born and brought up in Lens, France, Mathieu Herbaut would be deemed “The Chosen One” for the uncanny coincidence surrounding his birthday. He would also prove to be the savior of a region filled with talent but lost to ego and pride.

Road to Vitality and Stardom

zywOo started playing CS when he was seven years old. It didn’t take him years of grinding and struggling to be noticed and recognized in Tier 1 CS. It was simply obvious from the start that he belonged at the highest level possible.

After playing in dizLown and nevermind for a few years, a 16-year-old zywOo would join WySix Team in 2017, the team where he would first catch attention from the community. He would already be deemed a legend in the making, and after six months with WySix, he joined “against All authority”, where he stayed for quite a while.

This is because his mother insisted that he complete his high school before making his professional debut. And in the 13 months with aAa, zywOo put in performances that would make Tier 1 organizations drool while they desperately awaited his coming-of-age.

The Vitality Era

Despite having a plethora of generational talents, internal issues ranging from ego to stylistic issues in-game caused French CS to fail in forming the super team that the CS world had feared. By 2018, French CS had dissolved into a dark void of failure, despite being the most stubborn scene for a decade. It would take a genuine miracle to revive this dying scene. And then Team Vitality signed zywOo.

People expected zywOo to be a great player, one who would restart a new French era. But no one expected him to become a world-class competitor, fighting it out with the best players in the world in a matter of a few months. Soon enough, he would not only be considered one of the best players in the world, but he would also go on to eclipse most of them.

Within just one month of joining Vitality, the team won Dreamhack Open Atalanta 2018, with zywOo putting an otherworldly tournament rating of 1.49, miles better than anyone else.

2019

zywOo entered 2019 as one of the most feared players in the scene. But as opposed to other French superstars of the past, he was humble, shy, and most importantly, a team player. Though his first Major was an unceremonial event where Vitality quit in the Legends Stage, it became clear as day that this teenager’s powers were growing day after day.

After winning a few other tournaments, Vitality won cs_summit 4, where the Frenchmen beat Team Liquid twice, once in the Grand Finals, and zywOo was deservedly named the MVP. But the greatest stage for zywOo was yet to come. In ESL One Cologne 2019, zywOo put in performances that finally drove the fans to pit him against the current champion, s1mple.

After an early loss to NiP, Vitality went on a near-flawless run by beating fnatic, Heroic, NRG Esports (Quarterfinals) 2-0, dropping not a single map. zywOo was named MVP in each of those matches. In the semifinals against Major champions Astralis, zywOo put in a 1.36 rating performance to advance to the Grand Finals, where the French team were finally halted by Team Liquid.

Nevertheless, his grand performances in the cathedral of Counter-Strike cemented his place as one of the best players in the world. The rest of the year was marred with semifinal exits, but zywOo’s worth kept shooting up the whole time. In his second Major, he did one better than the previous one, by going into the Playoffs, but ending up getting the 5th-8th place.

At the very end of 2019, in EPICENTER 2019, zywOo faced his nemesis directly. As if it was a prophecy, Vitality defeated NaVi. Vitality went on to win the tournament and zywOo won another MVP. As opposed to the eventful 2018, NaVi did not perform nearly as well in 2019, which was a significant hit for s1mple when it came to HLTV’s Player Of The Year rankings. With zywOo’s higher rating, the award went his way and the young Frenchman had been crowned the best player of the year in quite literally his very first year of top-tier CS.

2020

2020 started slow for zywOo and soon enough, the pandemic had stolen all LANs away. In the online world, many teams suffered, including Vitality. But at the end of the year, Vitality picked up some much-needed momentum. They found themselves against NaVi in the Grand Finals of IEM Beijing Online. Vitality had lost 4 Grand Finals so far that year and with NaVi 2-0 in the lead, this one seemed to be the fifth.

But zywOo and co. came alive and went on a shock reverse sweep to win the Grand Finals 3-2. Though s1mple was named the MVP of the Finals, zywOo did him one better by being named the MVP of the tournament. In BLAST Premier: Fall 2020, the world witnessed another Vitality vs NaVi, where s1mple won another MVP but zywOo again did him one better by winning the match. Vitality went on to win the tournament against Astralis, and zywOo had another tournament MVP in his bag.

With such performances late in the year, zywOo was on the track to winning another Player Of The Year. And though it wasn’t as obvious as 2019, he did win it, which caused some controversy within sections of CS:GO fans. It was a close fight between him and s1mple, with both of them posting 1.29 ratings overall, but the scale was tipped zywOo’s way given his overall late-year performance and NaVi’s inadequacy to adapt to the online era as well as Vitality did.

2021

2021 mirrored 2020 in the start. It was a slow one, starting with NaVi vs Vitality with s1mple and co. besting Vitality on this occasion and going on to win BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020. Vitality did not make a semifinal appearance until half the year was gone, as opposed to NaVi who went from strengths to strengths to establish their dynasty. The very first Grand Final appearance for Vitality came in September, in EPL S14, against none other than NaVi.

And it wasn’t as one-sided as people thought it would be. Vitality managed to take 2 maps off NaVi and go all the distance on the decider map but lost it 16-14 in the very end. zywOo managed to get 102 kills, but still, his team had to settle in for second place, as NaVi won the coveted Grand Slam and s1mple won his 5th MVP of the year.

But their run in EPL seemed to mirror their late rise to powers back in 2020. With Major coming in fast, this could have been another grand wakeup call from their year-long slumber, and zywOo could have placed his hands on a Major trophy. Vitality had a unique group stage, wherein they went 0-2 down on Day 1 but managed to overturn their deficit to qualify for the Playoffs. They managed to knock out the Danish giants, Astralis en route to the Quarterfinals.

zywOo was about to face his arch-rival in the Quarterfinals, s1mple. This match could be one of those matches where Vitality would reign supreme and gain steam for the remaining months of the year, gifting zywOo his Player Of The Year. But this time, it was not meant to be. The boys in yellow were too strong, and even after a respectable 9-6 half lead on NaVi’s strongest ever map, Nuke, Vitality conceded defeat and were out of the Major.

The Future

2021 was not zywOo’s year, as Vitality went through constant lineup changes and tweaks. But the genius of a 21-year-old zywOo is bound to make it big and win the Major, probably even multiple times.

The French CS singlehandedly lies in zywOo’s hands, as G2 has been stolen away by the Bosnian brothers, NiKo and huNter. The world can’t wait enough to see what becomes of this enigmatic Frenchman; the man who never plays deathmatch, focusing on gameplay and “brains over aim” instead. He is definitely one of the most unique characters in the story of Counter-Strike, and the legend status of this Frenchman is a definite certainty.