ZywOo wins the CS2 Player of 2023 award

At the end of a phenomenal season, easily the best in the history of Team Vitality, the team’s MVP was unsurprisingly named the best Counter-Strike player of the year.

This was the 3^rd time in five years that Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut won this prestigious award. The other two times, he finished 2^nd after Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. But what exactly did ZywOo achieve with his team in 2023? Let’s have a look.

Team Vitality’s results in 2023

Vitality had a slow season start, finishing 5^th – 6^th at IEM Katowice 2023 and 5^th – 8^th at ESL Pro League S17. These results didn’t suggest at all what was about to happen. By late April, the French crew had become the strongest team in the world, winning IEM Rio and then the Paris Major.

At all of these events, regardless of the final position they occupied, ZywOo was easily one of the best players on the roster. And in most cases, he was by far the best.

Just take for instance the Grand Final from the BLAST.tv Paris Major. In this match, his score was 42 – 28 / 1.54. The next best player on the server was Emil “Magisk” Reif, who had a score of 40 – 28. On the other team, Mihai “iM” Ivan finished with 36 – 41.

First Major and in Paris, it’s crazy! Thank you all for the support!! ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/ucF8OLquN2

— ZywOo (@zywoo) May 21, 2023

In most cases, the difference between ZywOo and all the other players on the server was even more spectacular. He seems unstoppable and extremely calm regardless of how challenging the battle is.

Some teams, such as FaZe Clan and G2 Esports, are very hard to beat. And, indeed, Vitality often lose to them. But at the individual level, ZywOo is the one man who doesn’t disappoint, even under the worst conditions.

After winning the Major, Vitality’s players relaxed for a while and then returned to form at the start of August. Vitality finished 3^rd – 4^th at IEM Cologne and then won Gamers8. After that, they had a modest result at EPL S18 (5^th – 8^th) and failed completely at IEM Sydney (13^th – 16^th). But the end of the season was exceptionally successful.

After the launch of CS2, FaZe Clan went on to win three consecutive titles. Vitality needed a bit of time to get up to speed. But when they finally did, they won both BLAST Premier Fall Final and BLAST Premier World Final. At both events, their Grand Final opponent was FaZe Clan.

Needless to say, ZywOo impressed. In fact, he played so well, that the Grand Final of the second event was extremely one-sided: 13 – 5 on Inferno and 13 – 7 on Nuke. His personal score was 38 – 19 / 1.69.

Header: ESL