ZywOo's 22 MVP Awards

As Vitality picked up their trophy in Stockholm for the ESL Pro League season 21, ZywOo became the only player to receive 22 MVP Awards from the prestigious HLTV outlet. Before that victory, the Frenchman shared a joint record of 21 with Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, regarded as the Greatest Player of All Time by a sizable part of the Counter-Strike community. Of course, this accomplishment fueled the fire of debates, conversations and disagreements on the matter. In this article, we take a look at what's underneath that crazy number. 22 MVP's and many stories to tell.

A brief taste of LANs before the lockdown

In October 2018, at the age of 17, Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut joined Team Vitality from aAa. At this point in time, the expectations and speculations already ran wild about the potential of this newcommer. The (soon-to-be) superstar had already made a name for himself in various Tier 2 tournaments, displaying numbers defying reason. Fans did not have to wait too long to see him pick up his first HLTV MVP award. In May 2019, at cs_summit 4, Vitality surpassed Liquid to grab the title. ZywOo finished the entire event with a 1.33 rating (2.0) and his first individual notch.

The full French roster (ALEX, RpK, shox, apEX & shox) went on to win two more events before offline Counter-Strike was put on hold. In both instances, ZywOo picked up the MVP award, displaying respectfully; 1.41 rating at ECS Season 7 (Victory versus FURIA in the Grand Final) and 1.53 rating at EPICENTER 2019 (beating MOUZ as their last hurdle towards the title). At an early age, Matthieu Herbaut entered the exclusive club of "MVP winners who did not lift the trophy", as he picked up the accolades in Cologne 2019 and DreamHack Masters Malmö, in spite of his second place.

Offline CS comes to a halt

As most of the world plunged into a confusing and worrisome period, Counter-Strike had to make concessions as well and bid a temporary farewell to big stages, stadiums and LAN events altogether. Some of you may even remember as ESL had to cancel, last minute, the audience attendance of IEM Katowice 2020 amidst the growing concerns around COVID-19. Thankfully, our community was able to keep enjoying CS, but we had to go back to the basics: online competitions. This terrain proved to be rather favorable for the superstar as he swiftly added 6 MVP awards to his cabinet during this flux time.

Herein spawns the favorite counter argument of the so-called "ZywOo doubters". In the evergreen quest of crowning a Greatest Player of All Time, the conversation opposes generally s1mple versus ZywOo. Now that the Frenchman has surpassed his rival in total number of MVPs, the coalition behind s1mple's candidacy screams; Six of these Most Valuable Player awards came from online competitions and therefore are less valuable (shouldn't be counted!). The Ukrainian legend only won four MVPs during the online era. Whether you agree with that logic or not, the argument has a certain base and cannot be discarded without genuinely considering the implications.

Back to LAN, the list deepens

As Counter-Strike found its way to its rightful place, with roaring crowds and fabulous stadiums, ZywOo continued to write his own story. In a little less than 4 years, 11 MVP accolades have been added to the curriculum. Here are some of the most notable achievements;

• BLAST Paris Major 2023, 1.39 rating, victory versus GamerLegion.
• ‍BLAST Fall Final 2023, 1.32 rating, victory versus FaZe.
• IEM Cologne 2024, 1.30 rating, victory versus Natus Vincere.
• IEM Katowice 2025, 1.42 rating, victory versus Spirit.

As far as glory and notoriety go, the successes found in Cologne and Katowice were positively needed. After the underrated Major MVP picked up in Paris, on account of a rather easy and uneventful playoffs run, ZywOo had to showcase his greatness within the most important halls of Counter-Strike, which he did. Thanks to fantastic Grand Finals (in both cases), the Vitality trophy cabinet reached a new gravitas with these additional titles.

No signs of slowing down

The most exciting part about the Frenchman and Vitality is that all signs point towards the continuation of their hegemony. The arrival of ropz put them on another level and two championships were already theirs in 2025 (Katowice & EPL S21). As the competition scrambles and catches up, it feels like ZywOo will have a relative runway to assert his dominance over the next few months of competition. It will be up to Vitality to maintain the highest degree of work ethics and not let complacency linger in any capacity. If they manage to keep the right attitude, who knows how many more MVPs will be won by ZywOo this year?

_{(Pictures and screenshots courtesy of HLTV.org)} 

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