Top 20 players of 2021: ZywOo (2)
Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut had another great year, putting up very similar numbers to his first place finishes in 2019 and 2020, but had to settle for second place in the Top 20 players of 2021 ranking by GG.BET.
Top 20 players of 2021: Introduction
ZywOo became one of two rookies, following Marcelo "coldzera" David, to win a Top 20 player of the year award in 2019, repeating the feat the following year to make it two for two and cement his name early on as one of the game’s greats, although this year he gave up the throne to an otherworldly Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and had to settle for second place — outpacing the other two players, Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov and Nikola "NiKo" Kovač, in a tight-knit top four.
It was in 2017 that murmurs of a new virtuoso in the making came out of France’s lower tiers, what the French call the 'sub-top,' a youngster playing for E-Corp and WySix by the name of ZywOo, although his first matches on HLTV’s record are from the summer of 2016 when he competed in several qualifiers with a mix team under the name of nevermind alongside the likes of Robin "ropz" Kool and Nemanja "nexa" Isaković.
(Photo: Vakarm)
ZywOo was invited to FPL and had a "One for the future" article written about him that summer, shortly after Richard "shox" Papillon expressed admiration for the burgeoning player, but G2 dropped the ball and failed to secure the youngster’s services as several teams tried to find the best way to tie the youngster down in sights of signing him after his high school graduation, as ZywOo’s mother did not want him to drop out and focus his full attention on gaming. Meanwhile, he plied his trade for aAa, taking the team to an ESL Championnat National victory in the summer of 2018, ending the tournament’s playoffs with a 1.70 rating in the series against MAXISAUCISSE and LDLC.
Having put his university entrance exams in the rearview mirror, ZywOo finally made the transition to becoming a full-time professional in late 2018 by signing with the newly minted Vitality team that he would lead to victory at his first international LAN event, albeit not an elite-level one, DreamHack Open Atlanta, leaving the likes of Complexity, Ghost and Luminosity in the dust.
ZywOo didn’t take long to adjust to top-flight play and in 2019 he started to accumulate MVP medals despite his team’s inconsistent year, bagging five of the personal awards to finish first in that year’s Top 20 players of the year ranking with a 1.30 rating, 1.33 Big event playoff rating, 1.40 impact and 86.1 ADR, thus becoming the youngest player to earn the accolade.
In 2020 ZywOo continued on on a tear, winning one of the most hotly-contested first place finishes in a Top 20 players of the year ranking ever over s1mple by becoming the most impactful player in the most competitive tournaments and in the biggest matches of the year. He finished 2021 with six MVP medals, all of them from Elite and Big events, and his impact late into tournaments was so noticeable that he ended the year with 1.10+ ratings in every playoff series or series in the top half of a tournament and a 1.29 rating in Big Event playoffs, nudging him just past his Ukrainian rival.
ZywOo| TournamentEvent | Team (place) | Rating 2.0 (in team) | ADR | KPR | DPR | Impact | KAST | Award |
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1.36 | 85.9 | 0.88 | 0.58 | 1.44 | 77.7% | EVP |
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1.11 | 69.4 | 0.68 | 0.59 | 1.14 | 71.3% | |
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1.29 | 85.7 | 0.85 | 0.66 | 1.39 | 74.8% | |
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1.53 | 93.1 | 0.96 | 0.52 | 1.65 | 81.4% | EVP |
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1.19 | 81.8 | 0.72 | 0.63 | 1.24 | 73.0% | |
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1.36 | 85.9 | 0.77 | 0.55 | 1.38 | 81.6% | EVP |
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1.12 | 75.1 | 0.75 | 0.63 | 1.13 | 70.5% | |
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1.31 | 83.4 | 0.84 | 0.59 | 1.40 | 75.9% | EVP |
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1.37 | 92.5 | 0.88 | 0.58 | 1.44 | 75.9% | EVP |
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1.30 | 84.8 | 0.83 | 0.61 | 1.42 | 75.4% | EVP |
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1.36 | 92.4 | 0.88 | 0.60 | 1.44 | 75.4% | EVP |
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1.27 | 84.2 | 0.82 | 0.60 | 1.38 | 71.9% | MVP |
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1.35 | 90.6 | 0.85 | 0.58 | 1.48 | 72.5% | EVP |
Vitality’s start to 2021 was slow despite a third-place finish at the BLAST Premier 2020 Global Final, where their six-man roster beat Liquid and Complexity, who were fielding a stand-in, before suffering losses at the hands of Astralis and Natus Vincere. Things looked like business as usual for ZywOo, however, as he ended the tournament with a fantastic 1.36 rating, 1.44 impact, 85.9 ADR and 77.7% KAST to earn his first EVP mention of the year.
The French team’s early problems started to appear at the following event, the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, where they were knocked down to the Showdown following two straight losses to Complexity and Evil Geniuses. ZywOo’s numbers also took a hit, going down to a 1.13 rating and 1.27 impact. His numbers further dropped to a year-low at IEM Katowice, Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom’s final event with the team, as the Frenchmen fell in 9-12th place with an opening victory against OG followed by losses to Liquid and Virtus.pro, with ZywOo averaging a 1.11 rating and 1.14 impact.
"We had a tough time kicking off the season, we were still playing with the six-man roster with Nivera. It was something new for us and we wanted to exploit it as much as possible. We also weren’t at our best individual level."
Vitality’s woes continued at ESL Pro League Season 13 where a 2-3 record in their group meant they weren’t going to make it to the playoffs, eliminated in 13-16th place. Despite the team’s ongoing struggles ZywOo returned to his super high standard of play with a 1.29 rating, 85.7 ADR and 1.39 impact. The French team then remained in the nadir of their year at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown where they were upset in the first round of the bracket by a brilliant 9z led by rising star AWPer Santino "try" Rigal.
ZywOo earned his second EVP of the year at DreamHack Masters Spring, the first event after bringing on Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van to take the place of Cédric "RpK" Guipouy, with a year-high 1.53 rating, 93.1 ADR and 1.65 impact despite Vitality continuing to struggle going out in the groups yet again. This time it was in 7-8th place as Complexity knocked the French team down to the lower bracket in their opening match, and although they stayed alive against Extra Salt and BIG, it was FURIA who finally put an end to their run in the last group stage match.
The Flashpoint 3 European Regional Major Ranking tournament wasn’t much better for Vitality, who finished in 7th place, and ZywOo came back to more earthly numbers — at least by superstar player standards — after his DreamHack Masters Spring outing with a 1.19 rating and 1.24 impact at the Medium event.
Things started to look up for Vitality at IEM Summer, the first event of the year in which the French team were able to break the group stage shackles and make the playoffs as ZywOo once again soared with a 1.36 rating, 1.38 impact and a year-high 81.6% KAST during the tournament as he and his team beat the likes of Complexity, Gambit and Virtus.pro before falling to OG in the semi-finals.
"We were very hopeful that we could get our good form back. It was Kyojin’s first steps in and we got a promising 3-4th place at IEM Summer with nice showings during the tournament."
The good times continued at the IEM Cologne play-in, the team’s return to LAN for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, where ZywOo topped the board twice in matches against Renegades and Spirit to qualify for the main event in the German city. The high didn’t last, however, as an opening victory against FURIA gave way to two straight losses to a burgeoning Natus Vincere and more worryingly a 0-2 at the hands of FaZe as ZywOo could 'only' muster a 1.12 rating in his team’s group stage efforts.
"The return to LAN didn’t go as we had hoped, we all wanted to go as far as possible at IEM Cologne, especially because it was the first LAN since the coronavirus pandemic. It was a disappointment."
Vitality came back a changed team after the summer break and charged straight out of the gate at ESL Pro League Season 14, beating the likes of Astralis, OG and Gambit on the way to a grand final appearance, where ZywOo and company weren’t able to come out on top in a five map brawl that Natus Vincere ended up taking. ZywOo was named an EVP, thanks to a 1.31 rating across 24 maps, with 1.40 impact and 83.4 ADR, as he would at every single event until the end of the year except at the one where he was MVP.
"We talked a lot among the team and with Vitality’s staff after the break. We were really motivated and we worked very hard to play part of the season in a way that matched our ambitions."
Vitality then had a clean run at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, where they took out Liquid and Astralis, the latter team twice, to secure a spot at the Fall Finals. ZywOo and company then traveled to Sweden to take part in IEM Fall, the final RMR tournament of the year, where they placed third with ZywOo once again shining by the end of it all with a 1.37 rating, 92.5 ADR and 1.44 impact.
"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."
"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."
Then came the highlight of the year for every Counter-Strike lover, once again in Sweden, as the Major took center stage with the best teams in the world traveling to Stockholm for a shot at winning the $2m event, but Vitality’s good post-vacational form looked in peril early on as nerves took over and two best-of-one losses to Virtus.pro and Heroic put the Frenchmen on the verge of elimination.
The team rallied after the early scare as Dan "apEX" Madesclaire and his men were able to overcome their early blunders with victories over Evil Geniuses, Astralis and Entropiq to secure a spot in the playoffs and the possibility to play in front of a crowd at the Globen arena, even if they didn’t end up going any further against Natus Vincere and their star player s1mple. By the end of it all ZywOo was the third-highest rated player at the event with a 1.30 rating, trailing only the aforementioned Ukrainian star and G2's NiKo in that department.
"The beginning of the Major was very bad for us with two consecutive losses. We had a big conversation, all of us together, to analyze the situation and find some solutions that would make us bounce back. It was very important, we really needed it. Everyone worked hard for the team and we managed to win 3 games to qualify for the playoffs!"
Big news came after the Major as reports that the former Astralis trio of Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen, Emil "Magisk" Reif and Danny "zonic" Sørensen would be joining Vitality at the end of the season, which made the roster under the orders of outgoing coach Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam a dead team. Despite the impending changes looming over the squad, the Frenchmen went on to show poise in the last quarter of the year and made it their zenith, starting with a grand final appearance at the BLAST Premier Fall Final, where only the red-hot Natus Vincere with the unmanageable s1mple at the helm and blossoming talent Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy could stop them. ZywOo ended with a second-best 1.36 rating, 92.4 ADR and 1.44 impact.
"Our 'last dance' with Kyojin and shox was our best part of the year in terms of results. Even if we were considered a dead team, we really wanted to finish the year off well, performing and winning at least one trophy by the end of the year. We finally had a lot of fun and were able to play freely to perform well.
"I don’t regret any particular moment of the year. I can’t think of any particularly disappointing moment, I appreciate the whole of the year even despite our poor results at times. We managed to rally and regain form and that made for a beautiful story."
ZywOo was awarded his only MVP medal of the year at the following event, IEM Winter, where the absence of Natus Vincere’s world beating roster gave Vitality free rein to take it all. The French squad lost only the Group A upper bracket final to G2 before a clean playoff run with a grand final win against Ninjas in Pyjamas ended up with the French organization taking home its only trophy of the year. The French star finished his most valuable player run with a 1.27 rating across 14 maps.
"Being completely honest, I think I was more free to do whatever I wanted to given the situation of the team at the time, and I really wanted to finish out the year with my teammates in the best possible way, so as to not have any regrets. I just did my best to give my all, as always, without overthinking too much.
"I was obviously very happy to win the IEM Winter MVP medal. Going to the tournament my main goal was to win a trophy with the team and create lifelong memories with this roster, which is something we did!"
The team’s real last dance came at the BLAST World Final and the French squad brought with them their winning form in the early rounds, advancing to the upper bracket final with victories over Astralis and G2 in their two first matches. But another team coming strong at the end of the year as some of the more inexperienced players started to put in LAN maps, Gambit, knocked the Frenchmen down to the lower bracket final, where once again their biggest antagonist during the late stages of 2021, Natus Vincere, put an end to ZywOo and company’s run at the event, with Vitality’s sniper tallying a fantastic 1.35 rating along with 1.48 impact, 90.6 ADR and 72.5% KAST to end out the year.
Why was ZywOo the 2nd best player of 2021?
ZywOo had another great year, putting up very similar numbers to 2019 and 2020, but this time had to settle for the #2 spot in the Top 20.
"I’m OK with being second. I realize that this wasn’t my best year individually, but I’m going to do as much as I can and work hard to become better in 2022 and start the year in the best possible way. s1mple was better this year, there’s no doubt about that and it was not easy to follow him, but I’ll give everything in 2022."
The French star finished 2021 with the 2nd highest rating, 1.29, well above the competition below him. This was in part thanks to his great fragging (0.81 kills per round, #2) and Impact rating (1.36, #2), while he also ranked high in damage per round (84.4, #4), KAST (74.8%, #3), opening kills (0.14 per round, #5) and clutching (4th most 1vsXs won in total 87, or 2nd most on average per round). The one category he did top the leaderboard in was pistol round rating, where he was well ahead of the rest with his 1.46 average.
His great play led to one MVP award at IEM Winter and eight EVP recognitions, many of which were very strong and came from the most competitive events of the year. Namely, his BLAST Fall Final performance was one of the most impressive of the year as he barely missed out on the MVP medal and it was a similar case at ESL Pro League Season 14.
ZywOo was also the 2nd best performer of the two BLAST $1,000,000 events despite not reaching the final in either, and the 3rd best at IEM Summer and DreamHack Masters Spring. He was also one of the top performers at the PGL Major, too, despite his team not making it deep into the playoffs.
It's no surprise he ended up with the 2nd highest rating in Elite events (1.27), same as when expanding that to the Big events criteria (1.31), and most importantly he was great in the matches with the most pressure, averaging a 1.27 rating in the latter halves of the most competitive tournaments (also #2).
"We’re going into 2022 with a new international team and I’m excited and happy to be a part of it. The additions of zonic, Magisk and dupreeh bring a bunch of experience and new ideas, I can’t wait to go play on LAN with this team. We really want to win!"
All in all, another great year by the French superstar, who would have been in contention for the #1 spot in many previous years, but this time there wasn't really a race as s1mple was in a league of his own.
Bold prediction by GG.BET
A regular recurring feature in the Top 20 player ranking series, the Bold prediction segment returns in 2021, this time around requiring players to choose a player that is under the age of 20 and has yet to play in a top 20 team.
xertioNZywOo picked out MOUZ NXT’s 17-year-old rifler Dorian "xertioN" Berman as his bold prediction, joining Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and Helvijs "broky" Saukants in picking the young Israeli, a two-time WePlay Academy League winner.
"I think xertioN has all the means to play at the highest level for many years," ZywOo says. "I watched him play a few times and was impressed with his potential. I think he will be in the top tier very soon."
Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2021 ranking and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected. This year's ranking is supported by:
GG.BET - Online betting and odds on sport and esports
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov
Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez
Santino 'try' Rigal
Rajohn 'EasTor' Linato
Jon 'JDC' de Castro
Viktor 'Lack1' Boldyrev
Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliev
Nabil 'Nivera' Benrlitom
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Justin 'jks' Savage
Rory 'dephh' Jackson
Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek
Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado
Issa 'ISSAA' Murad
Simon 'Sico' Williams
Michal 'EMENK' Belej
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