Does ZywOo's Legacy Mean Anything?
In the wake of PGL Copenhagen 2024, CS2's first Major, we've got some serious questions regarding the French prodigy.
The Beginning - ZywOo, New Contender
It’s 2019. ZywOo has just burst onto the scene, and in his rookie year, steals the spotlight away from s1mple - just after s1mple’s incredible 2018 performance, which many regard as the best individual year from any CS:GO professional player throughout history. He doesn’t perform all that well at the Majors that year - just shy of playoffs in Katowice, and a decent appearance at StarLadder Berlin, losing to AVANGAR. But he gets a massive MVP at Cologne, and it’s clear to anyone he’s talented beyond belief.
The world waits in anticipation for what the next year could bring - would Vitality, a team mostly consisting of veteran French players who were focused on setting up their best talent yet, be able to bring ZywOo continued success? Would the newly formed NaVi keep s1mple’s legacy alive? What about teams like Astralis and Liquid, who were still fully intact and could bounce back, alongside the in-form MOUZ with karrigan, strong teams like EG and fnatic, and consistent underdogs like 100T and G2?
We would never get the answers to many of these questions - after all, the pandemic struck right before the playoffs of IEM Katowice 2020, and we wouldn’t have another LAN until Cologne 2021, or BLAST Fall Finals 2021 with a crowd. And in those online years, ZywOo grabbed another #1 spot via HLTV’s rankings.
The Muddy Waters - Online Number One
It’s easy to look at a number on a website and claim it is an important fact. This is something people who claim ZywOo as their individual champion tend to do often - citing his mind-boggling ratings, his number ones and number twos across the years. But it’s all lacking just a little bit of context here and there.
The long and short of it is that 2020 wasn’t kind to ZywOo either - I’m sure he would have preferred to get #1 during a fully packed LAN season, showing up at Majors, and getting his reps in at the most stressful and career-defining moments possible. That wasn’t what happened, and instead he gained accolades which mean almost nothing in the grand scheme of things (many of his MVPs are online!). We had to pretend the online era was real CS because there was nothing else. It was the curse of the times - I remember watching it fondly as someone who was still relatively new to the esports scene, not realising how worthless most of it was.
Despite the fact that it wasn’t his fault, the truth remains that ZywOo didn’t perform at Big Events in those years because there were none until PGL Stockholm 2021, the first post-pandemic Major. His contenders in history have had years to play LANs and big events, gaining medals, MVPs and scars from victories and losses, while he had one great year and then a year and a half just playing online. Life happens.
Context matters, especially because of what people will tell you. They will tell you ZywOo has all these number one placings and MVPs, and when you remind them it was online the obvious response is “well everyone was online!”, which misses the point that there was actually nothing important to play for during that time. It means something, sure. But when you claim someone is the best of all time, you can’t get by on “something”.
The Missed Opportunities - Post Pandemic Potential
Stockholm 2021 was a difficult time for Vitality and ZywOo. Kyojin (remember him?) was still in the lineup, and they matched up against the unstoppable NaVi in the quarterfinal. ZywOo didn’t showcase a “number one” performance, but their opponents were the best around at that time. For those of you keeping track, that’s three Majors where he’s failed once the going gets tough - no insane carry performances yet. In 2019, he was still a rookie despite it all, and you can understand that the Major pressure has an effect; that excuse is getting stale now that he’s been performing for years.
Aside from Majors, his legacy would start to receive scrutiny at the prestige events, Katowice and Cologne. 2022 was the return of the LAN circuit and with it we saw ZywOo put up a 1.10 rating at Katowice. Once again, context matters - this was the switch to an international lineup, with the Astralis trio of zonic, dupreeh, and Magisk making their way to Vitality. The language switch and clash of styles seemingly played a part in ZywOo no longer performing, with him posting some genuinely terrible series ratings in their defeats.
And so we reach Antwerp 2022, where ZywOo fails to make it onto the stage, getting outfragged by most of Heroic. Yet another chance to add to your resume as a GOAT contender missed, but his fans would have you believe this was just him getting used to English communications! So too was the result from Cologne that year, where Vitality were eliminated by dexter’s MOUZ (that one he did perform fairly well in, so it might be forgiven).
The second Major of that year, in Rio, had ZywOo once again fail to make the playoffs, losing to a SunPayus-fueled ENCE (with valde, mind you), and ZywOo once AGAIN disappointing with a sub-par rating. This was after they added Spinx and had won ESL Pro League 16, so the language issue has to be long retired.
The excuses are running dry.
But He Won The Major? Surely That Counts?
Once again, ZywOo dropped a fairly middling rating in his elimination game at Katowice 2023. The team had been together for a little while, Spinx was integrated into the lineup, and this trophy was still eluding ZywOo - but he could only muster a 1.16 rating against Liquid, which was a fringe top team at the time.
I can hear the rabble clamouring already. “But right afterwards, Vitality went on a hot streak, winning the Major! ZywOo won the MVP! Take that!” (said in a French accent).
Let’s go over the Bo3 LAN victories ZywOo claimed in his oh so prestigious Major MVP:
Monte, in the 2-0 Swiss stage
Into The Breach, in the quarterfinals
Apeks, in the semifinals
GamerLegion, in the grand final
Very impressive! This is about as strong as your average CCT online bracket! Well done.
You can only beat who is in front of you. Vitality did not magically control this bracket, and their Major win is a Major trophy in their cabinet, terrible trophy and all. Nobody can take this away from them. But when you’re discussing who is the greatest of all time, and who should be remembered in history for their performances and skill, you can’t just look at the rating and ignore what actually happened.
Take s1mple’s Major MVP in Stockholm. Vitality in the quarters, Gambit in the semis, G2 in the final. These are strong teams, filled with players who deserve respect like NiKo, and at the time, Ax1L3 and sh1ro (and yes, like ZywOo). That is a Major MVP where you can simply look at the rating and tell people that yes, he really was that good. No smoke and mirrors involved.
Before we reach the current year, Cologne 2023 is another event where ZywOo had numbers, but was absent in the key moment. In the semifinal against ENCE, ZywOo went missing against SunPayus - and this was their chance to prove they could continue winning after that Major. Okay, so ENCE has the secret sauce against ZywOo. No big deal! You’ll get them next time, champ.
We skip past the blossoming second season of 2023, the first CS2 events (of which Vitality did win some, but we are here to talk about the prestige trophies, and none were present), and go to 2024.
Where We Are Today
Katowice 2024 was an embarrassing last place finish for Vitality. They had just gotten mezii, and started to look good at the end of last year, only to lose to a messy Polish ENCE team and a new HEROIC squad, neither of which should be beating the individual brilliance Vitality have the potential of displaying. Oh well, ZywOo had some half-decent ratings, and was not absolutely terrible in those defeats. There’s always next year!
This brings us to the first CS2 Major. As of writing this, either FaZe or NaVi will be the victors, but we know one thing for sure - ZywOo isn’t going back to back. He did finally beat a top team in the playoffs of a Major though! A Cloud9 team without an AWPer who vetoed into their own worst maps and proceeded to shit the bed thoroughly. And ZywOo had the highest rating against FaZe, who were back in form, so you can forgive him for essentially being absent the majority of the game and delivering yet another underwhelming performance when it mattered toe most!
Yes, he was reportedly ill in the group stage (and reportedly recovered before the playoffs, though we don’t know for sure). But all of what I’ve been talking about just adds up to one general vibe I get from this player, and I think many others have the same question.
When Will ZywOo Actually Make His Own Legacy?
You could be fooled into thinking I believe ZywOo is some sort of fraud, or lacking in individual talent. You couldn’t be more wrong if that was the case. It’s obvious that he is exceptionally skilled - he wouldn’t be able to post the ratings and beat the teams he has done in many other circumstances. For the greatness of Counter-Strike, I want ZywOo to perform - it’s just better for us all.
But to put your name in the history books alongside the best individuals in CS history, you have to show up when it matters. You have to make your own legacy. If you frag out in all your losses then you can claim your team is holding you back. If you win a few prestige trophies despite going up against top tier competition then your story writes itself, like s1mple at Cologne 2018, Katowice 2020, Stockholm 2021 - the trophies carry that much more value.
ZywOo’s legacy is unclear. A number one performance in his debut year, yet absent at the Majors; performing in online tournaments in lieu of the Majors and prestige events that did not happen in those years, and then once he finally is gifted a team with individual brilliance his crowning moment is against subpar teams and players that do not give him the chance to break the preconceptions I and many others have placed upon him.
He’s a fantastic player. He may even be in the top five or top three of all time, depending on your biases. But you cannot justify pitting him against history’s best when you actually look at the crucial moments of his career, and how he has failed time and time again so far. There are only so many excuses - it was his debut year, then he got a bad bracket, then his team spoke a new language, then he got a bracket that was too good, then he played against teams that always beat him.
When will ZywOo actually break through the bullshit and perform despite it all? I believe that is one of the markers of a true GOAT. When you say “surely he can’t do it again” and he does it again, and again, and again, until you are forced to believe he can do it every single time. When you see ZywOo in the playoffs against a top team and instead of feeling doubt and asking whether he will show up, you instead assume he does and all your analysis is spent asking questions of his teammates and whether the enemy can handle his presence; that’s the aura that surrounds one of the best.
ZywOo still has time. Great players, like device for instance, sometimes have to get over a mental hump in order to break through in the most crucial moments. It’s unclear where or what the specific flaw in ZywOo’s game is that allows this to happen, but it’s not as if he is destined to remain a questionable contender forever - we can look back on this era of his career fondly and say “remember when he was almost there, but not quite? Isn’t it crazy to think there was a time when ZywOo choked in big games?”. He is a top player with years left to prove everyone wrong.
You don’t just “become” the greatest of all time. You earn it through years of sweat and hard-fought victories against the best competition possible on the best stage possible; and to me, claiming that ZywOo is already the best is tantamount to saying that his legacy means nothing. Right now, he is simply not the best of all time.
It would mean so much more if after all this he became the best; if he slayed the dragons and dominated the game at every stage. Don’t force him into a throne which is not yet made for him.
Afterword
Thanks for reading all the way to the end of another article! I was in a bit of a time crunch and couldn’t manage to get a full numeric analysis article out, or think of something more nebulous - but this topic felt right to do at this time. (Hoping to gather the angry ZywOo fans with this one, perhaps…) If you’re looking for more CS talk and want to interact with me, go check out my Twitter!
I’ve still been uploading on YouTube, so if you want to hear my voice over some random gaming stuff check it out. See you next month (or even sooner?) - every free subscription increases my motivation to get more out, despite all the procrastinating I do!
Great article !
Good that you have included background as well.