Vitality ZywOo at IEM Cologne: “I like to see other people grinding to be better than me”

Counter-Strike

August 17, 2024

Bruno Sobieraj

After a strong showing in the group stage and three impressive wins, Vitality find themselves in the IEM Cologne 2024 semi-finals. We had the opportunity to speak to Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, before the playoffs.

Credit: Helena Kristiansson | ESL

Bruno: Congrats on getting to the semis. You beat three good teams on the way there: FURIA, MOUZ, and FaZe.

How would you rate your team’s performance so far?

ZywOo: I think we play really good this tournament, even though FaZe was a bit more shaky. But we still managed to win this kind of game, because we didn’t play our best but our level was still good to beat them. So I’m really happy with the team performance, everyone was good individually, everyone had good calls, everyone is bringing good energy during the game. If we keep doing it, if we keep doing the same thing game by game we can beat anyone. I can say against MOUZ I think we had actually better mood, better energy than before the game against FaZe, but we beat them. Not easily, but it was really good to play.

Bruno: After the games you give each other kisses on the cheek.

Is it to improve team morale?

ZywOo: No, I don’t remember in which tournament we started it, but it was with flameZ. I started to do it with him and after that, we just kept doing it because we thought it was fun. Yeah, we just keep doing it.

Bruno: Everyone knows that you like to rifle a lot for an AWPer, but since the summer break you’ve been AWPing a bit more.

Is that a strategic choice or do you just do it when you feel like it?

ZywOo: It’s both because if you want to be one of the best teams in the world, you need to have an impactful AWP in your team. So they need me to be stronger, but at the same time, it’s also feeling.

If I feel better with the AK, I will take the AK obviously. But if I feel the team needs an AWP or I’m maybe bad with the AK and can be better with the AWP, I will take it.

So it just depends on my feeling and what the team needs as well. So it really depends. I need to find a balance between that, so… If I feel it, I will take the AWP.

Bruno: Vitality has been doing quite well this year. You’ve had a lot of playoff runs, but no win.

Do you know exactly why that is? Is it a mental thing or a gameplay thing?

ZywOo: I think we lost Dallas and EPL in Grand Finals and two other tournaments in semis. Most likely I think it was our mentality. We weren’t ready to fight in these moments and we gave the enemy teams too much opportunity and we didn’t bring good energy. That’s why I talk a lot about that, because since the beginning of the season, we tried to talk a lot about that – bringing good energy, good mood so that all of us at Vitality can shine when we bring this energy.

Everyone can see NAVI are doing it and it’s working really well for us, so we just need to bring this, even though some days there’s more pressure when we play in playoffs on stage. But we need to remind ourselves that we need to be good and just keep in this way.

Credit: ESL on X

Bruno: Seeing that you’re in a good mood within the team right now,

Is this the perfect time to win an event like Cologne?

ZywOo: Could be a good time. If we keep in this way, it’s definitely a good time for us to win it. I think we have a good chance because we have a really good run in terms of performance. But even though we are good, we just need to keep ourselves like… it’s game-by-game, not thinking already like we would go to the final and win it. It’s gonna be a tough semi-final because we play either SAW or FaZe. It’s gonna be tough to play them, so we just need to keep our mentality up, keep grinding, keep working hard and keep this thing together.

Bruno: Spirit went out early with donk and m0nesy and G2 are on the other side of the bracket.

Do you ever think about your individual performance in terms of being the best CS2 player?

ZywOo: Obviously I’m thinking about it, but I’m also happy to see other players coming into the top one, top two, top three because it’s also good to have a challenge, see other people grinding, be better than you. That means I’m not perfect as well, so I just need to work a lot, even more. So that’s great motivation, they bring a lot to the table. I like to see it. I like to see other people grinding to be better than me, and that also gives me motivation for everything. So actually I like it. I like to see donk and m0NESY beating everyone.

Bruno: On the other side of the bracket it’s G2 and NAVI – the two best-looking teams right now, and you haven’t faced either of them, the new G2 and NAVI, in a while.

Which one would you prefer to face if you could choose?

ZywOo: I think if you look at the tournament, G2 destroyed a lot of people since their loss to SAW. So if I have to say I would prefer to play NAVI because we always have good preparation against them and I don’t think they like to play us. So I will say NAVI, but anyway, we need to be ready to face both of them, because they are really good teams. G2 never won against NAVI, so it’s tough to know what’s going to happen during this game, so we need to be ready to fight anyone. But we need to be ready to face FaZe or SAW before. That’s why I said we need to be focused game-by-game, not focusing over the future and what we are gonna do.

Lastly, do you have a favorite Cologne moment from over the years?

ZywOo: For me my favorite moment was 2019 when I went to the final. It was my first time on a big stage and I went to the final and I could see all the people in front of me. It was my first time, so that’s why maybe it’s in my memory still. It was amazing to play in front of that. I think 2019 was my best moment… after the Major.

Bruno: Thank you and good luck.