Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire has heaped praise on Vitality teammate Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, comparing him to football superstar Lionel Messi.
Despite having only started his professional career in 2018, ZywOo has already etched his name into the Counter-Strike history books, such has been the level of his performances since bursting into the upper echelons of the game.
ApEX has had the privilege of watching ZywOo’s rise to prominence from up close, as the pair have been teammates since October 2018. The French sniper was named the best player in the world in 2019 and 2020, but in 2021 he had to watch as NAVI’s Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev stole the show after a phenomenal year that surpassed even the wildest of expectations.
S1mple and ZywOo have been at the Counter-Strike summit in the same way that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have in football. They are both in the prime of their careers and are expected to continue to dominate the game for many more years, but apEX believes that there’s something that sets the two talents apart.
“He’s the chosen one,” apEX told Dexerto when asked about the fact that ZywOo was born on the same day that Counter-Strike was released.
“I like football a lot, and for me, Messi is like ZywOo. Ronaldo is more like s1mple, a really hard worker. The other two are just gifted.
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“He [ZywOo] is like an angel coming from the sky.”
ZywOo will play his first official match of 2022 on January 30 as Vitality will take on Evil Geniuses in the BLAST Premier Spring Groups.
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It will be the first match of the new Vitality squad, strengthened in the offseason with the arrivals of Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen, Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, and head coach Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen from Astralis.
