French Counter-Strike megastar Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut has won his third HLTV top player of the year at the week in Belgrade, Serbia. His third title underlines his consistency after making the top two in the last five years.
ZywOo has been competing yearly with Ukranian star Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, with both players dominating the professional CS2 (formerly CS:GO) scene for years. Both finished in the top two of the last two iterations of the HLTV top 20.
He has been runner-up to s1mple before, but after ZywOo’s win for 2023, he equals s1mple himself, who is the only other player to win three HLTV Player of the Year awards. This year, though, s1mple placed seventh majorly because he was out for half of the season after CS2’s release.
Meanwhile, ZywOo’s Team Vitality won Team of the Year with the undeniable contributions of the youngster to the team’s success. However, ZywOo insisted that he would not let the award get to him by becoming focused on personal glory but that he would seek to be consistent for the team’s sake.
“I must admit that it’s never been my objective like all these years; I’m looking above all to be as consistent as possible for my team and not to be a nuisance for them,” ZywOo said.
ZywOo has an impressive 2023, where he won five tournament MVP awards, the BLAST Fall Finals, and World Finals trophies. These key showings at the events helped his claim to become the awardee of 2023’s best player.
The 23-year-old still has a lot to offer, and he can use the award as a booster for 2024 as he hopes to succeed in some of the competitions he will take part in in the year, starting with qualifying for CS2’s first Major, the PGL Copengahen Major, via the European RMR starting Feb. 14.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
