ZywOo: "We just followed the plan that XTQZZZ made for us"

We interviewed Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut after Vitality's triumph in the ECS Season 7 grand final to discuss the preparation for the series against FURIA and break down the match.

Vitality were crowned champions of the ECS Season 7 Finals after besting FURIA 2-0 in the grand final, with both Inferno and Overpass going their way in convincing fashion.

Following the team's victory, we spoke to ZywOo, who broke down the series, gave insight into the preparations made before the match and spoke on whether Vertigo would've been a comfortable third map for the team.

We spoke to apEX yesterday discussing the series against FURIA in Dallas, and he mentioned you would be better prepared for them this time around, and it showed. What did the team go over in time for the series?

Our coach watched a lot of demos before the game and he spoke with our analyst. Before the game, he spoke with everyone to show us what we needed to do, especially on Inferno and Overpass, because we knew we'd play those maps in a best-of-3. So yeah, our coach took us through everything.

The first pistol round of Inferno was quite upsetting for you, where you lost in a 4v1 situation to KSCERATO. What went wrong with the communication in that round?

We just played one-by-one - I don't know how this happened, it was a misplay by us. He played great in this round, he split us one by one.

In terms of the CT side of Inferno - it initially looked like you were going to run away with a significant lead after the first ten rounds, but FURIA clawed back towards the end to make it 7-8. Was there any specific round where you felt they broke the momentum and were able to come back as a result?

I didn't feel like we were broken this game, we just followed the plan that the coach made for us. Sometimes we lost clutches and we failed some kills.

In the aforementioned interview with apEX we discussed the team's struggles over the course of ECS against ecos - did you feel more confident going into the series this time around?

I think we only lost one eco in the match, so yeah, it's alright when we only lose one eco, compared to the match against Complexity, in which we had lost six. It makes it really hard to play when we keep getting broken. When we got the match in the end, we felt pretty confident.

The T side of Inferno was very convincing from the team, in that you were able to consistently read their defence. Could you describe some queues that allowed you to produce such a convincing half?

Yes, we knew everything. For example, if they naded mid, we knew they were going to have three on B, if they used a molly, they were going to do this other thing, so we just played off that.

Overpass kicked off to a strong CT start, where you were able to string together six rounds, they grabbed a couple, and afterward, you cruised to a 12-3 finish, closing 16-4 on the T side. In terms of the general performance from both teams, what did it come down to?

It was a mix of everything - they struggled, we landed good shots and clutches. Everything was great for us - all of the clutches and the entries.

In the event the series went to map three, how prepared were you to take them on Vertigo?

We are pretty confident on the map, and we know that they are a young team. Maybe they didn't prepare the map very well, so we just left the map in and wanted to play versus them.