ZywOo downplays rivalry with s1mple: "I just play my game, I don't care about others"

The French star spoke about his team, Major preparation, and Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev in a rare interview with HLTV.org.

Ahead of Vitality embarking on their trip to Sweden for the PGL Stockholm Major, we managed to catch up with Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut to hear what he and his team are thinking before the biggest tournament of the year.

The interview was conducted in French and reveals that Vitality passed on the opportunity to conduct a bootcamp before the event, but that the team nonetheless believes they can beat any team if they have "good communication and a good atmosphere on the server".

ZywOo, the best player of 2019 and 2020 who has 11 MVP medals to his name, also spoke about s1mple. The Frenchmen praised the form the Ukrainian has been in this year, but claims he isn't too interested in the comparisons. "I'm just going to work on getting better and see what happens," he says.

What's Vitality's shape going into the Major and do you think you're among the favorites to go all the way?

I do think our team is at the top. If we play our best and we're focused on the task at hand with good communication and a good atmosphere on the server we can beat any team in the world, although these days it's very close and all teams can beat each other.

NAVI is pretty much the only team this year that has been above the rest, but everyone else is fighting right behind them, as are we. NIP, NAVI, Heroic, Gambit, we're fighting with all of them and we just have to focus on our game and not get in our own heads. If we do that we have the same or even a higher level than the others.

Have you prepared for the Major itself in any particular way? An intensive bootcamp or something like that?

No, no intensive bootcamp or anything like that. Time didn't really allow for it with IEM Fall, which was just two weeks before the Major. We wanted to stay home a bit before the Major because we're going to start racking up tournaments now and so it was the perfect time to see our families.

That doesn't mean we haven't been working, we spent a lot of time on strategy, our weak points, things to get better at for the Major, and that's stuff we will bring with us to the event.

So it was important to manage your energy levels.

Yeah, exactly, it's about managing our energy. There's always more pressure at the Major than at any other tournament, you're playing best-of-ones, best-of-threes, it's a bit all over the place, so to regroup and have high energy is very important going into this type of tournament.

You have two of your guys going into the Major for the first time and they haven't played a huge amount of big LANs, so how is it going for them ahead of a tournament like this?

misutaaa came in at such a bad time, right when the coronavirus pandemic started, right when traveling stopped and everything moved online, so he never got the feeling for the real LAN tournaments and the traveling. It's the same with Kyojin, except he came in right in the middle of the pandemic. The only events we traveled to with them are IEM Cologne and IEM Fall, so this is going to be their third big tournament.

Do you think they're going to have a bit of nerves at a Major for the first time?

They're calm guys, but there's going to be pressure. It doesn't even matter if you're a rookie or not, there's always pressure at the Major because it's the tournament that everyone wants to peak at, so undoubtedly some pressure comes along with that.

It's incredibly majestic to even participate at this type of tournament because it's so hard and rare to get to this level. So there will be some pressure, but it can be pressure understood in a positive way, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. It can be the craziness of it all, the excitement.

Will kicking off in the Legends Stage be a blessing or a curse? Some teams will come from a couple of days warming up in the Challengers Stage and could come in hot.

It's good in the sense that we had a few more days to rest than some of the other teams. It's a double-edged sword, on one hand some teams will come in warmed up and prepared having played a couple of matches, they'll know what the atmosphere is like.

On the other hand what's good about starting in the Legends stage is that we'll be watching them, what they're doing, how they're going to play, if they've changed things on certain maps or not. So we'll have the advantage of just observing other teams.

Vitality is the flag bearer for French Counter-Strike at the Major, so how have the fans and community been responding to the team?

We're very happy to have all of the French fans supporting Vitality, but we're not letting it carry us away, right now we're focusing on the team and playing our game. We're trying not to get distracted because if you start to get out of the tournament things can get tough. But we're very happy that we have a really strong fan base that always follow us at the tournaments we play and now at the Major.

Do you feel any extra pressure individually going into the first Major in two years? A lot has changed in your career since the last time you played one.

I wouldn't say it's that much pressure, but when we're there in Sweden I'm sure I'll start to feel the different emotions that come with being at a Major. I feel relaxed now and I know I'll give everything for the team, I don't really have any bad thoughts about not passing to the next stage or whatever. I'm really thinking about the pleasure of playing with my team, trying to win as much as possible, and trying to not think about defeat.

How about s1mple, is there a bit of rivalry there now that he's having an absolutely stunning year so far?

No, not really. I don't personally feel any rivalry. I just play my game, I don't care about others. Everyone is strong these days, every player is a rival, every team is a rival, any team can beat anyone, so it's not like I have a rivalry with a single player or anything like that.

s1mple has been having an amazing year, he's been playing above me this year, that's certain. But even then, it's not a rivalry for me, if he's stronger than me then he's stronger than me, I'm not going to make a fuss about it or go crazy. I'm just going to work on getting better and see what happens.

How is the excitement for this Major in particular, with the possibility of reaching the Champions Stage in an arena?

Yeah, there's definitely hype for the first Major we attend in two years! The thing is when we get there, we're going to meet all of the other players, every team will be doing their thing trying to focus as best they can for the tournament. That's what gets you in the mood and the excitement starts to build because then it's do or die at that moment.

The team is also just excited to be back in Sweden, to see each other again. It'll be at the same hotel as IEM Fall, too, so we may even get the same rooms, who knows!

Any players or teams that you've been watching?

Not really anyone in particular because as I said, every single team at the Major can beat you. Every team is good to watch, if they're at the Major it means they're strong as a team, and maybe even individually as well.

You're a top 3 team so obviously winning the event is in your sights and your goal, but are there other things you'd like to take away from the Major other than the final result?

Our second goal would be to just play our hearts out and take full advantage of the experience even if we're in some tough moments or run into any issues during the tournament. To participate with a smile and enjoy ourselves even if we hit some bumps on the road or whatever may happen. To be able to say we fought our hearts out even in tough situations.

Do you work on having this atmosphere in the team actively?

We've always had this, but it's hard to maintain this pleasure sometimes because we're playing all of the time. I'm not sure how to express it, because we do have the pleasure of playing all of the time, but it's not always easy to have a smile on your face and a positive answer for everything. Everyone has their character and their weaknesses. Some days you'll feel better, others worse, there are ups and downs. So yeah, we do work on this to try and show our best as most we can.

shox is one of five "legacy" players to have been at all Majors, do you have any thoughts about it?

It's not something we've really talked about, but knowing him I'm sure there'll be a bit of pressure to keep the streak going, but it's a good pressure. It's shox, we're not talking about just anyone here, he's a legend of the game that I followed all the way back in CS:Source when I was a kid.

These days he knows how to manage these pressures, he has his routines and he'll know how to rally for the Major, so I don't think he'll have any bad pressure. We haven't had the conversation of "shox how are you feeling about this?" it's just the feeling I have, that he's ready for everything.