ZywOo overtakes s1mple with 22nd career MVP at ESL Pro League S21

16-3-2025 20:26

Vitality's French phenom sets a new record with his second medal of the year.

Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut is now the player with the most career HLTV MVP awards after earning his 22nd medal at ESL Pro League Season 21, overtaking Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's previous career record of 21 and his Big Event record of 14.

It is the Frenchman's second medal of the year after he dominated at IEM Katowice and furthers his bid to earn a record-breaking fourth Player of the Year award.

All time MVP leaderboard

Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut: 22 MVPs (15 Big Events)
Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev: 21 MVPs (14)
Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz: 19 MVPs (11)
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund: 10 MVPs (2)
Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub: 10 MVPs (3)

ZywOo ended the event with a monstrous 1.43 rating, 90 ADR, and 1.14 KPRW over 15 maps, showing exceptional top-level consistency with 10 rated 1.44 or higher and only two maps in the red.

He had a stellar group stage (1.49 rating) and carried that through to playoffs (1.39) and grand final (1.28), with his candidacy for the award never truly in doubt despite Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan also being excellent in playoffs (1.33).

Time to change code for goat search, no more excuses hltv.

2025-03-16 20:26

387

36 replies

I think they will do it at end of the year after HLTV awards. That's when he will overtake s1mple in terms of top 20 as well.

2025-03-16 20:29

5 replies

Why are you giving them ideas? No we want it right now.

2025-03-16 20:31

122

4 replies

I would rather want it after completing grand slam, so that no S1mple fans can have audacity to cry in forums and will be solid proof

2025-03-16 20:33

done i.imgur.com/lUhajKV.png

2025-03-16 20:39

2 replies

why the f u lyin why u lyin

2025-03-16 20:55

1 reply

[Only premium HLTV members can see it]

2025-03-16 21:11

How can zywoo be the goat when monesy is better than him?

2025-03-16 20:50

29 replies

delusional, adjective : characterized by or holding false beliefs or judgements about external reality that are held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, typically as a symptom of a mental condition. "hospitalization for schizophrenia and delusional paranoia"

2025-03-16 21:00

15 replies

What ranking was zywoo last year? And what ranking was monesy? I rest my case

2025-03-16 21:27

14 replies

selective memory, noun: The tendency to remember only facts or events that are most convenient for oneself, while ignoring or forgetting others that contradict one's beliefs. 'His selective memory conveniently overlooked the full context of the discussion.

2025-03-16 21:48

13 replies

Conversations aren’t an opportunity for you to feel funny or validated, they’re an opportunity to listen to others. Try to listen to what others are saying and respond to what they give you rather than trying to impress. --Ghandi

2025-03-16 22:39

11 replies

he cooked you ngl

2025-03-16 23:44

9 replies

did you really make an alt just to back yourself up in internet arguments? its literally in your history of you saying " he owned you fr fr" and "he cooked you ngl" damn thats uber cringe

2025-03-17 00:00

8 replies

2025-03-17 01:23

2025-03-17 01:28

2025-03-17 01:41

2025-03-17 07:51

doubt that since they both linked face it profile with different ages lol

2025-03-17 11:08

2025-03-17 12:59

take the L bum

2025-03-18 09:36

2025-03-21 00:35

Ghandi was a PDF file, nobody worth more than their weight in poo cares about him.

2025-03-17 04:30

you cooked him so hard, is crazy

2025-03-17 09:42

It would be good if you warned him about it, so he could start showing it a bit. Because for the moment in 2025 he seems to be having a bit of trouble against the best teams.

2025-03-16 21:01

6/8

maybe cuz monesy doesnt have a major?

2025-03-17 04:56

Niko doesn't have a major and everyone thinks he is one of the greatest players of all time Monesy has only been on scene for 3 years He still a baby The baby goat The future of cs Also zywoo has a mickey mouse major

2025-03-17 08:02

how was that a micky mouse major when all the top tier team lost to the lower-rated teams? Maybe those 1.5-2 tiered teams weren't the best, but at least they proved that they were better than navi, faze, g2 or heroic at that event. Blame your average top teams before criticizing someone's achievement

2025-03-17 11:30

It was a scripted major for zywoo to win his first major. They wanted the perfect storyline Zywoo the chosen one born on cs release. Rival with s1mple but never won a major Csgo last major at his home country Will he win Yes he can Too bad its against itb apeks and gamer legion Could have been epic storyline instead it was mickey mouse major

2025-03-17 12:29

"Scripted" but noone talks about it other than online HLTV users? Hopefully Macron paid those orgs and pros well enough to keep their mouths shut. Keep dreaming with your conspiracy theory, but here's a friendly reminder: the only one can be compared to zywoo is s1mple but he's is washed; monesy has never been in the debate, at least till he leave g2

2025-03-17 20:24

"One of" being the key phrase at play here. You can't be THE best if you haven't won the most important tournament. Give it a bit longer so his trophy case can fill up, then we can have this conversation.

2025-03-17 13:22

imgur.com/a/hIu7udB o7 your goat

2025-03-17 17:27

now show the arena ratings. because thats where monesy shines

2025-03-18 03:29

1.03rt facing top5 teams, what a goat

2025-03-18 03:20

monesy big game player blud. 13 - 0 in duels against s1mple never forget

Calling someone with 1.03 rating facing top 5 a big game player? You're delusional indeed

2025-03-18 12:52

donk

GOAT

deserved

THE NEW GOAT

s1mple WASHED??

3 replies

nt ragebait

2025-03-16 20:27

thank you I used all my 4 brain cells to think of it

correct

2025-03-16 20:37

how will this affect the trout population?

GOATWOO

NEW GOAT A boring one who doesn't care that he's new goat now cuz he is trying too hard to be humble.

i was here))

GOAT 🐐

2025-03-16 20:28

goat

debate finally over he's the GREATEST OF ALL TIME

I wonder what s1mples excuse will be this time 🤔

THE REAL GOAT OF COUNTER STRIKE !!!!!!!

Congratulations Zywoo

2025-03-16 20:30

Deserved

EPL and online and now abusing superteam against plumbers in mouz and mongolz not impressive.

Worst bait ever, s0mple has just one less online MVP

2025-03-16 20:44

zywoo has 15 big event lan mvps, s1mple has 14, nt

2025-03-17 05:00

ZywOo dA GOAT

humble goat we love

2025-03-16 20:32

what about EVPs ??

locked in: ropz, flamez, torzsi, donk, m0nesy maybe: sh1ro, senzu maaaaaaybe: messi, apex, xertion

2025-03-17 05:01

apex for igl for sure imo, this tournament he outcalled a ton

2025-03-17 11:10

he aint getting an evp what do you mean

2025-03-17 20:32

wasnt there usually an igl evp? or at least nomination in team of the event? he 100% deserves it if it is like i said

2025-03-17 20:49

best 5 also comes out with evps. that's 100% what you're thinking of

2025-03-18 18:35

What a absolute GOAT

S1mple had to stop playing for 3 years while Zywoo kept getting superstar rosters, it was inevitable for a small scene.

s1mple has to play for 5 more years before zywoo joined t1 scene to get this much. zywoo did in just 6 years. s1mple took 8 years

2025-03-16 20:35

s1mple's career start: 2014 ZywOo's career start: 2016 LOL

zywoo's first big event 2019. s1mple's first big event 2014 also if we count zywoo's 2016, the we should count 2012 of s1mple lol. no matter what, zywoo ovrtaken s1mple's big event mvps which playing just 4.75 years of big events lan.s s1mple won 14 big event mvps in 7.5 years of big event player career

2025-03-16 20:52

In fact, if you count maps played for t1 teams Liquid / NaVi and Vitality - both will have close numbers like 1316 for 1180 which is ~1 year difference in t1 scene.

2025-03-16 21:06

hltv.org/stats/players?matchType=BigEven.. s1mple has 1.19 times more big event maps than zywoo

2025-03-17 05:03

You talk like if he was still at the level lmao

2025-03-16 20:42

ZywOo in 2019-2021 didn't nearly have a superstar roster, s1mple at least had electronic, who was placing from 4th to 7th on the Top-20 those years

2025-03-16 20:45

since when s1mple was already playing? tell me lil bro

2025-03-16 20:46

#38 and Navi 2021 was literally a death team

2025-03-16 20:47

that's weird, i saw someone name s1mple lose online qualifier to qualify for shanghai major, must have been someone else

2025-03-16 20:53

Why can't users be happy for somebody without trying to be a diva for once? Be a better person, friend.

2025-03-16 21:52

The chosen one 👑

goat.

2025-03-16 20:34

Change the goat in search. It's outdated

W for zywoo L s0mple , they also specified that its 15 big events for zywoo compared to 14 for s1mple , so he wont make any excuses about rmr mvps

if people did that it would be fair to also say that cologne and kato s1mple won were studio like (pandemic) and not like cologne 24 and kato 25

2025-03-16 21:13

in the sense there were still limitations for crowd, the event was still IN THE CATHEDRAL

2025-03-17 11:11

Humble GOAT aswell which makes him even more GOAT than s1mple ^^,

2025-03-16 20:36

S1mple gonna be frothing at the mouth after reading this lol

Debuted at 2019 btw

is thorin crying already?

2025-03-16 20:38

Yes, on Twitter

2025-03-17 09:24

my goat

Hltv we wait

2025-03-16 20:40

GOATWOOO

2025-03-16 20:41

title "goat" belongs either to him or to olofmeister

2025-03-16 20:43

GG GOAT

Classic ZywOo MPV, farming group stage and disappearing in finals. +9 in a 3-0 LOL

Ur name - r

2025-03-16 21:16

one bad map and two great performance cope more

2025-03-16 21:29

? Im defending zywoo

I was commenting the original message I mess up

He didn't disappear in the finals?

2025-03-16 21:50

7 replies

"goat" gets +9 while their anchor mezii gets +16 and ropz lurk +10 both got A LOT more impact than zywoo. Zywoo mostly farmed some eco kills

2025-03-16 22:16

6 replies

So a "+9" means he ghosted the finals despite topping the maps of Nuke and Inferno with the most kills and the highest rating? Yeah, that's not what "ghosts" means, regardless of your skewed context, friend. Mezii deserved to be the MVP of the grand-final because he definitely had the most impact in maps 1 and 2, Ropz has been consistent all tournament long, alongside ZywOo. "Zywoo mostly farmed some eco kills" And Ropz didn't? Only ZywOo is guilty of misrepresentation? Bait never ceases to amaze me.

2025-03-16 22:21

Mental gymnastics to defend a baiter yikes

2025-03-17 00:51

I can't defend what ZywOo is not guilty of, friend. It helps if you actually watch the games before commenting about them.

2025-03-17 11:22

my friend jonty, do you think these guys would write hltv comments and threads if they actually watched games?

2025-03-19 10:05

Fair point. You never know sometimes, though. ^^

2025-03-19 12:05

If +9 and many critical clutches are ghosting in final, then how do you call this? hltv.org/stats/matches/37062/sk-vs-liqui..

2025-03-17 01:02

respect the goat, kid.

2025-03-17 01:52

Wasn't ropz robbed here ?

Nah, but pretty sure ropz is the 2nd best player of the tournament

2025-03-16 21:03

1.43 rating > 1.29 rating.

2025-03-16 21:51

Zywoo > Whonk

Congratz! Deserved!

2025-03-16 20:48

s0mple fangirls in shambles

welcome

2025-03-16 20:49

2025-03-16 20:51

rip los angeles

2025-03-16 20:54

GOAT of csgo was s1mple, goat of cs1.6 was neo, goat of cs2 is going to be zywoo

2025-03-16 20:57

it was never even close lmao, ZywOo>>>s1mple and you're delusional if you dont think so, just one more major and/or Kato and that ukrainian fraud will never be in the conversation again

2025-03-16 20:59

goat wp

Honestly its crazy that GTR and Kenny are still in the top 5 considering how long ago they retired I mean s1mple is no where to be seen, dev1ce may never win anything ever again, what's stopping zywoo from...idk... taking it to 30-35? He still has a super long career ahead

I think that's sort of the whole concept ZywOo is going for here. If you're now in the lead and in charge of creating legacies for the next one to best you? It's now ZywOo's prerogative to make that as hard as possible for the next person. :)

2025-03-16 21:49

Goat status already at 24yo?!

EsL Pr0 LeAgu3 big event xd

2025-03-16 21:04

Cry louder

2025-03-16 21:18

bigger event than 2021 cologne studio lan lol

2025-03-17 04:33

Undisputed GOAT by the end of 2025 with no arguments that can be made. Surely will lift grand slam + another couple MVP

2025-03-16 21:09

i was here, the goat of cs

I was here...

godwoo

2025-03-16 21:19

wondering how many MVPs f0rest, Get_right etc would have if they counted MVPs in 1.6.. imo makes kinda no sense to combine CSGO and CS2 mvps its almost completely different game.

2025-03-16 21:23

I think cs2 is almost identical to cs:go, not almost completely different.

2025-03-16 21:42

what XDD its literally almost the same game

2025-03-16 21:43

new engine, subtick, mr12 and so on. saying its "almost the same game" is like saying source and csgo is " almost the same".

yeah thats why almost nothing changed on the scene

... not sure if dumb or dumb.

2025-03-16 22:42

i'd say the same

2025-03-16 22:51

go play csgo for few hours then come back and tell me how its the same game same meta same everything nothings changed ty.

2025-03-16 22:55

it's the same teams with the same players at the top nothing changed

2025-03-16 22:29

It's literally the same game with an engine and graphics overhaul. 1.6 > GO were completely different games, CS2 and CS:GO are not.

so how many mvps would gtr and f0rest have?

2025-03-17 08:25

In 1.6? f0rest would've easily had 15+ across his career, same for GTR.

2025-03-17 11:28

i think there is the page on liquipedia, i think the biggest contender overall is actually neo, he had an enormous amount of mvps iirc

2025-03-19 14:17

as long as steam still adds up the play time of CSGO and CS2, they are the same game

2025-03-16 22:58

S2mple overtakes ZywOo in joint smoked

2025-03-16 21:32

s1mple will return only if device overtakes him

2025-03-16 21:37

Congratulations to ZywOo! :) Truly an awesome occasion in history. :D

2025-03-16 21:47

Gratz😇

2025-03-16 22:11

S0mple

2025-03-16 22:13

2025-03-16 22:28

s1mple is d3ad

2025-03-16 22:47

Congrats ZywOo. Goat

2025-03-16 23:24

s1mple finna cry

2025-03-17 00:25

GOATwOo

2025-03-17 00:38

young lad just gettin started innit

2025-03-17 00:44

Just realised looking at the MVP page that Niko has 8 big event MVP out of his 9 total

2025-03-17 01:14

I was here

2025-03-17 02:31

This is history guys... Proud to be here

2025-03-17 02:32

It is done. Now there will many years again before the goat title can be contended

2025-03-17 04:06

A legend, the most consistent player in Counter-Strike history. He was undeservedly placed in the top3 of 2024 when he was playing at the top2.

2025-03-17 04:50

Best to ever do it, congrats ZywOo! S1mple decided to quit after finding some adversities in a "new game". He will remain the csgo goat but it's pretty clear that there is no stopping zywoo now, the goat of the franchise

2025-03-17 07:19

2025-03-17 08:06

Comparison: MVPs: ZyWoo 22 - S1mple 21 Total Trophies (displayed on profile counted): ZyWoo 15 - S1mple 17 Nr. 1 placements on HLTV: Both have 3 Nr. 2 placements on HLTV: Both have 2 Nr. 3 placements on HLTV: ZyWoo has one, S1mple's other placements were Nr. 4 (2016), Nr. 8 (2017) and Nr. 7 (2023, early "retirement") Majors: 1-1 Katowices: 1-1 Colognes: 2-1 S1mple Grand Slam: S1mple yes, ZyWoo not yet (can complete in Melbourne) EPL: 2-1 ZyWoo Other IEM Events: 3-1 ZyWoo Other S Tiers (BLAST, DH, StarLadder etc.): 9-7 S1mple + 1 Covid-RMR for S1mple Additional Accolades: ZyWoo: AWPer of the Year 2023 Highlight of the Year 2023 Player of the Year 2023 3 Time FPL (9 through 11) S1mple: Player of the Year 2021 Player of the Year 2022 AWPer of the Year 2022 Time to achieve said accomplishments: ZyWoo - 8 Years, 7 Months (of which Tier 1 peak can be considered for 6.5 years that were spent on Vitality) S1mple - 11 Years (of which Tier 1 peak can be considered from Jan 2016 upon joining Liquid until October 2023 when he took his break on NaVi, 7 years and 10 months) To gap S1mple, ZyWoo simply needs: 2 trophies, 1 of which is a Cologne, a Kato or a Major, additionally one of these trophies needs to be any ESL event to complete the Grand Slam. ZyWoo will dethrone S1mple by the end of the year barring disaster.

2025-03-17 08:31

s1mple is still the best CS:GO player in history, the CS:GO GOAT. ZywOo is the strongest contender for the best CS2 player in history. Will he become the GOAT? Let's see what Donk say about that.

2025-03-17 13:42