ZywOo on his best year: "It was online? F*ck's sake. I'll beat it this year because f*ck online"

The Frenchman is motivated to outperform his previous best.

Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut took home the BLAST Open Lisbon trophy and third MVP medal of the year on Sunday, his 1.44 tournament rating continuing his best-ever start to a calendar year as he takes aim at a record-breaking fourth Player of the Year award.

He is on course to beat his best-ever year, 2020, when he dominated the coronavirus-induced online era with a 1.29 rating. Although he often shies away from focusing on individual MVPs and medals, the Frenchman told HLTV he believes he can make this year his best — particularly after learning his current best was 2020, not 2023.

"It was online? Fuck's sake!" he laughed. "I will beat it this year then because fuck online. But yeah, obviously if I keep grinding like this, if the team keeps playing like this, then obviously I can beat my record.

"I have no stress, the time is coming, and I know we're still going to win some tournaments if we just keep playing like this. Trophies will come, MVPs will come, and we're just going to enjoy."

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ZywOo moves on to 17 LAN MVPs at BLAST Open Lisbon

BLAST Lisbon marked Vitality's third straight title in a supreme run of dominance that kicked off at IEM Katowice, carried through to ESL Pro League Season 21, and culminated in a 3-2 victory over MOUZ in Portugal to cap a month away from home.

The Frenchman said he is eager for three weeks at home after being away for so long, touched on MOUZ's ability to bounce back from a 13-0 start to the final, and spoke about rebounding on Nuke and Train after the extended break in the complete interview, which you can read below or listen to on YouTube or Spotify.

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Congratulations ZywOo, another tournament, another trophy, another MVP. How does it feel?

It feels amazing. We played a friggin' long final today and I think we really fought for it. Like I said, I'm happy because we won three trophies in a row, we've been away from home for a month and we actually did what we need to do. So feeling happy with the job we did during this month and feeling happy with the team, with the way we played, because I think we played amazing throughout this month..

This was the closest final you've played this year so far, how would you describe it?

Yeah, like you said, I think it was the hardest we played. We lost Mirage and Dust2, we kinda almost came back on both but we didn't manage to go to overtime. But we kinda knew if we give five percent more, we're going to win the last two games because we know the potential we have in the team.

After the [extended] break we had after the third map, we kinda thought about it, we knew we had to play our game, and that's what we did on Nuke and Train. We played our A-game and they kinda had no chance because we played fucking good.

It would have been hard to imagine a better start than what you did on Inferno. 13-0, you were outaiming them, winning every duel, utility was perfect, it felt like it was the perfect start.

Yeah it was the perfect start, but also maybe the wrong one because after that we got maybe a bit more sleepy, let's say. Maybe taking it too easy because we just won the first map really easily. Obviously it's good to win the first map like this, but also I think it was the wrong start to win the next two.

Obviously happy because I think we played fucking good, like you said on Inferno we outplayed them. Every time we did something it was really great, really good teamplay. I think it'll be fun to watch this game because we played kinda fucking insane on this map.

It's not easy to come back from a 13-0 loss, but MOUZ managed to do it. Were you surprised that they managed to find the energy and motivation to come back so quickly in the following map?

Yeah, we imagined this scenario because after we were losing 13-0 in a best-of-five, like... they have some ego as well, so obviously we were prepared to face a strong MOUZ, but we weren't ready for that. I don't think we played our best after that, like I said I think we took it too easily, and a bit more frustration as well. After the break, we had a good talk and we knew we could win the next two.

What did apEX say after Dust2? It was your first loss on the map in three months, what did he say to try to lift up the team, to try to rally the troops for the following maps?

Like I said, obviously we had the talk, but he said like, 'Guys, we just need to play 5-10% more, we just need to give our best as well,' and he felt we were a bit sleepy between Mirage and Dust2. So we just need to bring everything, we knew it was going to be the last two games of the month, so give everything. That was the mindset before starting Nuke and Train, we have to give everything. It's the last two games we play for this weekend and for the month, so that's what we gave and that's what Dan told us to do.

We're now three months into the year and you've already got three medals. That's more than you got last year, that's half your personal best in a single year. Do you think this can be your best year in terms of performances and individual awards?

Yeah, if I keep going with the team and individually, I can do even better than 2023 — I guess that was the year I did the best?

It was 2020, the online year.

It was online? Fuck's sake. I will beat it this year then because fuck online. But yeah, obviously if I keep grinding like this, if the team keeps playing like this, then obviously I can beat my record. I have no stress, the time is coming, and I know we're still going to win some tournaments if we just keep playing like this. Trophies will come, MVPs will come, and we're just going to enjoy.

You now have three weeks until your next tournament, which will be IEM Melbourne. Are you happy to get a break after a month on the road?

Of course, yes, after winning two trophies and a month out, we're really happy to have this break off. We're going to enjoy, we're going to chill, I don't think we're going to travel again for the next week. Just chilling I think, we really need rest because we are really tired now.

Now, Melbourne, you can make it four in a row and also win the Grand Slam. Is that the goal now?

Of course, it's going to be the next step for us, the Grand Slam and Melbourne. We're going to prepare for that, everyone will be watching us as well because we're one of the best right now, so we're going to be prepared, try to work out new stuff or something, but we're going to figure out how we're going to manage to win Melbourne of course.