# ZywOo

Mathieu Herbaut (born 9 November 2000), better known as ZywOo, is a French professional Counter-Strike player for Team Vitality. He is considered one of the best players in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive history, having been ranked the No. 1 player in the world by HLTV in 2019, 2020 and 2023. He is the second-youngest ever HLTV Player of the Year at 19 years old, and only the third player after coldzera and donk to be named the HLTV Player of the Year in their first full year as a professional player. He is also sometimes nicknamed "The Chosen One" due to being born on the day of the original Counter-Strike game's commercial release.

## Early life

He started playing at age seven with his brother, but was only allowed to play for less than an hour per day by his mother. After becoming a teenager, he still never "played in the middle of the night" or "did 4-5 hour sessions", his family always keeping an eye on what he was doing. His mother also encouraged him to get into video games, and from time to time even played with him. But before allowing him to participate in esports, she demanded that he first finish his secondary education and acquire his baccalauréat, which he did.

## Career
### 2018

After completing his baccalauréat, Mathieu was able to take up esports professionally, joining Team Vitality in October. The results came quickly, as they won DreamHack Open Atlanta 2018 in November. The next month, he and his team qualified for the minor qualifier for the next Major, Katowice Major 2019. In the Minors, Vitality landed in second place, securing a spot for the Major in Katowice.

### 2019

The results of ZywOo and his team were not that brilliant in the Majors: as they ended up finishing in 9-11th in Katowice Major 2019 and then a 5-8th place in StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. They still went on to win in two top-tier tournaments of the season, ECS Season 7 Finals and EPICENTER 2019, and finished second twice at ESL One Cologne 2019 and DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019.
Mathieu's individual stats were impressive for that year: he finished MVP 5 times and had a 1.30 overall rating in LAN events. In January 2020, Mathieu Herbaut was chosen as the World's Best Player of the Year 2019 by HLTV.org, thus becoming the first French and the youngest player to receive this award since its inception in 2010, and matching Marcelo 'coldzera' David's feat of receiving it in his first full year as a professional player.

### 2020

During 2020, many tournaments either transitioned to an online format or did not take place, due to COVID-19. Mathieu became the #1 player on HLTV.org's ranking for the second time in a row, with Natus Vincere's Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev, and Nicolai 'device' Reedtz from Astralis behind him.

### 2021

After qualifying for the PGL Major Stockholm 2021, Team Vitality would lose against Natus Vincere during the quarter finals, and place 5th in the major. He was ranked the 2nd best player of 2021 by HLTV, with s1mple claiming the #1 spot.

### 2022

Team Vitality dropped out of the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 on day 5, losing against Heroic. He was ranked the 2nd best player of 2022 by HLTV, with s1mple claiming the #1 spot.

### 2023

He received the MVP in Blast Paris Major 2023, the tournament that Team Vitality won against GamerLegion, beating them 2–0 in the final. ZywOo was awarded his sixteenth MVP award following Vitality's victory over ENCE in the grand finals of Gamers8 2023.

### 2024

Team vitality dropped out of PGL cs2 major copenhagen 2024 in the semi final to Faze clan, who went on to lose the final to Natus Vincere
for the second major of 2024; perfect world shanghai major 2024, Vitality went out in quarter finals, once again to Faze clan, who once again, went on to lose in the final, this time however to Team Spirit
Zywoo was ranked the 3rd best player of 2024, only behind m0NESY(#2), and donk(#1)

### 2025

Zywoo won his 21st HLTV MVP award in the IEM Katowice 2025, thereby tying the HLTV MVP record of player S1mple
Zywoo won his 22nd HLTV MVP award in ESL Pro league season 21, now breaking the record for most HLTV MVPs in the world, previously held by S1mple

## Awards and recognition

* #1 player of 2019 by HLTV.
* #1 player of 2020 by HLTV.
* #2 player of 2021 by HLTV.
* #2 player of 2022 by HLTV.
* #1 player of 2023 by HLTV.
* #3 player of 2024 by HLTV.
* 22 HLTV MVP medals.