Recently, Vitality, which increasingly promotes Zywoo, released a special t-shirt for their star player: with the inscription "The best player to ever touch the game" and the main achievements of the Frenchman. In the photo with the unique merch, he stands with a trademark smile and still doesn't suspect that there are several errors on the shirt.
First place according to HLTV Zywoo took not in 2023, but in 2019. The same goes for ECS S7 and Epicenter.
But the main thing here is not even the quality of execution of the idea, but its content — is Zywoo really "the best player to ever touch the game"? Thorin constantly doubts this:
"Zywoo is the most overrated contender for the title of the greatest player in Counter-Strike history. He is indeed a great player, worthy of the Hall of Fame, but he plays inconsistently at majors and top tournaments.
He did not make it to the playoffs in all the other majors except for two, and he farmed tier-2 teams on one of them. If he grows into a beast in matches under top-level LAN pressure, he can farm majors for years to come. He is still young and continues to grow."
Thorin has long been and constantly picking on Zywoo for various reasons. Last summer, Duncan scoffed: "Zywoo is the best player in the history of CS:GO? He's not even the best player who has ever played on a team with Apex or Dupreeh." The Brit hinted at Kennys and Device.
Thorin recalled Zywoo's victory at the major: "If Niko played with Into the Breach, Apeks, and GamerLegion in the playoffs of the majors, he would have taken the trophy too. It's not hard to guess that Zywoo's fans don't care about true greatness, given how brazenly they boast. Just a reminder that Zywoo played in six majors and never beat a team ranked higher than 18th in the HLTV rating at the time. That's the greatest player of all time!"
At the beginning of 2022, Thorin compared Zywoo and Simple: "Zywoo's level makes people talk about him as if he's almost a perfect player who can do everything in the world. Look at how he feels at big tournaments. You'll see that he's still far from what Simple has become."
In the "Simple or Zywoo" debate, Thorin has always had a clear opinion: "Zywoo can hit a target that others won't hit. But Simple can hit a target that others didn't even know existed. Let's see what happens in a couple of years when Zywoo gains experience and this battle becomes truly fair."
Thorin also believes that in 2020, Simple was robbed when Zywoo was awarded the Best Player prize. When the Frenchman was recognized as the best player in 2023, the Brit congratulated Vitality's sniper on his second career award (although he already has three) with the words: to catch up with Simple, you need to win the same amount again.
Thorin's attacks are not without reason
If we briefly summarize Thorin's claims to Zywoo, it turns out as follows: the Frenchman is a top player, but not worthy of comparisons with Simple due to weak performances at top tournaments.
About top tournaments — it's true. In seven majors, Zywoo failed to advance from the group stage three times, reached the semifinals once, and won once. Just think about it — Zywoo, one of the greatest fraggers in the world, an outstanding player by the age of 23, made it to "Spodek" and realized its greatness only once out of five times. Things are better in Cologne — two playoff appearances: semifinal and final.
Zywoo has 11 significant trophies. But there aren't that many truly memorable ones: of course, the victory at the major stands out, as well as the championships at EPL S16 and BLAST Premier World Final 2023 — after all, they are big tournaments; well, and the first place at Epicenter 2019 — this championship largely determined the winner in the race for the top-1. The other tournaments are either too small or not as significant as Cologne and Katowice (IEM Rio), or online.
Simple has slightly more trophies (17), but there is a basic set of a great fragger: a major, Cologne (twice), and Katowice. Plus, the Intel Grand Slam.
"Donk dominated at the tournament his team won, against top opponents. So he's already achieved what Zywoo hasn't yet", Thorin pointed out after Spirit's victory in Katowice.
Who will be the best in 2024? In the race, there are three candidates, and Zywoo is not the leader.
"Right now, Zywoo might not even be the top-2 player in the world, but his fans already consider this year to be Zywoo's year, just because Simple isn't playing", Thorin mocked.
And what about the race for the top 1 this year? Something unique is happening there: for the first time in many years, three players are more or less equally claiming the first place: Donk, M0nesy, and Zywoo. It's hard to call the Frenchman a favorite right now — according to the rating, both he and M0nesy surpass Donk (1.52 versus 1.35). Trophy-wise too — Spirit won Katowice, Vitality, and G2 didn't win anything. And we're used to the fact that the top-1 player is usually from the team that if not dominates, then often wins. In general, it will be insanely interesting, and the intrigue can live until the winners are announced.