s1mple defends ZywOo after Vitality star flounders against Complexity

Andrew Amos
s1mple and ZywOo playing CSGO

Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has jumped to Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut’s defense, after the Vitality star posted his worst performance in history at BLAST Premier Spring 2021, dropping only 2-17 on Overpass in their 0-2 explosion against Complexity.

ZywOo rarely has an off-day on the server, but that’s exactly what 2020’s number one player had against Complexity. Vitality’s star AWPer posted his worst individual map in history, getting only two kills on Overpass and posting a 0.28 HLTV rating.

The Frenchmen ended up falling down 0-2 with the result, with Valentin ‘poizon’ Vasilev and the rest of Complexity running riot on the server.

ZywOo playing for Vitality at ESL One Cologne 2019
ZywOo posted his worst map in history against Complexity at BLAST Premier Spring 2021.

While many were quick to criticize the 20-year-old, his contemporary in s1mple jumped to his defense. The Na’Vi veteran has been there before, and he had some words of encouragement for his younger French protege.

“If you see dev1ce or ZywOo, you don’t get to trash talk them, because as you saw, I had the worst game of my career as well [against Vitality in 2019]. It’s not because I played bad, it’s because my team played bad,” he explained on a February 11 stream.

“If some of us great players play bad, it doesn’t mean we’re going to keep playing bad. You don’t need to hate us. The only bad thing can happen [when] some of these players [have a] bad map is losing confidence for the next map, but they’re actually great players. They always come back.”

He asked his fans to stop slamming ZywOo on social media. S1mple claimed at the end of the day, every pro player is there for a reason ⁠— and they all have their moments.

“I’m just telling everyone to stop hating, stop arguing who’s the better player. Who can argue who’s better, but you don’t need to f**king hate anyone. You don’t need to say they’re doing bad.

“Like me or ZywOo or dev1ce or Electronic or any other player, all of us can…show something new for you and each other, and that’s what we need to respect because all of us do a great job of showing some great performances.

“That’s the most important; when you play with [stability], with confidence, at a great level ⁠— that’s what I respect the most.”

ZywOo did manage to bounce back against Evil Geniuses, posting a game-high 1.26 rating in the series. His squad still fell 1-2 to the Americans though, bowing out BLAST Premier Spring 2021 in 10-12th.