Leading global esports organisation Team Vitality has announced that Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut has been named back-to-back winner of the prestigious HTLV Player of The Year award. At only 19-years-old ZywOo made history last year when he was announced as the youngest, and only French, player to be named HLTV Player of The Year, now retaining his crown for 2020 ZywOo is set to build upon his growing legacy in CS:GO. ZywOo joins an exclusive club of back-to-back winners with only two other players receiving the accolade and is the youngest to have done so.
The award follows Team Vitality’s recent announcement that it has signed a five-year contract extension with ZywOo as part of its commitment to nurturing and developing the best talent in esports. In celebration of the ground breaking announcement, Paris was illuminated with holograms of ZywOo across the city on monuments including the Pantheon and Montmartre.
In 2020, ZywOo and his teammates reached a staggering five tournament finals including back-to-back BLAST Premier championships and a win at Intel Extreme Masters Beijing, where they were the first-ever six-man roster to win a major tournament. Individually, ZywOo was also nominated for Best Esport Athlete at The Game Awards and PC Player of The Year at the prestigious Esports Awards. He was also awarded six MVP awards from HLTV throughout the year for his performances at BLAST Premier: Spring, cs_summit 6, ESL One: Cologne, DreamHack Open Fall, IEM Beijing and BLAST Premier: Fall.
“To receive this honour for the second year in a row feels like a dream, especially after such a challenging year adapting to playing online”, said Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.“Playing CS:GO is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and to have this recognition so early on in my career is honestly unbelievable. I’m so grateful to my teammates and Vitality for making me look so good, and I hope to continue making them proud in 2021.”
“To say a player like ZywOo comes along once in a generation is no longer true. There has never been a player like ZywOo. He’s an unbelievable natural talent, but also an incredible teammate and an absolute pleasure to work with” said Fabien “Neo” Devide, President & Co-Founder, Team Vitality. “We’re so proud that he competes under the Team Vitality banner, and we believe that with the performance infrastructure we have in place for 2021, we’re well-positioned to be celebrating this same accolade with Mathieu next year.”
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