ZywOo: "I love Cache too much"

The French superstar averaged a 2.03 rating on Cache en route to yet another MVP.

Vitality romped past MOUZ in the final of ESL Pro League Season 24 to win their second trophy in a row, recovering after a slow start to the Fall season and earning an important title before Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire steps away for PGL Masters Bucharest due to the birth of his child.

Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut 's dominance in the Spodek was enough to see him walk away with the 34th MVP medal of his career, and the French superstar was all smiles as he swung by HLTV's microphone after the match to discuss his performances, including his stellar showings on Cache.

"Even back in the days in 2017, it was maybe one of my favorite maps," ZywOo said. "So to play it again and to have this level, I'm really happy, to be honest, to have this. I always love this map, to be honest. It's such an amazing map. I know what to peek I know what to swing, I know how to help my teammates on this map."

ZywOo also spoke about apEX 's upcoming absence and how it affects conversations regarding Vitality 's era, saying the team remains focused on winning trophies no matter the situation.

"It doesn't matter if he's there or not," he said. "We're going to try to win the tournament. We're going to try to do our best because we need confidence; we need to build something around that, so we're going to keep trying to do our best for that."

Okay, ZywOo, congratulations on your MVP No. 34. How did it feel to get back to winning ways in an arena?

It feels great. Of course, after StarLadder winning in the studio, it was really... not rough, but we wanted to play good on stage, and I think we did it great this tournament. So of course, being back on stage, being back in EPL on stage as well feels great, so I'm really happy for that. I think the team played really good. I played good as well, so it's a great feeling for that.

And the Katowice curse is definitely broken now, right?

Yeah, yeah. We are not really thinking about it, but of course, after six years of quarter-finals, it feels good to win in the Spodek Arena and Krakow. So, yeah, the curse is definitely broken.

And tell me a bit about powering up for playoffs, because all four of you had like 1.30 ratings in the group stage, but you made it an easy race in the end.

I don't know what to say. Of course, when you have ropz and flameZ playing good, it makes everyone play good as well, also for me. And it's also like reverse: when I'm playing good, it also makes them play good.

So it's like a team thing: when everyone is in sync, whenever we are doing anything, when the communication is good, good individually, we know what everyone's going to do on the server, I think it makes everyone play good. I think that's why we have like three players above 1.25 or 1.30 rating. So I think everyone kind of deserves the MVP for these playoffs.

Tell me a bit about Cache as well. You have a 2.03 rating on Cache this tournament. It was only three maps, but after losing Overpass, it's really helped you have a great map pool again, specifically you being so good on Cache.

Yeah, I always like this map. Even back in the days in 2017, it was maybe one of my favorite maps. So to play it again and to have this level, I'm really happy, to be honest, to have this. I always love this map, to be honest. It's such an amazing map. I know what to peek, I know what to swing, I know how to help my teammates on this map. I'm the A player on Cache, it's kind of weird to say that, but no, I love this map too much.

And do you like the map pool the way it is at the moment? Do you like the balance of differences in maps?

We were a bit disappointed when Overpass was removed because it was also one of our best maps. But I think, yeah, it's pretty constant, I would say, in terms of map pool. Maybe I would say Anubis really can be better in terms of that, but I think the rest of the map pool is great, so it's good.

Okay. And just one question on apEX going away now for Bucharest. Does it really matter in terms of your era? Do you think you've done enough in these last two events with your full roster that that conversation shouldn't really be a thing?

It doesn't matter if he's there or not. For us, the win is a win, even though we're going to play with jL. Like Porto, even though jL was there, we were trying to win the tournament, so it's going to be the same with jL in Bucharest. We're going to try to win the tournament. We're going to try to do our best because we need confidence; we need to build something around that, so we're going to keep trying to do our best for that.

Also for William [mezii], he's going to try to maybe [be] the in-game leader, and also for us to have more responsibility when apEX is not there, we're going to try to talk more, try to make our IGL on point, so we're going to try to do that.