Thorin on the criticism of Team Vitality’s CS2 performance: “There’s no way to defend their failure at the last Major.”
Analysts Duncan “Thorin” Shields, Jacob “Pimp” Winneke, and Alex “Mauisnake” Ellenberg discussed Team Vitality’s journey toward their trophies over the past few years in the latest episode of the Hot Take Point Made podcast and assessed the extent of Mathieu “ZywOo” Erbo’s influence on the roster’s results.
On the level of competition Team Vitality faced on its path to titles
Pimp: The argument that Team Vitality’s successes are less than impressive is worth discussing, but it’s hard to agree with it. The author of this opinion excludes Team Spirit from the list of elite rivals from the time of their victory at the LAN tournament in Cologne, even though everyone considered that team a future dominant force on the scene back then. The same applies to The MongolZ. After the championship in Austin, this team won another major event and climbed to second place in the world rankings. If teams like these aren’t considered part of the world’s elite, then who exactly does qualify for that status? <...>
Of course, one could argue that ZywOo has had an easier bracket at Majors than, say, the Falcons did at the recent Cologne Championship, where they had to defeat all of the strongest opponents to claim the title. But, first of all, a team can only defeat the opponents sitting across from it, and it’s silly to blame the Frenchman for the lack of higher-profile matchups in the bracket. Second, this argument cannot be used in a discussion about the greatest players, since a sniper has absolutely no way of influencing the strength of other teams’ rosters during his own era. <...>
Ultimately, focusing exclusively on Majors is an oversimplification. One need only recall how Team Vitality secured its Intel Grand Slam. On the way to that achievement, they regularly defeated MOUZ in the finals—a team that was widely regarded as an elite club at the time and ranked second in the world. They also defeated FURIA and Falcons during that “golden run.” It’s physically impossible to win a Grand Slam without defeating direct competitors. Studies like this are interesting, but they in no way tarnish ZywOo’s legacy or prevent him from being considered among the best in history. <...>
On Team Vitality’s journey at the Major in Austin
Mauisnake: Criticism directed at ZywOo is often based on a superficial desire to see the most sensational and spectacular run, rather than on objective analysis. Attempts to downplay the Frenchman’s achievements seem far-fetched. If you look at the bracket for the Austin Major, Team Vitality had to face the strongest opponents. The French organization defeated the world’s No. 2 team, MOUZ; the No. 5 team in the rankings, The MongolZ; and NAVI, which was recognized as the best team of 2024. <...>
It would have been simply impossible to come up with a tougher bracket. Perhaps Spirit could have been there instead of NAVI, but even without that, the team still had to overcome three of the five most dangerous competitors in the championship. Such nitpicking seems like an overly biased attempt to diminish the sniper’s achievements at Vitality. After all, when evaluating the greatest players, overall consistency and years of dominance matter more than one-off anomalies. For example, gla1ve’s greatness was built on the fact that his legendary “machine” destroyed everyone in its path for many months, not just because of a single major championship.
On the failure at the IEM Cologne Major 2026 and comparing ZywOo to s1mple and donk
Thorin: There’s no question about the triumph in Austin, and in Budapest, the main rivals didn’t even make it to a head-to-head matchup. But the failure at the last Major is impossible to defend. The French organization arrived as the era’s top favorite, boasting one of the strongest rosters in history, but somehow managed to lose to the Falcons. At the same time, karrigan racked up an unacceptably high number of kills for that series given his current form, and Team Vitality itself put on a terrible performance. This is where the main difference between ZywOo and s1mple or donk lies. In his prime, s1mple collected victories over the world’s strongest teams like rare trading cards, defeating legendary rosters at the peak of their power. Scrutinizing ZywOo’s match history under a microscope is standard practice when it comes to identifying the details that separate a simply brilliant player from an absolute legend in the history of Counter-Strike.
In the previous episode of the Pimp podcast, Thorin, and Mauisnake discussed possible career paths for Team Falcons rifler Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and compared the esports player’s achievements with those of Team Spirit’s Danil “donk” Kryshkovets.
Photo by João Ferreira, BLAST.
