ZywOo: "Astralis still have the best era in every way"
Although they haven't yet won a trophy after the player break, Vitality find themselves in a fourth consecutive semi-final after an impressive group stage at BLAST Open London.
A run that they did without ZywOo calling upon all of his powers, they now look ahead to the OVO Arena Wembley, where the team will be keen to officially crown mezii as the King of UK CS.
With the team waiting to see who they will play as MOUZ and M80 meet in a quarter-final today, we sat down with ZywOo to talk about eras, GOAT status, and Vitality's dip in form.
"Why would we change or do something else?"
You're back in London, where your career kind of started with your appearance at the FACEIT Major, how does it feel to be back?
It's a pleasure to be back in London, has been since the Major and my "I don't know, no no no" so it's great to be able to play inside Wembley again.
You're very humble, back then did you expect that seven years later you would return with all these MVPs, trophies, and your career going the way it has?
Not at all, I never thought I would be this kind of player or that my career would start in that moment.
First of all, I was just thinking "What the fuck am I doing on this stage in London?" after the whole "I don't know, no no no" I was a bit more scared to go on stage after that, but no, I never really thought about it.
I just thought about playing the game to enjoy it, not to make it my life or be a pro, I'd never thought about it too much.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenLet's fast forward to this year, the first half of the year was incredible and it's been suggested that the undefeated streak makes it the greatest era of all time, what's your take on that?
I think their era is different because they were in it longer, they won three Majors and we've only won one. I think if you want a really good era, then you have to win some events after the first half, we need to win one or two Majors more.
In terms of six months, obviously, we did one of the best of all time, but in terms of long term era, Astralis still have the best in every way.
In terms of your era, people are starting to say it's over but does it feel to you like it's over? You could win this event and suddenly the other events after the player break won't matter, so what's the marker for when an era ends?
Obviously, when people say that they're just talking about three tournaments, so for us, it's not over. We just lost three semi-finals. We didn't play the best at all in them, but we know if we bring back the fire that we had and we play a bit better individually, it's going to come back.
We know it, and we can feel it. We have the same team as the first six months, so why would we change or do something else? That would be stupid. We still believe in us and our ability to win any tournament.
You mentioned the semi-finals there, which is still a great run every time, but is there any concern despite that because of the dip in individual form in some of the games you've lost?
I think we need to find the extra things inside of us. We still have the motivation, but we just need to transfer it into the games more again. Before we would win those games, we would get those eco frags, but now we're getting too much into details and sometimes that makes it harder for us to play. We just need to find out why, and we'll bounce back for sure. I know that.
I also know that we all love playing on a stage in front of a crowd, so I know that will be good for us here.
Do you think having the home favourite on your team will also help?
Yeah, I think it will help having the king mezii with us, it's a privilege. The crowd can help us, so it will be good to have them.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenHow about your own individual levels, you struggled a bit in the group stage of this event so how are you feeling there?
I'm a bit disappointed, but I think that's true for everyone on the team. I think we can do more, and I can do more. And that's why we're struggling a bit more, because we're getting less headshots, less teamplay, less feeling. It's tough to win games and trophies like that.
But we just need to bring it back. It didn't evaporate in two months, so without a doubt it will be there but it will take us time.
In terms of the dip, you seem to be focusing a lot on yourself and the team, but is any of it down to the other teams improving over the player break?
It's tough to say, because we're also playing worse so it's hard to see when someone is playing better when that's the case.
We said against M80 that we didn't play well, but we knew then that they were. They had good calls, good utility, they were shooting well. But for us, it's just harder right now, so we just want to go back to the way we were with the double entries and the crazy clutches.
We spoke to donk recently and we asked him about who he thinks the GOAT is, he said he thinks he's below you and s1mple because of longevity, but what's your take on it?
Actually, I don't give a fuck about it. I don't think about it, because for me, it's so bad to think about that whilst your still playing. I have no time to focus on it, whether it's me, s1mple, or donk.
For me, I'm not reflecting on it. I will ask myself and some others after my career is done if I was the GOAT, to know if I was good or even the GOAT, but for now, I don't reflect on it.
