Team Vitality`s star AWPer, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, shared his reflections after securing victory at IEM Melbourne 2025 in CS2. ZywOo spoke about his impressions following the grand final match against Team Falcons during an interview on the official tournament broadcast.
When asked about the difficulty of the final, ZywOo commented: “It was very tough. We fought until the very end, but they didn`t give us any chance for an easy win at all. I`m incredibly tired – we gave it our absolute all.”
Responding to whether this match, having played many finals and won a Major, was the craziest of his career, he replied: “I think so. Especially the Nuke map. We were losing 6:12, and I still don`t understand how we managed to come back. In every situation, we reminded ourselves that we have a great team and we can make a comeback. But this time it was hard – we almost gave Nuke away. We lost a ton of rounds but managed to return. Honestly, I don`t even fully remember what was happening – everything felt like a blur.”
Team Vitality defeated Falcons with a final score of 3:2. The map scores were 13:2 on Inferno, 12:16 on Dust2, 13:9 on Train, 10:13 on Mirage, and an intense 22:20 on Nuke. Herbaut`s squad earned $125,000 for claiming first place at the event. In addition to the tournament prize, the club was also crowned champions of the fifth season of ESL Grand Slam, receiving one million dollars for that achievement.
Finley Holt