French Counter Strike has a rich history. Legends from Source remain prominent in the scene. Two Majors have been won by French squads. Some of the most renowned names in the game fly French, Belgian and Swiss flags. However, the last few years have been difficult. The collapse of the French ‘superteam’, individual struggles for star players and long term benching of valuable talent all plagued the top two French squads.

While some have lurked on the outskirts of France’s top tier, only recently have many ‘new’ players got their shot to prove themselves. G2 Esports signed 3DMAX’s Audric ‘JaCkz’ Jug and Lucas ‘Lucky’ Chastang once the old guard of Kévin ‘Ex6TenZ’ Droolans and Edouard ‘SmithZz’ Dubourdeaux failed to impress on their return. Team Vitality removed Vincent ‘Happy’ Schopenhauer in favour of LDLC’s Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin following a win at DreamHack Open Atlanta last year.

There is one player who was always going to get that chance.

Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut.

Having turned down an offer from Team EnVyUs due to wanting to finish his education first, all eyes were on the young Frenchman who was being hailed as a prodigy due to his incredible performances in FPL and on the lower tier French circuit. With no negative rated LANs, from his early days on E-Corp to now with Vitality, ZywOo is not only a huge talent, but a consistent pillar of firepower for the teams he joins.

Camaraderie

The French scene elites’ entwined history and the previous struggles to form top ten teams in an era with volatile rankings due to Astralis’ pure dominance, Na’Vi’s own issues and Team Liquid’s lack of reliability was surely a catalyst for the rise of ZywOo and the handful of other French players now sat on G2 and Vitality.

Past conflicts between more experienced players have supposedly caused issues when forming teams due to the multiple ‘French shuffles’ mostly involving the same handful of names. Inexperienced players who have had no involvement in such drama have been needed for a long time.

This isn’t to say new talent hasn’t been tried in the past, but they have been few and far between. Timothée ‘DEVIL’ Démolon’s infamous addition to EnVyUs and the rise of Alexandre ‘bodyy’ Pianaro from LDLC White to G2 are the most notable examples of inexperienced younger players being called up.

DEVIL’s time on nV was rocky at best as the team had far more issues than just with ‘the problem’ of Fabien ‘kioShiMa’ Fiey. bodyy kept his spot on G2 throughout many iterations of the roster before finally being replaced by François ‘AmaNEk’ Delaunay after poor results in an attempt to ‘ improve our team and help return it to winning form’.

Rise

ZywOo is very different to the young talent that have come before him. It would maybe seem lazy to simply compare him to Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub due to his current role, meteroic rise to prominence and the ever-present older brother introducing them to CS in their early years, but in terms of the level of excitement to see a French player compete at the top with a skill level equal to some of the best, it is somewhat unavoidable.

With ZywOo attending his first LAN event at only nine years old, and kennyS winning trophies at the age of eleven, both players have been young prodigies in the world of Counter Strike. ZywOo’s performance on Vitality thusfar has led many to draw direct comparisons to kennyS on Titan in 2014. Before the AWP nerf in 2015, kennyS was fast, consistent and was the standout star for the Titan roster. To this day, kennyS has the highest K/D difference recorded on HLTV,+5568, at the time of writing and remains one of the most talented players in CS:GO. While these are huge shoes to fill, many in the scene do believe that with time and experience, ZywOo could also secure a legacy and revive the legacy of French Counter Strike too.

There is a lot of pressure on the young Frenchman’s shoulders.

ZywOo’s first true top tier challenges come at a time where the reign of France’s AWP king has been shaky. G2’s roster imploding, the failure of Richard ‘shox’ Papillon’s project and absence from big event stages have all been a contributing factor in the last year for kennyS. Motivation also seems to be a recurring factor in the struggles of the French sniper.

2018 saw kennyS fall out of the HLTV Top 20 list for the first time and get usurped for ‘Sniper de L’Année’ on VaKarM.net, an award he has won on the site since 2012. ZywOo not only took the accolate, with 65.29% of the vote, but also won ‘Joueur de L’Année’ with over 70% of that vote too. A potential rivalry seems likely as both G2 and Vitality seek to rebuild the reputation French Counter Strike once held. Charleroi Esports in Belgium will see the teams in separate groups, so a potential clash won’t happen until the playoffs. Other than a single WESG online qualifier, the two have yet to meet officially on the server.

2019 so far in LAN stats for both kennyS and ZywOo (figures and photos from HLTV.org)

Young Blood

mousesports picking up Robin ‘ropz’ Kool helped elevate the entire roster, seeing the team win ESG Tour Mykonos 2017, StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 and ESL One: New York 2018. With the team crashing out of the EU Minor and deciding to make changes, ropz remains with mousesports veteran Chris ‘chrisJ’ de Jong, surviving the departure of his three other teammates. Now, he sits on a roster with another young up-and-comer in the form of 16-year-old David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský, who has already been a promising Czech talent for many years.

Finnish team ENCE have been rising up the ranks with 17-year-old Jere ‘sergej’ Salo. fnatic signed Sweden’s most promising youngster Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin. NRG have Tsvetelin ‘CeRq’ Dimitrov, who was nominated for Esports PC Rookie of the Year in 2018 and he has been growing and improving alongside the team for two years previously.

Right now, a significant number of young talent are establishing themselves as veteran players start to slip and questions about retirement for many are becoming more common. The ‘older’ players in the scene top out around thirty, but the ‘next generation’ of talent is half their age, hungry and free from things like burnout which hit some players harder and sooner than others.

While some ex-professionals have turned to analysis and others have taken up coaching reins, the prospect of leaving the server for the last time is a giant leap into the unknown. Not every player has the charisma to be on a talent desk or the authority to become a coach. Some may stream or produce content, but there is not space for every former player to remain prominently in the scene once they hang up their mouse and keyboard. The reality is that some will have to find ‘IRL’ jobs outside of Counter Strike if their time ends early or their careers are not as successful as they hoped it would be.

Young players now tend to recognise this, with ZywOo, as well as ropz, choosing to continue and finish their education rather than taking an offer for the short-term from the first organisation that will pay a salary.

Promise

At only 18, all the signs point towards a long and illustrious path for ZywOo in the near future, with the decision to finish his ‘baccalauréat’ meaning he has his options open for whatever the upcoming months and years hold.

If he can remain motivated, consistent and away from the drama that has plagued the French scene from the beginning, Vitality will be a team to watch this year and ZywOo will be the key. A win at DreamHack Atlanta last year is a good start, but a player with the talent of ZywOo will undoubtably be lifting bigger trophies in the near future.

However, changes made to G2, with plenty of newer faces, could see kennyS resurge to the levels seen a few years ago leading to a clash of the titans for French AWP supremacy. It is important to remember kennyS himself is only 23 so should have plenty more to give. As fans and viewers, we can only hope to see ZywOo soar and kennyS rise to match him.

2015 was a long time ago, but 2019 could mark a French renaissance, led by the AWP king and the young prince looking to take the crown and claim the throne by conquest.