During the ESL Pro League Season 16 finals, French star Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut broke the all-time kill record for a single CS:GO series.
In what was a grueling best-of-five series between Team Liquid and Team Vitality, the European squad prevailed with ZywOo proving once again why he was crowned as the best player in the world for two years straight.
With 143 kills recorded across all five maps, ZywOo officially dethroned Coldzera who held the world record since 2017 with 130 kills in a series against Virtus.pro at EPICENTER.
After posting a monstrous performance across the whole tournament with a 1.42 HLTV rating, the Frenchman could be eyeing a third number one ranking this year.
Also read: A look back at S1mple’s reaction to Vitality and G2’s roster moves
ZywOo solidifies his spot as one CS:GO’s greats by setting the new kill record for a series
THE ALL TIME RECORD FOR KILLS IN A SERIES.
IN THE #ESLProLeague GRAND FINAL.@zywoo 🐐 pic.twitter.com/rjRfoBjHdt
— TEAM VITALITY EPL S16 CHAMPS 🏆 (@ESLCS) October 2, 2022
In what can only be described as a CS:GO gauntlet, the European side of Vitality trumped their North American counterparts after monumental effort by ZywOo in the Grand Finals.
After each team won their initial map picks of Inferno (Liquid’s pick) and Dust 2 (Vitality’s pick) in convincing fashion, the series was tied up at 1-1 and Vitality took an early lead on the third map of Mirage. However, Liquid pulled off an incredible comeback and managed to clinch the win in overtime despite ZywOo posting 51 frags.
Moving to Overpass, Liquid looked prime to close out the series 3-1, but a late resurgence from Vitality and an overtime win saw both teams at level pegging once again. ZywOo ended his Overpass campaign with 35 frags and a 1.51 rating.
As the teams duked it out on the last map of Vertigo, Liquid found themselves getting off to a slow start. After clawing back to a 11-13 scoreline, Liquid dropped a half-buy round by Vitality that ended up costing them the game.
Capping the series off at 143 frags and an HLTV rating of 1.39, the French superstar and his team managed to end their title drought. As CS:GO’s ESL Pro League Season 16 champions, Vitality will be looking to carry their winning form into the Rio Major.
