ZywOo: "I don't think we think about being the #1 team in the world"

The IEM Cologne 2023 Playoffs started with a clash between a red-hot Vitality and a much-hyped Cloud9, which saw the Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut-led squad reach the semifinals with a 2-0 win. Dust2.us' Gonçalo "GoncOak" Carvalho talked with the French AWPer about his history in the Lanxess Arena, his IGL's, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, performance on the stage, and the next matchup against ENCE.

Congratulations on the win, you are now an IEM Cologne semifinalist. The last time you were here in the Lanxess Arena you got second place. Do you believe this is the year that you get to lift the trophy?

I cannot say yet, but obviously, if we start playing well, and start to play our game, like we did with Cloud9, we have a great chance to reach the finals. For the moment, I don't want to say we are going to beat everyone, we are going to win this tournament because maybe it's too cocky. We are just going to play our game, just having a good mindset for every game and we'll have a great chance to win it.

You beat what most people call the best team in the world on paper. Do you feel like that's a good title for them or do you think Vitality is the #1 team in the world?

Actually, for the moment, I don't think we think about being the #1 team in the world or whatever. We just want to show that, with flameZ we are doing also a great job and we want to keep our mentality like this. We are not thinking about wanting to be the #1 team, so we just play our game and that's it.

You lit up the server as well as apEX. Today he was on fire, what can you say, was he feeling comfortable like you?

Yeah, I think everyone was feeling comfortable, and individually everyone was popping off, trying to get double kills or flash for a teammate. I could feel we were a really good team today, other than the final, because it was really tough. apEX played a really good game individually, but also as a captain as well because it's not because he always does great calls but because he's human, he's really good at trying to help his teammates. It was a really good game for him.

You have ENCE next. What do you expect of that game?

For the moment nothing, just finished our game, I'm not speaking about ENCE yet. But obviously, if we play like we usually do, with a good mindset, we can beat them and we can beat everyone, with a good mentality.

Vitality will return to the servers tomorrow at 09:30AM as they face ENCE for a spot in the grand final of IEM Cologne 2023.