ZywOo: It feels crazy to actually say "We haven't won a title in a while

ZywOo was named the MVP of the StarSeries Fall Finals in Barcelona for his 1.50 rating performance. On Champions Day, Vitality first defeated FURIA in the lower bracket final, then triumphed over Aurora in the grand final to lift the championship trophy.

This marks ZywOo's 33rd MVP medal of his career and his first of the current season. After the match, HLTV spoke with the French star about his and Vitality's path to the championship at this event, as well as the team's upcoming goals.

ZywOo: It feels good, and there's also a sense of relief.

I hope to win at least one MVP in the latter part of the season to boost my confidence, and I also aim to secure another championship. I believe these two goals complement each other.

So being able to get this MVP now is really great, just like you said, it's the 33rd one.

However, I don't think this is solely my credit. The entire team played really well this time, so I also want to thank them. It feels really great.

Q: You mentioned confidence. In Barcelona, you appeared exceptionally confident. After the match, apEX even joked, "Just let ZywOo go out and eliminate everyone." How did it feel to play so relaxed on the server during this tournament?

ZywOo: After the previous stop in Porto concluded, we had almost individual conversations with everyone to understand how we were feeling.

I think this has allowed us to shed some weight we've been carrying. Now everyone feels better and more confident because we understand each other better—we know what everyone thinks about the match and how we feel about one another.

After these discussions, it became clearer to me what we want to achieve during the competition and how we should operate outside of it.

I feel this has released a lot of things, and also reduced a lot of pressure, making us more confident.

This has also helped us become... not necessarily more "mature," but more professional. We now have a clearer understanding of what we need to do when we truly enter competition to return to the highest level.

I feel that in this tournament, even though we lost to Aurora yesterday, we overall showed a very good side. So this means a lot to us.

Q: Speaking of yesterday's loss to Aurora, you faced them again today. With today's extremely long schedule—potentially up to eight maps—you ended up playing six. Especially on Anubis, you lost yesterday but performed well today. What changed compared to yesterday?

ZywOo: I think the biggest change today was that our T side was clearly much better.

Yesterday our side only seemed to win three rounds, but today, both as a team and in individual performance, we are clearly much better.

I also played better today, and I think everyone played better.

We just corrected the mistakes made yesterday. After the game ended yesterday, we reviewed those issues and adjusted everything.

Yesterday we played too passively, just waiting for them to make a move. But they didn't do anything, and we were left there thinking, "What now?" Then we kind of didn't know what to do.

But today we are more daring to play, proactively playing the matches we want to play.

So Anubis actually went pretty smoothly for us today. Although it's not our best map and we've been putting in a lot of practice, we know that as long as we play together and know exactly what we need to do, we can be very strong on this map.

As for the six maps, I feel like everyone was actually prepared to play all eight maps.

We know today might be very long, potentially playing continuously for eight or nine hours, but everyone is ready to keep fighting whenever needed.

I think this is also why our mindset is like this. Even if winning a map easily doesn't matter, we know there might be many more maps ahead, so we can't think about conserving energy.

Every round, every map, we have to fight to the very end.

Q: Let's talk about reclaiming the championship. Previously, mezii was absent for a while, and your team's form wasn't at its peak. Now that you've finally lifted the trophy again, how does it feel?

ZywOo: I think this has also allowed us to release a lot.

It wasn't necessarily pressure, but at least we finally won another championship.

Previously, people might have said that while it wasn't like we were completely unviable, they probably felt we were no longer capable of winning championships or something like that, because our playing style had changed from before.

But I think this competition has proven that we remain one of the best teams in the world.

We're still able to show very good form. Of course, there are times when our form dips, which is totally normal; after all, we're only human.

But we need to understand each other more and rely on each other more. When someone encounters difficulties, they should communicate with their teammates and with the entire team.

This is of great help to us.

And now that mezii's form has returned, I think for him, being able to get back to this high level of performance is equally great, because he also played very well in the finals.

So everyone is happy for him, and also for the performance of the whole team.

Overall, we are certainly very happy. We have lifted a championship trophy once again.

I think we haven't won a championship in about three months. It's actually kind of crazy to say "we haven't won a title in a long time" now (laughs).

Q: Let's talk about the upcoming EPL. With the tournament just a few weeks away, will you take a short break first or immediately resume training? What are your plans?

ZywOo: I think we will continue training.

Because after EPL there's also Bucharest, and we'll be playing with jL again then.

So even if we win this time, it's no big deal. We still want to keep improving and get better every day.

In any case, our primary goal remains Major.

If one can become more confident and better prepared through these competitions, that would be great.

Whether it's the EPL, Bucharest, or any other tournament, we're here to win and to get better every day.

This is our main goal.

Next we will review what mistakes were made in this competition and correct them. We will continue to do so afterward.