S1mple vs ZywOo – Who Was the Be(a)st in 2020?
The debate between the number one player in 2020 is a hot topic in the CS:GO community. Considering their accolades, two players are in the running, and are we right when we say that one is French and the other is Ukrainian?
Both Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut have completely dominated the scene last year, and the decision on the very best CS:GO player of 2020 is looking too close to call.
S1mple has maintained a high-level of play over the years, pushing the envelope year after year on his journey to become the best CS:GO player of all time. One of the hardest tasks in Counter-Strike is to keep consistency. Everyone has ups and downs, but it doesn’t seem to apply to the Na’Vi star.
On the other side of the coin, we have a young French star who has proven his worth after he joining Vitality. Game after game, ZywOo continues to impresses with his enthusiastic approach and outstanding performances.
It’s a matter of time now to verify if he can keep outplaying the competition, but all signs point towards just that.
Obviously, 2020 wasn’t the best time to determine who shined more throughout the events because it was an online year. When playing online things can get tricky because players’ performances depend on some variables, most notably in the form of ping issues. Some players also tend to shine in LAN environments, while others crumble under the pressure of playing in front of a large crowd.
S1mple vs ZywOo – Complete Statistics
Although people can have different opinions, numbers don’t lie. Let’s take a look at who had the biggest impact both individually and on their teams and throughout last year.
Let’s start to break down and analyze the data about this rivalry in 2020 (all the numbers are collected from HLTV stats.)
| s1mple | ZywOo | |
| Maps Played | 214 | 205 |
| Rounds Played | 5676 | 5479 |
| Total Kills | 4829 | 4457 |
| Kills / Round | 0.85 | 0.81 |
| Headshot % | 39.0% | 39.3% |
| Total Deaths | 3410 | 3350 |
| Deaths / Round | 0.60 | 0.61 |
| K/D Ratio | 1.42 | 1.33 |
| Assists / Round | 0.10 | 0.13 |
| Damage / Round | 84.6 | 85.8 |
| Grenade Damage / Round | 2.8 | 4.3 |
| Rating 2.0 | 1.29 | 1.29 |
| Impact | 1.34 | 1.38 |
As we first notice, their stats are relatively similar in every sense since both are the ace players on their respective teams, and both are elite-level two-way players (can play extremely well with a rifle or an AWP).
S1mple played slightly more games and rounds than his rival, with both Na’Vi and Vitality having a nearly identical average of 26.6 and 26.7 rounds per game. With so many similarities in their respective stats, this makes it even more difficult to determine who’s on top.
If we keep strict to all the data and K/D ratio, if ZywOo had played the same number of rounds as s1mple, he would have a total of 4638 kills and 3470 deaths, proving again how close they are to each other.
It’s also important to take into consideration their roles, playing style, and how their respective teams play around them.
Starting with s1mple, he’s a really aggressive player and likes to go out of the box with insane AWP picks to get the entry kill and round advantage. For some of us, his plays can look too wild, but he guarantees success most of the time.
Na’Vi has many strategies going through s1mple by playing for him through baiting, trades, or even just opening space to allow the Ukrainian to do his what he’s best at, killing people. As of late, the team has started to depend less and less on his huge performance by upping their teamplay to the next level
Vitality, on the other hand, depends much more on how ZywOo is playing. He is the teams’ main carry and can put everyone’s mood and motivation higher. With a passive and overall safer style, the French can also show amazing moments but lack Na’Vi’s flare for the dramatic.
Secondary Statistics
| s1mple | ZywOo | |
| 5 Kill Rounds | 3 | 12 |
| 4 Kill Rounds | 78 | 75 |
| 3 Kill Rounds | 292 | 287 |
| 2 Kill Rounds | 918 | 784 |
| 1 Kill Rounds | 1790 | 1648 |
| 0 Kill Rounds | 2595 | 2663 |
| Total Entry Kills | 767 | 807 |
| Entry Kill Ratio | 1.83 | 1.67 |
| Entry Kill Rating | 1.22 | 1.26 |
| Team Win % After Entry Kill | 73.5% | 75.0% |
| Entry Kill in Won Rounds | 19.0% | 20.8% |
Again, the numbers are close to each other, and even with the French having more aces (here we can see more the Vitality’s dependence), s1mple is overcoming him in all the other rounds’ kill stats (which can occur due to the higher number of rounds played and how his team plays through him).
On the entry kill side, ZywOo has been slightly more impactful, getting more often an early advantage for his team, which in 75% of the time results in a winning round.
In this case, another detail that benefits the Na’Vi player is his ability to play eco rounds with an incredible pistol aim, especially with the Deagle. This can make a big difference in teams’ economy and how further rounds will pan out.
Tournaments MVPs
All of the above comes down to this point, and that is which player had the most MVPs in 2020?
Unfortunately for Na’Vi, the results weren’t always the best, as Vitality was ultimately the more successful team. Therefore ZywOo comes on top with an incredible 6 MVPs in top-tier tournaments.
S1mple:
● IEM Katowice
● EPL S12 EU
ZywOo:
● Blast Spring EU
● cs_summit 6 EU
● ESL One Cologne EU
● DH Open Fall
● IEM Beijing-Haidian
● Blast Fall Finals
As we can see, the Frenchman did really great in the tournaments, and he was able to have three times more MVPs than s1mple.
With such identical statistics, this might be the main factor in determining the best player of 2020.
Final Thoughts
Both players are exceptional, and we should be glad to see them playing in the same era. Alongside their teammates, these two guys represent the cream of the crop in the Counter-Strike ecosystem currently.
Is it fair to say that one is better than the other, especially after a year that was played online for the most part? That depends, but it all comes down to our own thought process.
Can we say Cristiano Ronaldo is better than Messi or vice-versa? It’s always a tough decision and almost impossible to answer, as it all comes down to one or two small details.
The most important thing is that we appreciate and have pleasure watching these brilliant players. However, the MVP titles, which are the only category in which one of these players pulls away, are a strong argument in ZywOo’s case.
