ZywOo 1 trophy away from scripting history

ZywOo has been collecting trophies like clockwork this year. Seven consecutive S-tier tournament wins with Vitality; seven MVP awards to match. IEM Katowice, multiple S-tier BLAST events (BLAST Open Lisbon & BLAST Rivals), a Major win at Austin, and the ESL Grand Slam all sit in his cabinet. But there's one piece missing from what would be the most complete season any #1 Counter-Strike player has ever assembled.

IEM Cologne 2025, set to take place towards the end of July, represents more than just another tournament for ZywOo. No player who has finished as the world's number one has ever won all five of Counter-Strike's most prestigious trophies in a single year. Not donk during his breakout last year, not s1mple during his dominant 2021 and not any of the greats who came before. In fact, the closest anyone came was s1mple in 2021, who swept four of the five prestigious prizes but couldn't capture IEM Katowice.

Donk's menacing run in 2024 came with a win at IEM Katowice, BLAST Premier Spring Final and a Major win at Perfect World Shanghai 2024 but missed out on IEM Cologne and the Grand Slam. ropz was unstoppable with FaZe in the early days of Counter-Strike 2 and Vitality seems to have found the perfect combination with his addition. However, all of the above holds contention only if ZywOo finishes as the #1 player of 2025. At the moment ZywOo is easily projected to finish as 2025's #1 player.