When it comes to competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, fans often point to two players as the best of all time. That’s currently Natus Vincere’s Oleksandr “S1mple” Kostyliev and Vitality’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.
The two snipers came head-to-head at the BLAST Premier World Finals in December of 2022. They had faced each other five times that year until that point. While NAVI won four out of five of those matches, that didn’t sway CSGO fans’ opinion that ZywOo is just as much a contender for best player in the world as S1mple.
That’s because the stats don’t lie. But who is better, according to pure statistics?
Who has won more games?
We’re going to look at Abios’ statistics gathered from matches between January 1, 2022 and January 1, 2023. Between that time, S1mple played in 135 matches and won 84 of them, putting him at a 62% win rate. Meanwhile, ZywOo won 85 of 157 matches, resulting in a 54% win rate.
Based on match outcome alone, S1mple is the top CSGO player. Natus Vincere was the better team in 2022 thanks to not only mechanical skills but high IQ strats and great communication and teamwork. This could point to S1mple being a better team player, but a player’s skill can’t be measured from outcomes alone since there are too many outside factors, like the rest of the team’s performance and skill level.
Who has got more kills?
Throughout 2022, S1mple averaged 22.48 kills per match and ZywOo averaged 21.83. This is pretty darn close, although S1mple has the upper hand by a small margin. Out of those kills, S1mple averaged 8.80 headshots and ZywOo 8.40.
While S1mple may be the better straight-up sharpshooter, ZywOo had a slight upper hand when it came to trickier situations. He produced an average of 1.04 kills through smoke per match compared to S1mple’s .93 and .33 while blinded compared to .29.
S1mple is a more aggressive player. He has done more overall damage than ZywOo, including more pistol-round wins. This has caused him to die a little more often (16.75 average deaths per match versus 15.93) but it has usually paid off.
Who is the better AWPer?
S1mple is known for using the AWP, a powerful sniper rifle. So it’s no surprise that he landed the most kills per match on average with his weapon of choice. He dealt over 857 in damage on average in each match. But when it came to headshots, s1mple’s best friend was the AK47, at 3.74. His most-used sidearm? The Deagle.
The AK47 was also a huge hit (literally) with zywOo. He used the AK47 to get 2.95 headshots per game with the assault rifle. But zywOo is also a huge fan of the AWP. It’s actually his most-used weapon, while it’s s1mple’s second after the AK47. When using the AWP, the sharpshooter got an average of 8.69 kills per game and dealt over 789 damage. The Deagle was also his sidearm of choice, followed by the Glock.
So… Who is better: S1mple vs. ZywOo?
While it’s not by a significant amount, S1mple is currently the better CSGO player. When it comes to the above statistics as well as rewards and consistency, S1mple edged out ZywOo in HLTV’s Top 20 Players of 2022 to be named the best player in the world, with ZywOo in second.
It’d honestly be hard to find anyone that would argue against this.
S1mple is known for his incredible accuracy and mechanical skills as well as his immensely deep game sense. But while he naturally has great hand-eye coordination and fast reaction times, S1mple is also respected for his hard work and dedication. He has a crazy practice schedule and has become a respected role model and inspiration in the CSGO world.
Even though ZywOo also has incredible cross-hair placement and dangerous game sense, it seems like S1mple has managed to hold on to his title of best CSGO player in the world going into the 2023 season.
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