Vitality’s CS:GO star ZywOo is having one of the best years of his career in 2023. Not only is the Frenchman far above the other top primary snipers in terms of pure rating, but he’s also leading the way in one overlooked stat.
ZywOo is also the best rifler—a CS:GO role that involves manning mainly the AK-47 on the T side and the M4A4/M4A1-S on the CT side—among all the top AWPers in the world, according to 2023 statistics pulled by professional analyst Mathieu “Maniac” Quiquerez on July 24.
| Top AWPers | Rating | Percentage of AWP kills | Percentage of rifle kills |
| ZywOo | 1.31 rating | 34 percent | 44 percent |
| sh1ro | 1.22 rating | 41 percent | 29 percent |
| dev1ce | 1.19 rating | 50 percent | 28 percent |
| s1mple | 1.18 rating | 41 percent | 39 percent |
| m0NESY | 1.17 rating | 54 percent | 28 percent |
It’s a great advantage for Vitality to have someone as special as ZywOo as their primary sniper. He’s obviously proficient with the Big Green, but when the team needs it, he’s more than capable of playing with just the AK-47 or the M4A4/M4A1-S, as you can see below.
This comes in handy, especially on the T side of maps such as Inferno and Vertigo, which don’t offer as many opportunities for the attacking side to get a long-range kill like Mirage and Overpass do.
Another perk of ZywOo being so good with rifles is that it makes Vitality less AWP-dependent. When a team doesn’t need to buy the AWP as much, they’re more likely to keep their economy under control. The AK-47 and the M4A1-S cost $2,700 and $2,900, respectively, while the AWP costs $4,750.
Related: ZywOo’s settings, crosshair, and viewmodel for CS:GO
ZywOo is on his way to being elected the best CS:GO player for the third time in his career, unless he massively slows down in the second semester. But even then, the fact that ZywOo helped Vitality win the BLAST Paris Major in May while being the MVP already puts him miles ahead in terms of merits.
We’ll see if the top AWPers can catch up with ZywOo at IEM Cologne 2023, which is the most important tournament of the second semester of 2023 in CS:GO esports. The $1 million competition will run from July 26 to Aug. 6.
