Tag Archives: Computer Gaming

World Counterstrike 2 Champion Re-signs With Vitality

Paris, France. April, 2024 – Leading esports club Team Vitality is thrilled to announce the contract renewal of star Counter Strike 2 player Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut. Having been with the club since the beginning of his professional career in 2018, ZywOo has renewed his commitment to the organization until 2026, ready to take on new sporting challenges.

THE KING STAYS IN PARIS UNTIL 2026

ZywOo’s journey with Team Vitality has been nothing short of extraordinary. Even amidst an ever-evolving industry with a variety of opportunities to explore, ZywOo made the resolute decision to renew his contract with the club that nurtured his talent, built a team around his incredible skill set, and propelled him to new heights. This decision underscores his loyalty, commitment, and unwavering trust in Team Vitality and its vision.

“I have always seen Team Vitality as a family, where I can flourish and develop my full potential. I feel there’s a strong sense of unity, it’s my second home. I also wanted to stay because I believe strongly in our project, in my team. I think we have a brilliant lineup,” explains Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut“In 2023, I experienced an incredible moment and managed to win a Major with my teammates. I’m delighted to continue this adventure with the club, and I’m convinced that we can go even further.”

“One of the greatest responsibilities I’ve had to manage as the founder and President of Team Vitality was to ensure that this 18-year-old player who joined us in 2018 could one day be crowned the world’s best player and win a Major,” said Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide, co-founder and President of Team Vitality“Thanks to his exceptional individual skills, he quickly became recognised as the best player in the world. For the Major, it was a longer, collective effort: it was a project that was held together thanks to loyalty, hard work, repetition, and an appetite for effort. In the years to come, we will continue to help him evolve into a leadership role. He will take even more space because he is not only the face of our future team but also that of Team Vitality.”

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Team Vitality hosted an exclusive event at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Fans gathered to witness the unveiling of ZywOo’s renewal, which was broadcast live on Team Vitality’s social media accounts.

AN EXTRAORDINARY CAREER IN COUNTER-STRIKE

Mathieu Herbaut started playing Counterstrike when he was only seven years old. He began his career with Team Vitality in 2018, joining the CS:GO roster as the French club ventured into the title. Alongside French teammate Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, he negotiated the club’s turning point towards the international scene at the end of 2021. By the end of 2023, the CS2 roster was crowned the best team in the world by HLTV.

Since entering the professional scene, ZywOo’s exceptional skill has not only led Team Vitality to multiple championship titles, such as securing the final CS:GO Major on home soil in Paris, but has also garnered numerous individual awards, including being crowned HLTV’s Player of the Year award in 2019, 2020, and 2023 and his inclusion in the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2021.

These accomplishments have earned him the affectionate nickname of ‘The Chosen One’ within the Counter-Strike community. A nickname all the more relevant as the young Frenchman was born in the same month as the release of the original Counter-Strike game.

ZYWOO, THE FACE AND FRANCHISE PLAYER OF TEAM VITALITY

Since its creation in 2013, Team Vitality has had the mission of identifying, developing, and nurturing talent in the esports scene. Among the young athletes who have particularly marked the history of the club is ZywOo.

Ten years later, Team Vitality and ZywOo have left an indelible mark on the esports landscape, winning numerous titles and consolidating their position as leaders in the Counter-Strike scene. As they look towards 2024, their goal is to build on these achievements and continue to lead the way in innovation and excellence in esports.

“This is the third time in his career that ZywOo has renewed with us since 2018,” continues Fabien Devide, co-founder and President of Team Vitality“We are proud to have such a magical talent among our athletes. I even think he deserves even more recognition on a national scale – just like Mbappé in football, Karabatic in handball, or Wembanyama in basketball. ZywOo is part of this generation of great French champions.”

His Preferred Settings

ZywOo’s mouse settings

  • DPI: 400
  • Sensitivity: 2
  • eDPI: 800
  • Zoom Sensitivity: 1
  • Polling Rate: 1000 Hz
  • Windows Sensitivity: 6

ZywOo’s video settings

  • Resolution: 1280×960
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Scaling Mode: Stretched
  • Brightness: 110%
  • Display Mode: Fullscreen
  • Boost Player Contrast: Enabled
  • Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled
  • Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode: 4x MSAA
  • Global Shadow Quality: High
  • Model/Texture Detail: High
  • Texture Filtering Mode: Anisotropic 4x
  • Shader Detail: High
  • Particle Detail: Low
  • Ambient Occlusion: Medium
  • High Dynamic Range: Quality
  • FidelityFX Super Resolution: Disabled (Highest Quality)
  • NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: Enabled

ZywOo’s HUD settings

  • HUD Scale: 0.9
  • HUD Color: Team Color

ZywOo’s Radar settings

  • Radar Centers the Player: Yes
  • Radar is Rotating: Yes
  • Toggle Shape With Scoreboard: Yes
  • Radar Hud Size: 1
  • Radar Map Zoom: 0.7

ZywOo’s crosshair settings

Copy and paste the following text into your console and press enter to activate ZywOo’s crosshair settings. Here’s how to open the console in CS2.

SettingsValue
Crosshair CodeCSGO-qiqNa-8FZmF-4mnTa-LSGNc-AioUE
StyleClassic Static
ThicknessOne
Follow RecoilNo
DotNo
Length1.5
Gap-2
OutlineNo
ColorCustom
Red255
Green255
Blue255
AlphaYes
Alpha Value255
T StyleNo
Deployed Weapon GapNo
Sniper WidthNo
ZywOo'S crosshair in CS2.
That’s how French superstar plays CS2. Screenshot by Dot Esports

ZywOo’s viewmodel

  • viewmodel_fov 68; viewmodel_offset_x 2.5; viewmodel_offset_y 0; viewmodel_offset_z -1.5; viewmodel_presetpos 3;

ZywOo’s gaming setup

ZywOo’s PC specs

  • Processor: Intel Core i9-11900K
  • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

ZywOo’s mouse, keyboard, and monitor setup

ZywOo uses a VAXEE AX OUTSET Wireless mouse, a Xtrfy K5 Compact keyboard, and a ZOWIE XL2546K monitor.

Here are ZywOo’s monitor settings:

  • DyAC: Premium
  • Black eQualizer: 12
  • Color Vibrance: 20
  • Low Blue Light: 0
  • Picture Mode: FPS 1
  • Brightness: 75
  • Contrast: 51
  • Sharpness: 10
  • Gamma: Gamma 3
  • Color Temperature: User Define
  • Red: 100
  • Green: 100
  • Blue: 100
  • AMA: Premium

ZywOo’s career so far

Courtesy of dotesports.com. When it comes to talented and renowned CS players, there are hardly more popular names than ZywOo. In January 2024 the French sniper earned HLTV’s Player of 2023 reward. He also boasted that title twice before, becoming the second player next to s1mple who achieved that three times.

It’s obviously not an accident. ZywOo led Vitality to their first Major on home soil in May 2023, where they hoisted the BLAST.tv Paris Major. The 23-year-old was awarded with the MVP award of the event. Besides claiming a Major trophy, ZywOo and Vitality have numerous other gold medals under their belt, being undoubtedly one of the greatest teams of the current era.

What about players here in North America?

Stewie2K’s settings, crosshair, and viewmodel for CS2

Stewie2k looking right at PGL Antwerp CS:GO Major media day.

Photo by Joao Ferreira via PGL

Stewie2K is one of North America’s most well-known Counter Strike and VALORANT players.

The 25-year-old cemented himself as one of the five North American players to come back against FaZe Clan in the final of the ELEAGUE Boston CS:GO Major 2018. It’s the only CS:GO Major won by a North American squad.

After months of ups and downs, Stewie2K retired from Counter-Strike and transferred to VALORANT in July 2022 to become a full-time content creator. But when CS2 was announced on March 22, the American shared that he was “ready to grind” again. On March 29, he joined Legacy on loan, marking his official return to professional action.

Stewie2K’s crosshair settings in CS2

Copy and paste the following text into your console and press enter to activate Stewie2K’s crosshair settings. Here’s how to open the console in CS2.

SettingsValue
Crosshair CodeCSGO-Oi38Z-qyYYO-iv9Pn-GjwrN-eaiGH
StyleClassic Static
ThicknessZero
Follow RecoilNo
DotNo
Length2.5
Gap-2
OutlineNo
ColorGreen
Red255
Green255
Blue255
AlphaYes
Alpha Value255
T StyleNo
Deployed Weapon GapNo
Sniper WidthZero
Stewie2K's crosshair in CS2.
The North American player has a thick, green crosshair. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Stewie2K’s settings in CS2

Resolution1024×768
Texture Quality4:3
Scaling ModeStretched

Stewie2K’s mouse settings in CS2

Here are Stewie2K’s mouse settings in CS2.

DPI400
Sensitivity2.2
eDPI880
Hz1000
Zoom Sensitivity1.1
Windows SensitivitySix

ENDGAME GEAR XM2WE

Stewie2K’s video settings in CS2

Here are Stewie2K’s video settings in CS2.

Color ModeComputer Monitor
Brightness107 percent
Display ModeFullscreen
Boost Player ContrastEnabled
Wait for Vertical SyncDisabled
Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode2x MSAA
Global Shadow QualityVery High
Model/Texture DetailHigh
Texture Filtering ModeAnisotropic 4x
Shader DetailHigh
Particle DetailVery High
Ambient OcclusionMedium
High Dynamic RangeQuality
FidelityFX Super ResolutionDisabled (Highest Quality)
NVIDIA Reflex Low LatencyDisabled

Monitor: ZOWIE XL2546K | CPU: AMD Ryzen 5950X |GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti

Can eSports Save The World?

Almost two years ago, the Gamers Without Borders tournament was held to raise funds worldwide for pressing causes and give a glimpse into how the future of fundraising could be tied into the future of gaming.

With a $10 million prize fund up for grabs, the tournament consisted of one-off tournaments for a variety of eSports titles – from Fortnite to FIFA. Those who played, commentated, and watched were all persuaded to donate to a charity – from UNICEF to Direct Relief and International Medical Corps.  

https://twitter.com/i/status/1269642242068754432

The tournament gained widespread attention.

The final FIFA tournament even had an appearance from Snoop Dogg and One Direction’s Liam Payne. Some of the world’s most prominent footballers, such as Paulo Dybala, Dele Alli, Joao Felix and Andre Silva, managed to raise around $1.5 million through their gaming exploits. By combining some stars of traditional sports and recognizable celebrities with the eSports tournament, not only did the industry managed to raise funds for charity, but they also proved that they could be deployed as a force for good going forwards.  

Part of the crusade for eSports as an industry is to prove to the mainstream that it is a valid and legitimate counterpart to traditional sports and traditional gaming.

By merging the two, eSports is able to benefit from both sides. The success of Gamers Without Borders could prove just how much of a fundraising machine eSports could be and how, with a greater uptake in those who engage with the industry, the industry could do many more benevolent acts. 

There are many ways that eSports is gaining the legitimacy it deserves, and this charitable tournament helped prove it. Indeed, as eSports betting attests to, allowing eSports fans and spectators to wager on the outcome of matches and tournaments gives it further credibility as a likeness to traditional sports. Indeed, bettors can wager on games from Dota 2 to StarCraft 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to Overwatch and Rainbow Six in a similar way to how they bet on football, basketball and horse racing. 

The interconnected nature of eSports – that often involve connecting with hundreds of people across social media and streaming sites like Twitch – means that causes can be amplified to audiences around the world. The younger generation who are likely to be participating in and watching eSports are also arguably more likely to think altruistically, according to research, and will often use their platform as a professional eSports player to spread positive information.  

eSports is thriving, and its supportive community is in part to thank for that.

But the main barrier to its further success is its need to be legitimized by mainstream society. Given its professional polish, the good works it’s doing, the chances for careers, and the engagement of fans, it’s clear that the eSports industry is proving itself to be a real contender. The eSports industry might not be able to save the world single-handedly, but as it continues to gain tremendous steam, it could definitely be a vehicle that helps affect positive change.  For the Silo, Bethany Riley.

The Evolution of F1 Racing Video Games

According to our friends ‘over the pond’ at Select Car Leasing UK, (big time racing fans- go figure!) the history of F1 Racing Video Games began with 1982’s ZX Spectrum home computer.  Cue up the time machine and take a look at this nifty info-graphic to discover the rest.

Evolution Of F1 Racing VideoGames Infographic2

EA Still Making Winning Hockey Games After Nearly 30 Years

As game franchises go, EA Sports produce some of the best and certainly some of the most durable. A video game often doesn’t stand the test of time too well given the advancement in technology, but sport is a constant in the lives of fans the world over and EA have taken full advantage. They have several famous titles with the Madden series for the NFL and the FIFA series for soccer, but their NHL franchise has been a hit ever since it was first released.

Why has it been such a success? Let’s take a look…

Hitting the early consoles

The first game in the series was released in 1991 on the Sega Mega Drive and received excellent reviews. It was, for many, the first time ice hockey had been placed firmly in their consciousness and people lapped it up.

Between 1992 and 1995 there were four more NHL titles from the team at Electronic Arts, all of which could be played on console. They were all given high praise from industry critics with NHL 96 getting top marks for the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) version by Next Generation magazine who gave five out of five stars.

Enter windows

The first titles to appear on PC arrived in 1996 as Microsoft brought out Windows 95. The PC allowed the graphics to be further enhanced and these titles were a huge success. At this period in time, the Detroit Red Wings were the dominant force in the NHL winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.

Just to highlight how times have changed, the Red Wings have NHL betting odds of +150000 to win a Stanley Cup in 2020, the longest odds of any team. The team in the late 1990s was full of stars, which contrasts with the current day and EA was able to render them with realistic graphical modelling – for the time – which delighted the fans.

The PC was competing with Sony’s PS1 and then, in 2000, the PS2, which meant graphics and gameplay became more and more life-like. The crowds also had an overhaul as did the sound effects which made fans feel as though they were in the arena but the next generation consoles took it further still.

Next-gen blows the mind

EA improved the features and control systems when Xbox was released and deke moves were conducted using the joystick on the controllers making them like an extension of the actual players stick.

The latest version have found it harder to get top reviews as fan expectation level continue to increase. NHL 15 was the first game to feature on the PS4 and Xbox One and these were not well received due to the rushed feel and missing features. GameSpot actually gave NHL 15 a score of five out of 10, which was hugely disappointing for EA.

The most recent version has seen much improvement thanks to the time which has been spent in development, generally tweaking the good features and remodeling those that didn’t work.

NHL 20 is like a different world compared to the very first release from the franchise and EA are still going strong after close to 30 years – here’s to 30 more.

Updated XSplit Broadcasting Connects Entire eSports And Gaming Communities

When we launched XSplit almost six years ago, we set out on a mission to make live streaming and recording simple. In that time, both broadcasting and gaming changed dramatically, with the advent of new live streaming services, the birth of the Twitch Streamer, and the explosion of eSports capturing the imagination of players across the globe.

XSplit Broadcaster ScreenShot

Fast forward to 2016 and the world’s top gaming personalities, eSports teams, game developers, publishers and millions of people worldwide are using XSplit to create innovative, hilarious, entertaining and meaningful content that has impacted audiences of all ages. Live streaming has helped bring people together from all walks of life, and with hundreds of thousands of new users joining us every month, that number is set to grow higher still.

Yet this is still only the beginning. Our aspirations for the future are much bigger, as we envision a world where players can seamlessly connect to one another in a dedicated space, share and create content, compete with one another and grow their own communities. To turn this dream into a reality though, we knew we needed the right expertise, technology and people to make this happen.

This is where social discovery platform, Player.me, and tournament management service, Challonge come in. Between these two services we see the potential to create a platform that connects the entire gaming community and serves the needs of all players in their daily lives.

Henrik Levring
Henrik Levring

We’re going to shake things up a bit over the coming months by combining the Player.me community and discovery engine with Challonge’s tournament bracket technology to create a future where players, content creators, eSports entrepreneurs and event organizers, can connect with one another seamlessly and beautifully.

Both Sean Fee (CEO of Player.me) and David Cornelius (CEO of Challonge), two top entrepreneurs and leaders in their field share this vision to build a connected experience, and we cannot wait to show you what’s coming in the near future. On a final note, we would like to thank our community, our partners and of course you – our users for being with us on this adventure. For the Silo, Henrik Levring, CEO of SplitmediaLabs.