apEX: “ZywOo got pretty angry [when he came 3rd in HLTV]”

In Thorin’s latest Reflections episode with apEX, the veteran IGL opened up about managing the “egos” in Vitality.

apEX joined Thorin for an in-depth interview about his current team, Team Vitality, which just won its second ESL Grand Slam.

A recurring theme was the space he needed to give to his star players, namely, ropz and ZywOo.

People talk about egos in a negative way. It’s positive to have an ego. If you don’t have an ego, I promise you, you’re not a star player.

Ropz’s “big game” presence

apEX was full of praise for ropz, but admitted his game could become predictable.

Sometimes I have to tell ropz to step back a bit, because he can be countered. What I try to do is give him 80% freedom and the rest I just ask him to do stuff.

Despite having to reel him in sometimes, he delivers in big matches like no other player, according to apEX.

He’s the biggest game player I’ve ever seen. Out of 10 plays he goes for, 7 or 8 end up working out on stage.

apEX’s strongest contrast was with Spinx, his previous teammate and lurker.

Spinx baits too much for the impact he has. Of course, ropz also baits, but I just tell him to enjoy. The impact he has for the team is way enough.

ZywOo’s quiet ego

Despite being considered quiet, apEX revealed that ZywOo can also be an explosive teammate.

[ZywOo] is super stubborn. In 2025, he was raging a lot, always complaining, sometimes he didn’t give info.

Behind closed doors, ZywOo was hurt by his #3 placement by HLTV in 2024, behind m0NESY and donk.

I had this running joke with ZywOo: ‘Top three? Huh.’ I made fun of him, saying I’m not playing with a top three player. It’s the worst result he ever had.

He got pretty angry, saying ‘no way, next year I’m gonna fuck everyone.’

apEX talked about having to push ZywOo to be his best.

The problem with ZywOo is that sometimes, he just does “enough”. But then his level goes down. In 2025, donk started to catch up because of that.

I told ZywOo [at the end of 2025] that “the only reason you got first is because your team did amazing.”

ZywOo is logging best year yet in 2026, according to apEX, with maybe more to come.

Krakow (IEM Krakow 2026) was the best event [of ZywOo’s career]. He’s the best player of the first four months [of this year], and there’s not even a debate.

The others, they never pushed ZywOo too much. You never know when a great player is at his peak. Maybe we haven’t seen [ZywOo’s] peak.