The map pool change in CS2 created another interesting storyline around ZywOo. Before the removal of Overpass, the French star was the best player on 4 out of 7 maps in 2026. That is exactly why the joke that Valve literally “nerfed” Vitality’s star feels very fitting.
Occupied by top names
This statistic shows the scale of his advantage very clearly. ZywOo led Nuke with a 1.45 rating, Inferno with 1.34, Overpass with 1.54, and Mirage with 1.36.
The other maps were also occupied by top names, just not by him. donk ranked first on Dust2 and Ancient, while m0NESY led on Anubis. In other words, ZywOo controlled the largest part of the active map pool.
Why Overpass matters so much here
The most important part of this story is that Overpass was not just another map on the list. It was one of ZywOo’s strongest maps overall, and the 1.54 rating only confirms that.
That is why the removal of Overpass automatically reduces his statistical presence in the pool. If previously he was the best on four maps, now that number drops to three. And that is exactly where the joke about a “Valve nerf” comes from.
It is a joke that works very well
Of course, Valve did not remove the map specifically because of ZywOo. But the joke lands for another reason: when a player is so strong that removing one map genuinely looks like a hit to his dominance, that is already a separate indicator of his level.
In fact, this story only underlines how powerful ZywOo’s season has been. Not every top player can say that he was simultaneously the best on most of the maps in the pool.
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Valve “nerfed” ZywOo
The joke that Valve “nerfed” ZywOo has a very simple foundation. Before the removal of Overpass, the French player ranked first on 4 out of 7 maps in 2026, and after the map pool change, one of his strongest maps simply disappeared from the active pool.
But the main conclusion here is not even about the map swap itself. It is that ZywOo was so dominant across the map pool that even a rotation like this is immediately read as a separate storyline around him.
