HLTV Awards 2025 Predictions. Who Will Take Home the Main Awards of 2025?
Every year, HLTV Awards recognizes the best CS2 players. From the outside, it seems simple: look at the statistics, pick the best one. But in reality, there’s an entire factory working behind the scenes to evaluate skill. This isn’t a popular vote or one journalist’s opinion. It’s a verdict from the most authoritative people in the industry, issued according to clear rules. In this article, we’ll try to predict who will receive the coveted statuettes and give our assessment of how deserved it is.
How Did the Selection Process Work?
To predict the 2025 winners, you first need to understand who selects them and how exactly. The selection is made by chosen judges, specifically 35 of the world’s top experts:
- One representative from each of the top 20 teams in the world (player, coach, or analyst)
- 10 stars from analyst desks or commentators
- 5 HLTV staff members
How Are Player Roles Determined?
This is one of the most interesting and important questions. While things are quite clear with the AWPer and captain, what about anchors, lurkers, and openers? HLTV tracks not only numbers throughout the year but also where and how each player performs. They have their own system for this.
Opener and Lurker: Everything is decided by the “aggressiveness” of the position on the map. Each spot on the terrorist side is given a rating from 0 to 10.
- 0 is pure ambush position (for example, lobby on Nuke)
- 10 is active control (for example, playing mid on Ancient)
They calculate the player’s average score for the year. Whoever has a higher rating is the opener, who built their rating on more aggressive map positions. Whoever has a lower rating is the lurker, who masterfully operates from the shadows.
Anchor: The most difficult role in defense. This is the player put in the most uncomfortable and passive positions (for example, defending B site on Mirage alone). To qualify for the nomination, a player must play these difficult spots. To filter out stars who sometimes take easy positions, the jury looks at a special efficiency rating (Target Rating). The player must be the most “inefficient” on their team by this metric – this proves they’re a true anchor, not just a star in a comfortable position.
Why Do We Need to Know This for Predictions?
Because now we look at players differently. To win an award for 2025, you didn’t just need to play well, but to perfectly and consistently execute one specific role so well that it gets noticed and appreciated. Only three contenders remain for each award, so let’s get to the predictions themselves.
AWPer of the Year Finalists
- Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov – 45%
- Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut – 35%
- Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov – 25%
Before donk appeared on the pro scene, this award could have determined the best player of 2025, but now only the Frenchman from this trio is a contender for that title. However, according to our prediction, he won’t take the best AWPer statuette, as there are maps (for example, attacking on Inferno or Nuke) where ZywOo completely refuses and doesn’t even look for opportunities to play with the AWP. m0NESY is also quite a versatile player, but the AWPing instinct is felt (and manifested in numbers) much more strongly in him than in the Frenchman. That’s why we’re betting on Ilya. As for sh1ro, he was simply unlucky to play in the same era as these monsters, and to overtake them, he clearly lacks aggression.
IGL of the Year Finalists
- Dan “apEX” Madesclaire – 80%
- Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo – 15%
- Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren – 5%
This one is too simple. Vitality had an absolutely incredible season, and denying apEX’s enormous contribution to his team’s success would be foolish. The Frenchman is a true leader who knows how to manage his guys, both emotionally and tactically. Dan’s utility work is also top-notch, which is noted not only in statistics but also by his opponents. What bLitz is doing in this trio is a mystery, as there were many rumors about Techno calling for The MongolZ (especially after he stopped sitting in the middle). FalleN can boldly add this season to his resume – a super successful experiment with an international roster, 4 trophies, but surpassing apEX in 2025 was simply impossible.
Opener of the Year Finalists
- Danil “donk” Kryshkovets – 90%
- Shahar “flameZ” Shushan – 6%
- Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis – 4%
Yes, we’ll talk a lot more about Vitality, but here all attention is definitely grabbed by donk. The young talent terrorized the entire pro scene again, which seemingly came up with ways to stop him, but ultimately it didn’t help. Absolutely insane numbers at every tournament, more records, adding the legendary IEM Cologne trophy to his collection, the first roster changes where he still remained Spirit’s main weapon. Without a doubt, we’ll see him on stage again accepting this award and again won’t see a smile on his face, as he craves completely different awards. As for YEKINDAR and flameZ, of course their contribution to their teams’ victories was extremely significant, an excellent season from both, but right now their level is significantly below donk’s.
Closer of the Year Finalists
- Robin “ropz” Kool – 75%
- Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato – 15%
- David “frozen” Čerňanský – 10%
This nomination also shouldn’t expect any special surprises. The transfer of ropz from FaZe Clan to Vitality is a contender for the best transfer in Counter-Strike history. No player has ever been able to influence a team’s game as strongly as Robin did. His play is a certain kind of art that isn’t expressed through flashiness – the Estonian does his job quietly, reliably, and incredibly effectively. If you think about it, he’s almost the only pure lurker in modern CS, performing this role on absolutely any map. KSCERATO grew significantly this year, his backstabs finally acquired the right timings, and he’s no longer the last survivor in every round. Frozen individually was the only bright spot in FaZe, but, but, and again but…
Anchor of the Year Finalists
- William “mezii” Merriman – 55%
- Nikita “HeavyGod” Martynenko – 25%
- Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy – 20%
Despite fairly high chances for each contender, we still ask you to note that mezii significantly leads both opponents. Everyone joked about the Brit’s settings, but he’s already a two-time Major winner and has managed to become the player who can be left alone and will guaranteed provide the needed difference, whatever device and however many grenades he has in his arsenal. We also want to note HeavyGod, who became G2’s leader, carried the team on his shoulders, and felt like he wasn’t just playing anchor but doing the work of at least 2-3 teammates. However, in mezii’s case, you can’t say he was “carried” – this was Vitality’s main secret in 2025, every team player was the best in their position.
Coach of the Year Finalists
- Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam – 55%
- Sergey “hally” Shavaev – 40%
- Erdenedalai “maaRaa” Bayanbat – 5%
You can feel there will be a huge amount of debate around this award. In fact, it’s already started during open discussions of nominees on social media, where many talents praise hally’s work and talk about his enormous contribution to the team’s game. We certainly support these thoughts, especially wanting to praise him for structural changes and instant reaction to the new roster’s failures. This work shouldn’t go unnoticed, but trophies and consistency are XTQZZZ’s main arguments, which are impossible to beat. Vitality reached the playoffs of absolutely every tournament they participated in, while Spirit often stopped their run at the group stage. The award must go to the Frenchman, but we don’t rule out that the community will decide otherwise based on the overall media background.
Highlight of the Year Finalists
- Danil “donk” Kryshkovets – 1v5 vs. Vitality – 33.3%
- Robin “ropz” Kool – Two-second ace vs. 3DMAX – 33.3%
- Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken – 4k 1v3 Deagle vs. Natus Vincere – 33.3%
For some reason, there’s no doubt that donk will take the award, as HLTV will want to smooth over the guilt for giving the top-1 to ZywOo, but we decided to keep the intrigue and express respect to all participants. All the highlights turned out different, beautiful in their own way, spectacular, technical, and made at important tournaments. Therefore, here we’ll be happy with any outcome and will leave our prediction as such.
Author: Alex
Alex is an author and esports observer with more than seven years of experience. He specializes in analyzing new releases in the world of computer games, gaming services, and in-game economies. Alex shares practical experience and an expert perspective on the development of gaming, helping readers understand complex mechanics and stay up to date with the latest news.
