HLTV Awards 2025: ZywOo named Player of the Year

The 2026 Counter-Strike 2 season is about to kick off with the BLAST Bounty Winter 2026 tournament as of this week. With the next year of action about to commence, HLTV has rounded out the 2025 season by hosting its annual HLTV Awards show, wherein the best players and teams of the season are recognised.

Hosted in Belgrade, Serbia on January 11, the event spotlighted many individuals and organisations, with the focus not just on current and upcoming talent, but also the legends who paved the way for Counter-Strike 2 to be as successful as it is today. As for who won awards and who was recognised for their contributions to the esport, the full slate of winners can be seen below.

HLTV Awards:

• Women's Player of The Year - Mayline-Joy "⁠ASTRA⁠" Champliaud


• Women's Team of The Year - BIG EQUIPA


• Rookie of The Year - Danil "⁠molodoy⁠" Golubenko


• Team of The Year - Team Vitality


• Player of The Year - Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut

Panel Awards:

• Closer of the Year - Robin "ropz" Kool


• Anchor of the Year - William "mezii" Merriman


• IGL of the Year - Dan "apEX" Madesclaire


• AWPer of the Year - Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut


• Opener of the Year - Danil "donk" Kryshkovets


• Coach of the Year - Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam


• Highlight of the Year - donk - 1v5 vs Vitality

Community Awards:

• Talent of the Year - James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks


• Streamer of the Year - Mark "⁠ohnePixel⁠" Zimmermann


• Creator of the Year - dima_aimbots


• Event of the Year - StarLadder Budapest Major


• Skin of the Year - AWP | Printstream (JTPNZ)

These winners were also bolstered by three new Hall of Fame inductees, with the honour handed to Raphael "⁠cogu⁠" Camargo, Yegor "⁠markeloff⁠" Markelov, and Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer.