Tournament trophies are certainly more important for Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) players and teams, but getting this level of recognition should also feel nice.
The ceremony of HLTV Awards 2025 was a nice chance to see the winners and nominees in a somewhat glamorous environment. Such a social event has totally different vibes than the competitive excitement of CS2 tournaments.
The prestige of receiving these awards is rather a confirmation of the true achievements on the server. If you’ve followed the season, most winners feel logical and not too surprising.
HLTV Awards 2025: Winners in the main categories
The most important part of HLTV Awards 2025 is about acknowledging the best team and the best player. Traditionally, we had separate awards for women in CS2 esports.
Player of the year — ZywOo
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut had some weirdly ineffective rounds, especially in the second half of 2025, but in general, he totally deserves this win. As a star player, he helped Team Vitality shine in the biggest tournaments.
ZywOo received two personal wins at HLTV Awards 2025: he is also the AWPer of the year.
Robin “ropz” Kool and Danil “donk” Kryshkovets were the contenders. They received Panel Awards for their team roles.
People were really interested in the list of the top 20 players at HLTV Awards 2025. The organizers revealed the names gradually, igniting even more hype. Now, we know everyone!
Team of the year — Team Vitality
They dominated the first half of 2025, winning every tournament. Team Vitality had more difficulties in the second half of the year, but they still secured both Major wins.
There was almost no doubt that Vitality would be named the team of the year! We need to see these guys in the CS2 tournaments 2026 — can this be the era of Vitality to beat the records of Astralis?
Rookie of the year — molodoy
Danil “molodoy” Golubenko came to FURIA, and the team got an impressive series of tournament wins. There were many talks about the role of Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo in bringing this rookie to the top scene.
Despite some apparent shakiness on the biggest stage of the Budapest Major, molodoy easily beat other contenders for this award: Maxim “kyousuke” Lukin from Team Falcons and Drin “makazze” Shaqiri from NAVI.
Women’s player of the year — ASTRA
Mayline “ASTRA” Champliaud is an in-game leader (IGL) and AWPer in the team BIG EQUIPA. She beat other girls this year: Bruna “bizinha” Marvila from FURIA Female and Wiktoria “vicu” Janicka, a teammate from BIG EQUIPA.
Women’s team of the year — BIG EQUIPA
This year, BIG EQUIPA won quite a few tournaments in the female dimension of CS2 esports, including the final ESL Impact.
Panel Awards 2025 winners
This section of HLTV Awards 2025 is all about team roles. Only one non-Vitality player mixed into this bee-extravaganza. You can check all the nominees in this article.
IGL — Dan “apEX” Madesclaire from Team Vitality
AWPer — Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut from Team Vitality
Anchor — William “mezii” Merriman from Team Vitality
Closer — Robin “ropz” Kool from Team Vitality
Opener — Danil “donk” Kryshkovets from Team Spirit
Coach — Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam from Team Vitality
Highlight — donk
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Winners of HLTV Community Awards 2025
As for everything surrounding the game, HLTV Awards 2025 named the most notable personalities — and also an event and a skin.
Talent — James “BanKs” Banks
Event — StarLadder Budapest Major 2025
Skin — AWP | Printstream
Creator — dima_aimbots
Streamer — Mark “OhnePixel” Zimmermann
The hunt for the next award starts soon after this ceremony. The first event of the year is BLAST Bounty Winter 2026, from Jan. 13 to Jan 25. Then, we have IEM Krakow 2025, from Jan. 28 to Feb. 8, which is the first tournament in front of a big crowd.
Valve already announced changes for this competitive season, as Anubis replaces Train in the Active Duty pool. The community is not too happy about this move, but pro players should be able to adapt to this rotation decently.