Vitality are back. If you weren't sure after StarSeries, you can be sure now.
That statement is tempered by Dan "apEX" Madesclaire's upcoming absence for PGL Masters Bucharest, but ESL Pro League Katowice offered us a chance to see Vitality's main five players on fire before the final Major of the year.
Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut's 34th MVP was not a procession, either, given that four of Vitality ended the group stage above a 1.30 rating.
But after five player of the map performances in playoffs, en route to a 1.58 arena rating, ZywOo simply refused to let a teammate snatch this medal away.
This EVP article features new metrics on the player radars, so we would encourage you to read the new glossary.
The new metrics are designed to align more with how EVPs are actually decided, rather than a collection of aggregated stats over the whole event.
Radar Chart Stat Glossary
Rating 3.0: HLTV's composite rating of kills, damage, survival, KAST, multis and Swing
KPRW: Kills per round win
Eco Swing: Duels won above expected value, based on equipment of a player and their opponent
Impact Rounds: Rounds with positive round swing
Round Swing: The win probability sum of a player's actions
A Game: A player's 75th percentile map
B Game: A player's 50th percentile map
C Game: A player's 25th percentile map
Vs Top 10: Rating vs top 10 teams (HLTV Ranking)
Vs Top Half: Rating vs teams who placed in the top half of the event
Rank in Team: Avg. rank within your team by rating
Map Wins: Rating in map wins in series wins
Shahar "flameZ" Shushan
flameZ's fifth EVP of 2026 is a strong one, and he was the closest player to denying ZywOo the MVP after posting nine standout maps in Katowice.
The highlights were 2.00+ rated maps against Falcons and PARIVISION, but he had a map above 1.55 in every single Vitality series, which shows the volume of his peaks.
So while it's another second place in the MVP race, Pro League is sure to be one of flameZ's best events of the year, and give him plenty of credit as he looks to improve on his two-time number seven placement in the Top 20 Players of the Year.
Robin "ropz" Kool
ropz was a pillar of consistency in Poland, with only one map below the 1.00 mark and a 1.30 rating against top 10 teams. Like flameZ, he fell behind ZywOo in map and round wins, but it remains a very strong EVP indeed.
His 1.40 rating in groups came from peaks against 1win, Natus Vincere and Falcons, no slouches, and he was solid in playoffs too with a 1.24 rating.
So even with a bit of a summer slump, ropz now has back-to-back EVPs, and six EVP+ events for 2026.
Lotan "Spinx" Giladi
Spinx was MOUZ's team leader en route to the final in Spodek, with a 1.34 rating in map wins and 1.22 overall.
The team had a very tough run at the event, with an average opponent rank of 5.2, which makes Spinx's performance even more impressive.
He finished 79% of maps above the 1.00 mark, was brilliant against Spirit on Dust2 twice, and did just enough to stand out in what was a true team effort.
Ali "Wicadia" Haydar Yalçın
It's three closers in a row, as Wicadia joins the EVP list.
After early concerns about his adaptation to the international Aurora, Wicadia has been restored to his prior status as the team's most impactful player.
Even before the low-stakes third-place decider, Wicadia was a strong EVP after some great map wins and putting up a fight against Vitality in semi-finals.
He averaged a 1.19 rating against top 5 and top 10 teams, a 0.16 gap to his next teammate, and was just as dominant in round wins (1.10 KPRW, 0.94 next best).
Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov
Even amid struggles for Falcons as a team, m0NESY has been in excellent form since the summer break with a 1.33 rating and three EVPs.
He and Nikola "NiKo" Kovač led the team in groups, but only m0NESY and Maksim "kyousuke" Lukin put up any semblance of resistance against Spirit in the quarter-finals as Falcons floundered once again.
And it was that consistency that helped him reach EVP status, with him placing in the top three on the scoreboard (by rating) in 67% of his maps played, the second most of any player behind flameZ (69%).
Danil "donk" Kryshkovets
donk completes the EVP list after what can still be considered an off-event by his lofty standards.
His floor often disappeared beneath him in Katowice, with five maps at or below a 0.81 rating, and he had three bad maps in the arena compared to two good ones.
But when we strip the nameplate off, there is no way that a player with a 1.48 rating in map wins, 1.24 KPRW and a 1.19 in playoffs would be denied an EVP nod.
So while his poor floor and Spirit's fairly easy run (their average opponent rank was just 25.1) held him back, donk still did just enough for his eighth award of 2026.
The best players of ESL Pro League Season 24, in order:
Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut
Shahar "flameZ" Shushan
Robin "ropz" Kool
Lotan "Spinx" Giladi
Ali "Wicadia" Haydar Yalçın
Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov
Danil "donk" Kryshkovets
Honorable mentions
Ádám "torzsi" Torzsás and Oldřich "PR" Nový were the closest players to the EVP list, both doing their part in MOUZ's run to the final.
torzsi, especially, was in prime position for an EVP after a 1.32 rating in groups, but he finished playoffs with a 0.93 rating after a disastrous final.
PR was much better in playoffs, with four strong maps in the arena, but didn't get much credit in groups, which meant both players fell just below the threshold.
NiKo, as mentioned, was great in groups but like Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato, William "mezii" Merriman and Vladislav "xiELO" Lysov, did not do well enough in playoffs to cross the EVP boundary.
In groups, Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov and Franco "dgt" Garcia stood out most, but neither did enough for a nod.
All-Star
ZywOo and flameZ are the easy picks for our All-Star best five, as the two best players of the event.
Then PR slots in as anchor, as the best in his role despite missing out on an EVP.
The tricky bit is the IGL and Closer, due to our rule around having a maximum of three players per team.
When choosing between apEX and ropz, the key factor is the distance to the second-best option in their category, which led us to choose apEX for his 10% lead in T-side round win rate over Dorian "xertioN" Berman.
That means Spinx leapfrogs ropz to be our Closer, reuniting him with the Vitality core he left behind.
Multi-award winners
Note: This does not include Thunderpick World Championship 2026.
The EVPs of 2026
- Bounty S1
- Cluj-Napoca
- Rotterdam
- Rio
- Astana
- CAC
- XSE PL
- EWC
- FPG3
- EPL S24
- Krakow
- EPL S23
- Bucharest
- Rivals S1
- Atlanta
- Cologne (M)
- Bounty S2
- Porto
- StarSeries
- Vitality
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam
Vladislav 'xiELO' LysovPast 3 months
Oldřich 'PR' NovýPast 3 months
PARIVISION
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali
Vladislav 'xiELO' Lysov
Ivan 'zweih' Gogin
Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoPast 3 months
Franco 'dgt' GarciaPast 3 months
Dorian 'xertioN' BermanPast 3 months
Ádám 'torzsi' TorzsásPast 3 months
Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePast 3 months
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačPast 3 months
William 'mezii' MerrimanPast 3 months
Ilya 'm0NESY' OsipovPast 3 months
Ihor 'w0nderful' ZhdanovPast 3 months
Robin 'ropz' KoolPast 3 months
Falcons
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev
Lotan 'Spinx' GiladiPast 3 months
MOUZ
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Oldřich 'PR' Nový
Adrian 'xelex' Vincze
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen
Danil 'donk' KryshkovetsPast 3 months
Maksim 'kyousuke' LukinPast 3 months
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanPast 3 months
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautPast 3 months
Aurora
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Özgür 'woxic' Eker
Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Ashley 'ash' Battye
1win
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Andrey 'BELCHONOKK' Yasinskiy
Petr 'fame' Bolyshev
Artem 'ArtFr0st' Kharitonov
Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar YalçınPast 3 months
Natus Vincere
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Mihai 'iM' Ivan
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov
Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri
Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy