Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato may be tired but he is in as good a form as he ever has been.
He's not had a LAN below a 1.15 rating this season, and now has earned his reward with an MVP and trophy lift at Thunderpick World Championship.
That means both of the Brazilian's MVPs come from TWC, adding to his one from last year. But this one was even stronger than last year's, with a whopping seven player-of-the-map performances.
The gap to his team was stark in almost every metric: +0.35 in rating, +0.24 against top 10 teams, +3.28% round swing. His average rank on his team's scoreboard was 1.75.
It's KSCERATO's fifth EVP+ event of 2026, as he looks to improve on his best-ever ninth-place finish in the Top 20.
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
Kirill "Magnojez" Rodnov
If anyone was going to ruin KSCERATO's party, it was Magnojez.
After a day one loss to FURIA, Magnojez stepped up a gear and posted a 1.44 rating in map wins to guide BETBOOM through the lower bracket to the final.
He was player of the map six times, only one fewer than KSCERATO, and finished the final with the highest rating (1.23) of anyone to cap a magnificent event.
Magnojez was stellar in playoffs overall (1.29 rating) and in KPRW (1.08), making it a performance worthy of an MVP had KSCERATO not been in such blistering form.
The best players of Thunderpick World Championship 2026, in order:
Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato
Kirill "Magnojez" Rodnov
Honorable mentions
There are no more EVPs, so we owe you all an explanation. In an eight-team event, we generally aim for four players above the EVP threshold, so one MVP and three EVPs.
But this is a guideline, and when no player crosses that threshold it is preferable to be strict rather than to elevate the third and fourth highest-ranked players to EVP status.
You've already seen this at BLAST Bounty, though the format there lends itself to a small number of EVPs as players play fewer games.
Here, it's more peculiar, but it is telling that the two awards we did hand out, to KSCERATO and Magnojez, were both very high-scoring ones with huge gaps to their teammates.
Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov was closest to a nod, but before the third-place decider — which we have treated with a low weight all year — he had three good maps and four middling ones. His rating in map wins was only 1.26, the same as René "TeSeS" Madsen.
Danil "molodoy" Golubenko was consistent, but he lacked peaks, especially in playoffs. Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis, despite illness, had a few more peaks but not enough for an EVP.
Pavel "S1ren" Ogloblin and Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko were similar stories, good events but not exceptionally valuable ones.
Jimi "Jimpphat" Salo looks good by the end, but had a 1.05 rating before the third-place decider (1.07 in the four map wins). Even with lots of credit for his showing against Falcons, he falls short of EVP status. Ali "Wicadia" Haydar Yalçın was better in the run to semi-finals but did not confirm it in playoffs.
Luciano "luchov" Herrera and Bruno "latto" Rebelatto were great in groups, but neither was at the outstanding level required for a group stage nod.
All-Star
There is room for m0NESY and S1ren in our all-star lineup, however, as the best AWPer and Anchor of the event.
S1ren deserves credit for his 7-0 record in 1v1 clutches this event, while m0NESY's 1.18 KPRW is also excellent.
Magnojez and KSCERATO are the easy picks, the two dominant players in Malta.
Finally, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo — who was fragging at a good level this event — completes the list as the in-game leader who steadied FURIA when they were 2-1 down in the final and helped them emerge victorious.
Multi-award winners
Magnojez joins the list, making it 28 players with two or more EVP+ events this year already.
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
- TWC
Jimi 'Jimpphat' SaloPast 3 months
Kirill 'Magnojez' RodnovPast 3 months
Bruno 'latto' RebelattoPast 3 months
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoPast 3 months
Luciano 'luchov' HerreraPast 3 months
Pavel 'S1ren' OgloblinPast 3 months
Aleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoPast 3 months
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoPast 3 months
Danil 'molodoy' GolubenkoPast 3 months
René 'TeSeS' MadsenPast 3 months
BETBOOM
Kirill 'Magnojez' Rodnov
Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko
Pavel 'S1ren' Ogloblin
Daniil 'd1Ledez' Kustov
Artem 'Fierce' Ivanov
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar YalçınPast 3 months
Falcons
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisPast 3 months
FURIA
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Danil 'molodoy' Golubenko
Sid 'sidde' Macedo
Ilya 'm0NESY' OsipovPast 3 months