When an AWPer is simultaneously the best player on the best team, and the season includes that level of individual dominance, the award usually follows.<\/p>\n
I personally prefer m0NESYs aggressive style as an awper, genuinely think that he often plays more with awp than ZywOo himself but ZywOo is just more consistent and has proved himself a lot more on the bigger stages while mONESY\u00b4s failed to show consistency when his team needed the most in high pressure situations pretty much towards the whole year. It is fair to say that it\u2019s not only his fault, there were a bunch of roster changes and drama surrounding their roster but still. Fair to mention as well that during the second season, I personally feel like molodoy from FURIA probably overperformed all of these awpers in terms of impact, and he is my bold prediction to be on this top 3 for 2026.<\/p>\n
Final Prediction: ZywOo<\/p>\n
Dark horse: m0NESY (if the panel leans into pure eye-test impact and superstar difficulty)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/community.skin.club\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-2-6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
2) IGL of the Year<\/h3>\n
Finalists: apEX, bLitz, FalleN\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n This is a surprisingly spicy trio because each represents a different kind<\/i> of leadership story:<\/p>\n If you\u2019re rewarding the one with the biggest results<\/i>, apEX has the cleanest case. I personally feel like he\u2019s the most likely favorite to win and that\u2019s fair because of what he accomplished but I would choose FalleN because I think what he was able to do with FURIA throughout the second season is just way harder. From rebuilding the roster with 2 international players while one of them was specifically scouted by him (molodoy) to becoming a Rifler and Anchor while having to change the main language of the team, integrate two new players, where one of them had absolutely 0 lans and big tournaments experience, for in the less than a year being able to beat majority of the best teams in the world, having a short title streak and finishing the year as one of the best teams in the world. That\u2019s enough for me to reward him with the trophy, with all due respect to apEX and his ability as an IGL, but for me IGL goes beyond what happens just in the server and you have to look at characteristics on the outside.<\/p>\n Final Prediction: apEX<\/p>\n Dark horse: FalleN (if voters reward historic regional impact and ability to redefine FURIA\u00b4s season)<\/p>\n Finalists: donk, flameZ, YEKINDAR<\/p>\n Opener is about more than just first kills, it\u2019s the willingness to take the first fights, create space, and still post superstar numbers. HLTV\u2019s notes on donk are\u2026 absurd: elite rating, elite kill pace, elite opener output.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n In this one I don\u2019t have many comments, it\u2019s just really hard to compete against donk while he\u2019s putting those numbers while his team not necessarily helps him that much, I certainly dont think Spirit plays for him, it\u2019s in fact the other way around where he is the best definition of a opener by nature and you can tell that he doesn\u2019t care about his stats or anything like that, obviously flameZ has been tremendously helpful on Vitality as well and helped them tremendously to have the year they had, but I would personally like to give a special shout-out to YEKINDAR being able to reinvent himself with FURIA, many people think that molodoy was instrumental for FURIA\u00b4s recent success but from a Coach perspective I think YEKINDAR has had tremendous impact not only on the role but on the way FURIA plays counter-strike nowadays, you can tell he is sort of a coldzera from back in the days and the second voice in the team, while molodoy just has to focus on doing what he does best, killing people with the big gun.<\/p>\n Final Prediction: donk<\/p>\n Dark horse: flameZ (if the panel rewards system entry value on the year\u2019s best team)<\/p>\n Finalists: frozen, KSCERATO, ropz<\/p>\n Closers are judged by how reliably they win the late-round, high-pressure, low-margin moments. All three finalists are worthy:<\/p>\n The \u201ccloser\u201d identity maps so perfectly onto ropz\u2019s brand, and his year sits right at the center of the most dominant storyline. it\u2019s just really hard to compete against him cause in my opinion he does all of that while being creative and constantly changing the meta with how impactful a smart lurk can be during the rounds, you can tell how much impact he also has on gathering information to help apEX to call even better on mid to late rounds, while I think KSCERATO is more of a hard lurker where the team plays rounds and tries to put him in the best situation as possible because he is nowadays probably the best player in the world in clutch situations.<\/p>\n Final Prediction: ropz<\/p>\n Dark horse: KSCERATO (if the panel prioritizes raw \u201cI win rounds alone\u201d power and MVP highlight moments)<\/p>\n Finalists: b1t, HeavyGod, mezii<\/p>\n This is the category where prediction gets genuinely tricky, because anchor value can be \u201cinvisible\u201d unless you watch roles closely.<\/p>\n This is the only category that I highly disagree with one of the selections from the panel, I would easily replace b1t with yuurih on this list. First because I don\u2019t think NAVI and b1t have done anything crazy through the year both as an individual and as a team, secondly because Yuurih has had to just like FalleN reinvent himself in a new role to just shortly after become one of the best anchors during the first season and at the BLAST Austin Major, he has been very consistent throughout the second season as well so I don\u2019t see why his name is not on this list, but either way, anchors often get rewarded when they\u2019re the glue that enables a juggernaut to function. That points to mezii and the crazy amount of consistently he\u2019s brought to Vitality during this year, I am sorry to HeavyGod and I know he was instrumental for that trophy G2 lifted while being the MVP but mezii has just been a way more impactful anchor throughout the whole year.<\/p>\n Final Prediction: mezii<\/p>\n Dark horse: HeavyGod (MVP narratives can swing voters even in role awards)<\/p>\n Finalists: hally, maaRaa, XTQZZZ<\/p>\n This is the \u201csystems\u201d award, and each finalist is basically a different coaching archetype:<\/p>\n I made a tweet not too long ago stating that its unfortunately literally impossible for anyone outside of a team to measure the impact of a Head Coach, If the panel leans \u201cachievement + sustained dominance,\u201d then we already know who the favorite of this list is, but I personally value way more things over that, such as presence on stage, roster changes that worked, tactical and players development, successful timeouts etc.. and on all of those departments, I think both of the other options on maaRa and hally has had way more impact in their teams, but unfortunately that\u2019s just not the way majority of the people look at things and they just care about trophies and accomplishments, so based on that I already have my choice.<\/p>\n Final Prediction: XTQZZZ<\/p>\n Dark horse: maaRaa (if the panel rewards overperformance and talent development above all)<\/p>\n Finalists: donk 1v5 vs Vitality, ropz two-second ace vs 3DMAX, Twistzz 4k 1v3 Deagle vs NAVI\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n First of all ,I personally would have chosen the ace clutch 1v5 from Jimphatt during IEM Dallas 2025 over the Twistzz rounds any day of the week, but anyway.. Highlights aren\u2019t just about mechanics, they\u2019re about myth-making<\/i>. A clean 1v5 against the year\u2019s superteam is exactly the sort of clip that lives forever. Easy prediction in my eyes.<\/p>\n Final Prediction: donk 1v5 vs Vitality<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/community.skin.club\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-4-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n3) Opener of the Year<\/h3>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/community.skin.club\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-6-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n4) Closer of the Year<\/h3>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/community.skin.club\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n5) Anchor of the Year<\/h3>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/community.skin.club\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-10.jpg\")
<\/p>\n6) Coach of the Year<\/h3>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/community.skin.club\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/XTQZZZ_at_BLAST_Open_Spring_2025.jpg\")
<\/p>\n7) Highlight of the Year<\/h3>\n