The HLTV Awards 2025 ceremony capped off the Counter-Strike 2 esports season by honoring standout players, teams, and contributors. Team Vitality dominated the major categories, while emerging talents and women's divisions also received accolades. The event highlighted achievements from a competitive year marked by major tournament wins.
The HLTV Awards 2025 served as a glamorous conclusion to the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) esports season, shifting focus from intense competitions to recognition of top performers. Organized by HLTV, the ceremony acknowledged accomplishments across various categories, with most winners aligning with expectations from the year's tournaments.
In the premier categories, Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut of Team Vitality earned Player of the Year for his pivotal role in securing major victories, despite some inconsistent performances later in 2025. He also claimed the AWPer of the Year award. Team Vitality was named Team of the Year after dominating the first half of the season and clinching both Major titles, though they faced challenges afterward.
Rookie of the Year went to Danil "molodoy" Golubenko of FURIA, who contributed to a string of tournament successes following his arrival. He outperformed contenders like Maxim "kyousuke" Lukin from Team Falcons and Drin "makazze" Shaqiri from NAVI, even amid some struggles at the Budapest Major.
The women's categories spotlighted BIG EQUIPA, with Mayline "ASTRA" Champliaud winning Women's Player of the Year as the team's in-game leader and AWPer. She edged out Bruna "bizinha" Marvila of FURIA Female and teammate Wiktoria "vicu" Janicka. BIG EQUIPA took Women's Team of the Year for their tournament wins, including the ESL Impact Season 8 Finals. As one player noted, “This is what every girl playing Counter-Strike dreams of.” Another added, “We all know this is the last ESL Impact Final, and we wanted to give it our everything.”
Panel Awards emphasized team roles, heavily favoring Vitality: Dan "apEX" Madesclaire for IGL, ZywOo for AWPer, William "mezii" Merriman for Anchor, and Robin "ropz" Kool for Closer. Danil "donk" Kryshkovets of Team Spirit won Opener and Highlight, while Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam of Vitality was Coach of the Year.
Community Awards celebrated broader contributions: James "BanKs" Banks as Talent, the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 as Event, AWP | Printstream as Skin, dima_aimbots as Creator, and Mark “OhnePixel” Zimmermann as Streamer.
Looking ahead, the CS2 scene prepares for BLAST Bounty Winter 2026 from January 13 to 25, followed by IEM Krakow 2025 from January 28 to February 8. Valve's map rotation, replacing Train with Anubis in the Active Duty pool, has drawn mixed reactions from the community.