HLTV Awards
So we’re all agreed it’s donk, right?
You can make an argument for ZywOo, just like you can make an argument for device being the best CS:GO player ever, or Ronaldo being the best footballer ever, or Counter-Strike 2 being better than CS:GO.
The rest of us have eyes, though, and won’t be fooled by your tricks.
ZywOo has the accolades, the MVPs and the pictures of him winning trophies. That’s invaluable, and we’re not going to sit here and pretend that winning things isn’t important. It is - that’s the ultimate goal of competition, and we’re not going to say it’s irrelevant.
It might even be enough to give ZywOo the #1 player of 2025 on HLTV, but it doesn’t make him the best player. We know that sounds contradictory, but… we’re also pretty sure you’re intelligent enough to understand what we mean.
donk is a better player. He’s more impactful on a worse team, he dominates on pretty much any metric that’s worth considering, and the few times Spirit haven’t been playing Bazball (for non-English readers, that means suicidal style to the point of losing) have been because donk has won on his own.
He doesn’t need the AWP, and opens rounds up in ways pretty much nobody ever has. NiKo was never this good. olofmeister wasn’t this aggressive. coldzera relied on everyone else. s1mple could do it, but with the AWP it was hard for him to multifrag like donk does.
donk took #1 last year and he’s gotten better. **You can argue ZywOo has, but his team levelled up. The second Major came from ridiculous showings from mezii and ropz in the final, with ZywOo being gifted an MVP for smacking The MongolZ in the quarter-final.
That’s only slightly hyperbolic.
If ZywOo doesn’t show up, Vitality win a Major. If donk doesn’t show up, Spirit go out in the group stages.
And Spirit still managed to win IEM Cologne.
donk is the best player in the world. He’s also the best player of all time, but that’s for another newsletter. ZywOo is great, one of the best ever.
But he isn’t donk. Nobody is.
Trivia
It’s been a while since we’ve tested your knowledge, so which legend and former Major winner’s career is this?
Scroll down to find the answer!