Winning the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award at a Major remains one of the highest honors in competitive Counter-Strike. While lifting the trophy is the ultimate team goal, securing MVP is a rare individual accolade – a mark of excellence that highlights a player’s standout impact during one of the game’s biggest stages.
From Jesper “JW” Wecksell at the very first Major in 2013 to Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, this list features some of the greatest players in CS history. These MVPs not only shaped their respective events but left a lasting mark on the game itself.
Below, you’ll find a full list of MVP winners from every CS:GO and CS2 Major, covering more than a decade of elite Counter-Strike action.
All Major MVP winners in Counter-Strike history
- DreamHack Winter 2013 – 🇸🇪
Jesper “JW” Wecksell - EMS One Katowice 2014 – 🇵🇱
Jarosław “pashaBiceps” Jarząbkowski - ESL One Cologne 2014 – 🇸🇪
Adam “friberg” Friberg - DreamHack Winter 2014 – 🇫🇷
Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer - ESL One Katowice 2015 – 🇸🇪 Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer
- ESL One Cologne 2015 – 🇸🇪 Robin “flusha” Rönnquist
- DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015 – 🇫🇷
Kenny “kennyS” Schrub - MLG Columbus 2016 – 🇧🇷
Marcelo “coldzera” David - ESL One Cologne 2016 – 🇧🇷
Marcelo “coldzera” David - ELEAGUE Major 2017 – 🇩🇰
Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye - PGL Krakow Major 2017 – 🇰🇿
Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev - ELEAGUE Major 2018 – 🇺🇸
Tarik “tarik” Celik - FACEIT Major London 2018 – 🇩🇰 Nicolai “device” Reedtz
- IEM Katowice 2019 – 🇩🇰 Emil “Magisk” Reif
- StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 – 🇩🇰 Nicolai “device” Reedtz
- PGL Major Stockholm 2021 – 🇺🇦
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev - PGL Major Antwerp 2022 – 🇳🇴
Håvard “rain” Nygaard - IEM Rio Major 2022 – 🇷🇺
Dzhami “Jame” Ali - BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 – 🇫🇷
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut - PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 – 🇱🇹 Justinas “jL” Lekavicius
- Perfect World Shanghai Major 2025 – 🇷🇺
Danil “donk” Kryshkovets - BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 – 🇫🇷 Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
- StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 – 🇫🇷 Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
- IEM Cologne Major 2026 – 🇷🇺
Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov
Most MVP awards
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut is the most decorated player at Majors with his three Major MVPs. This is where the Frenchman excels compared to his fiercest rivals in the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) conversations. Both Danil “donk” Kryshkovets and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev have only one MVP award to show so far, while it would seem far-fetched for either Nicolai “device” Reedtz or Marcelo “coldzera” David to win one more in their career, so ZywOo is currently comfortably at the top.
3 MVPs: 🇫🇷 Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
2 MVPs: 🇩🇰 Nicolai “device” Reedtz, 🇧🇷 Marcelo “coldzera” David
1 MVP: 17 players
Winners by country
Four countries have won three or more MVP awards at a Major. Russia is the latest country to be part of that list after m0NESY’s MVP performance at the IEM Cologne Major 2026. It’s worth noting that it is three different players from Russia that has contributed to their placement. Sweden and Denmark are both tied with four MVPs. While it is also three different Danes (device has two MVP awards), Sweden is the country with the most different MVP awards given out to four different players in the Fnatic/NIP days of Counter-Strike, where the two teams dominated the early days of CS:GO.
France is at the top of the list after ZywOo has picked up three MVPs for Vitality, while Happy and kennyS contribute to an impressive total of five MVPs for France.
5 MVPs: 🇫🇷 France
4 MVPs: 🇩🇰 Denmark and 🇸🇪 Sweden
3 MVPs: 🇷🇺 Russia
2 MVPs: 🇧🇷 Brazil
1 MVP: 🇵🇱 Poland, 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan, 🇺🇸 USA, 🇺🇦 Ukraine, 🇳🇴 Norway, 🇱🇹 Lithuania
