The stats behind the top 3 players of 2024 with the Major looming.
The trio of Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov and Daniil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets were the top three players of 2024, in terms of consistent performance and output. Despite their insistence of a lack of a rivalry, these three are once again contending for the top spot in 2025 in terms of team and individual achievements.
Last year, it was a close affair, according to HLTV.org. It came down to the Perfect World Shanghai Major which closed the year.
“Had donk’s and m0NESY’s fortunes in Shanghai flipped, or had ZywOo made a similar end-of-year Major push for his case, the top three order may very well have gone differently,” said HLTV.
Since Team Spirit ended up claiming the Shanghai Major trophy via a dominating performance by the 18-year-old rookie, donk, including a 1v5 against Heroic in the group stage, the youngster was awarded with the number one player of 2024 rank by HLTV.
ZywOo’s Team Vitality and m0NESY’s G2 Esports were defeated by the veteran FaZe Clan squad on something of a last dance, in the quarter-finals and semifinals, respectively.
This is where each candidate and their team are at statistically in 2025 going into the Austin Major (ordered by oldest to youngest):
Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut
Team: Team Vitality (Ranked no. 1 by Valve and HLTV)
5 tournament wins in 2025
Maps (LAN): 59W – 13L (81.9% win)
Player Stats:
K/D: 1295 kills/881 deaths, 1.47 K/D ratio (1st), 0.14 Opening Kills per Round (2nd)
Notable Highlight:
The consistent French superstar landed at number 3 in HLTV.org’s list due to not being “quite as mighty under the lights” as the opposing two candidates, despite having a “ridiculous year”.
According to some people in the scene, ZywOo is shedding the mantle of being affected by pressure.
As it stands, ZywOo’s team has the best chance of winning the BLAST Austin Major 2025, amassing a record-breaking win-streak. However, it is far from a done deal, as Team Liquid had a similar streak of 22 series in 2019 heading into the Major, and failed to win it.
There may still be discussion about the number one player even if Vitality wins, especially if m0NESY or donk excels at Austin. However, given ZywOo’s tally of 5 MVP awards across 2025 already, it will be a tremendous end of the season to also have a Major trophy.
Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov
Team: Team Falcons (Ranked no. 3 by Valve and no. 4 by HLTV)
0 tournament wins in 2025
Maps (LAN): 22W – 11L (66% win) [1]
Player Stats:
K/D: 1550 kills/1080 deaths, 1.44 K/D ratio (3rd), 0.13 Opening Kills per Round (3rd)
Notable Highlight:
Team Falcons is coming into the end of the season in red-hot form, having only lost series to Vitality in the 12 series that they have played. They have beaten donk’s Team Spirit, MOUZ and Natus Vincere in series play, as well as every other team they faced.
On top of that, their two losses in grand finals to Vitality were 2-3, the second of which occurred at BLAST Rivals 2025, where m0NESY had the most kills on the server (92). There isn’t a moment for ZywOo to rest, because his rival AWPer is on a team with the Counter-Strike legend Nikola “NiKo” Kovac, forming a star-studded duo that just got started together in late April.
Daniil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets
Team: Team Spirit (Ranked no. 2 by Valve and HLTV)
2 tournament wins in 2025
Maps (LAN): 55W – 20L (73.3% win)
Player Stats:
K/D: 1642 kills/1136 deaths, 1.45 K/D ratio (2nd), 0.18 Opening Kills per Round (1st)
Notable Highlight:
The Russian rifler, now in his second year of tier-1 play, has the most kills and kills per round out of the three players on LAN in 2025.
His team also has the second-best win rate out of the three contenders’ teams, despite having a 1-7 record in maps against Vitality, putting them as a dark horse for back-to-back Major trophies. Team Spirit also just took home the PGL Astana trophy mere days ago, which could be a boost for the CIS squad.
BLAST Austin Major 2025
The Major will begin its first stage on June 3rd, 2025. We will see Team Falcons play in Stage 2 four days later, while Team Spirit and Vitality will debut on June 12th.
[1] As mentioned, 8 of their 11 map losses have been against Team Vitality. Without counting these series their map win rate would be 88%.
