b1t wins career-first MVP at Esports World Cup

NAVI's Ukrainian star completed a late charge at the MVP with a 1.74 rating on the grand final's decider.

Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy is the HLTV Most Valuable Player (MVP) of Esports World Cup 2024 after dominating map two and three of the grand final against G2.

The Ukrainian sharpshooter was a distant third in the MVP race before the final, but took advantage of quiet title deciders from Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov to clinch the individual accolade at the last gasp.

In Natus Vincere's map wins, b1t averaged a 1.48 rating including peaks of 1.96 against FURIA, 1.54 against MOUZ, and 1.45 and 1.74 against G2 in the final.

Even when discounting the first round, where b1t destroyed the lower-ranked FURIA, he had a higher rating in his team's playoff map wins (1.41) than w0nderful (1.39) and NiKo (1.39).

Natus Vincere's stats in all map wins

NiKo came closest in the end, having ended seven of his ten maps above a 1.25 rating, but the Bosnian did drop off in the all-important last BO3 (and even inflated his grand final numbers in round losses and anti-ecos on Ancient).

Match that with b1t's dominance of Appartments on Inferno and Lobby on Nuke in the Grand Final, and you have the recipe for an MVP.

It is b1t's career-first MVP after coming close a few times behind Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev in NAVI's dominant run of late 2021, and cements him as the now-international side's franchise player in s1mple's continued absence.

It was also not the first grand final decider he took over this year, having put FaZe to the sword in a similar fashion at PGL Major Copenhagen with a 2.16 rating on the same map of Inferno.

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Find all HLTV MVP winners on our dedicated MVP page.

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But this time he had the form beforehand to keep himself in the MVP conversation and took full advantage of others falling behind in the race.

That meant that, in his seventh Big Event triumph, it was finally b1t's turn to shine as the best player of the tournament, something made even more impressive given his tricky anchor roles on CT side.