The EVPs and Best Five of ESL Pro League S20

NAVI and Eternal Fire's stars earn plaudits for their runs to the final.

ESL Pro League Season 20 was an intriguing event; it caused the collapse of Astralis, the underdog runs of M80, MIBR, and Eternal Fire, and confirmation of Natus Vincere as the undisputed best team in the world.

With the Fall Final included, Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy's side have now reached five Big Event finals in a row, well and truly putting to bed accusations of them fluking the Major.

Major MVP Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius earned a second medal of 2024 here, and is putting himself in a strong position in the race to be the 'best of the rest' in the top 20 after Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, and Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov.

He also did so without having a great final, something he acknowledged himself: "I feel like it was an MVP-worthy performance until the grand final, but I don't know, something dropped," he told HLTV. "I couldn't play under pressure, I felt like I was making a lot of mistakes, which is not typical of me."

So it was a team performance that got NAVI the trophy, and that is reflected in the awards too. Read on to find out which players also advanced their case with award season rapidly approaching.

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jL wins ESL Pro League S20 MVP

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Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş, as ever, was the rating leader and spearhead of Eternal Fire in their run to the final and delivered 1.13 kills per round win and 116.6 damage per round win.

He was more consistent than explosive, but his map three peak vs Vitality in overtime is one to remember. The 29-year-old version of XANTARES has evolved into one of the most cerebral riflers in the game, too.

It is his second EVP of the year after impressing at the Major, and it is still not too late for Türkiye's greatest talent to make it into the top 20.

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Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan has been a revelation since the Esports World Cup. The Romanian spacetaker was a peripheral figure during most of his time in NAVI, and only had a 0.88 rating en route to Major victory in Copenhagen.

But he has kept at it, and the faith shown in him by B1ad3 and the team is now paying off. In his last three events, he has averaged 1.18, 1.25, and 1.25 ratings and secured an EVP in both tournaments they were available.

It is his uptick that has turned NAVI from a tactical squad you might be able to out-aim to a team with four stars above 1.20 ratings.

Without his 30-bomb on Anubis in the final, Eternal Fire may have been the ones who left with the trophy, but as NAVI struggled under the pressure of being favorites it was iM who saved them.

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Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker's linkup with XANTARES was the driving force behind the Eternal Fire project when it formed in 2021, as Türkiye finally put their sharpest weapons in the same arsenal.

But woxic has rarely hit the heights he showed in MOUZ, and it has largely fallen on XANTARES' fragging and Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli's calling to elevate EF.

Until now. He is up to a 1.14 rating in the last three months and he hit a purple patch just at the right time as EF hit quarter-finals after a quiet start.

1.40 and 1.33 (36-23 K-D in overtime) ratings against Vitality. 1.53 and 1.25 against MIBR. 1.53 and 1.88 against Natus Vincere in Eternal Fire's two map wins.

It wasn't enough for the trophy, but his form in EF's most important map wins was more than enough for an EVP.

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ZywOo only played 10 maps at Pro League, despite making it to quarters, but performed close to his best even when Vitality didn't.

After demolishing ATOX and FURIA, he hit a 2.01 rating against Liquid to get Vitality to quarters and then scored 85 kills in three maps against Eternal Fire.

He's had quiet moments this year, like last Pro League's final, but it would be preposterous to lay a single drop of blame at ZywOo's door this season.

In the last three months, he has activated his usual second-half-of-year self and averaged a 1.37 rating, 1.46 impact, and upped his AWPing numbers to 0.32 kills per round. The race for No. 1 is only getting closer.

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m0NESY hit an astronomical peak against Liquid (1.83 and 2.15 ratings) which confirmed his EVP.

He was good before, too, and ends the tournament with great round win numbers as ever (1.07 kills per RW, 104.4 damage per RW), although the level of opposition was rarely too troubling for G2.

For m0NESY to go higher, he would have had to make more versus Natus Vincere but it's another EVP as the race for No. 1 gets more and more complicated, with his MVP at the BLAST Premier Fall Final to boot.

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When Spirit are playing well, it is easy to praise the system of Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev, the defensive solidity of Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov, the selflessness of Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia and Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev.

But when they are playing badly, you realise just how much of their play is just donk by himself.

He ends Pro League with a whopping 0.95 kills per round (1st), 98.3 ADR (1st), 1.43 rating (1st), and we could go on forever counting the leaderboards he topped.

He is already held to high standards, which led to criticism after his human performance against NAVI, but we should not forget that this is his first true year in tier one, he is 17, and the yardstick he has got for himself is comparisons against prime Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and ZywOo. Phenom, he remains.

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Felipe "⁠insani⁠" Yuji earns his first ever EVP award as the key man driving MIBR's run to the semi-finals (1.11 kills per RW, 113.1 damage).

His 1.61 and 1.31 ratings against Spirit were the most important maps of MIBR's event, securing them playoffs, and he also had peaks against HEROIC (1.81 on the decider) and a good quarter-final versus M80 (98.7 ADR, 1.46 rating).

The 20-year-old Brazilian is sometimes overlooked, such is the wealth of young talent in the scene, but he deserves to be counted very near the top of any wonderkid leaderboard.

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Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy squeezes into the EVP list despite that shocker on Anubis in the final, largely thanks to plenty of impact in the playoffs against top opposition in the form of Spirit (1.37 rating) and G2 (1.27 rating).

He was inconsistent before the player break and ended the season without an EVP, but it's now a spell of MVP, EVP, and another EVP after it.

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Best Five

Role overlap with XANTARES means iM misses out, allowing a fairly low EVP in the form of b1t to sneak in as our anchor.

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Honorable mentions

Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov was consistent but didn't have the impact of peaks to secure a third EVP of the year.

David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský ended Pro League with staggering raw numbers, but FaZe did not play a single top ten team before losing to Complexity.

Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi had slightly harder opponents than frozen and actually performed better versus Liquid and Eternal Fire than in the two openers, but didn't stand out enough for an EVP.

Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak narrowly missed out in Cologne and it's the same story here; he was on a path to an EVP when he began the quarter-final against G2, but it's hard to look past his 0.28 rating in the decider.

There's also the G2 duo of Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa and Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, who didn't confirm their EVPs against NAVI.

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MVPs and multiple EVP winners

I cannot wait to see the betting odds for No. 1. Tighest race in years.

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The EVPs and Best Fives of 2024