PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025The EVPs and Best Five of PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025
MOUZ leave with a clutch of awards after an impressive debut with Spinx.
PGL Cluj-Napoca may not have had the elite of the elite present, but with a near-full arena, $1.25m on offer, and a high floor of 11 top 20 teams it still qualified for an MVP and thus, EVPs.
It will be towards the lower end of Big Events in terms of value come top 20 season, but it was still an opportunity for players to move the needle in their favor — and MOUZ certainly did that.
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač, too, tried his best, averaging a 1.51 rating in Falcons' map wins before the final as he pushed his new side past the two big tournament favorites (FaZe and Eternal Fire).
That was enough to secure the MVP even during a quiet final, where he struggled badly on Ancient and Nuke as the trophy slipped away.
What's Round Swing?
A new metric has been added to our EVP charts for 2025 as part of the development process for rating 3.0. For IEM Katowice, we used the term 'WPA' but we have decided to rename it to something that uses less statistical jargon: Round Swing.
Round Swing, or RS, looks at each kill and sees how much it changes a team's chance of winning the round. That includes each team's economic situation, whether the bomb is planted, and how many players are alive on each team.
We are then given a percentage average of how much a player increased their team's win probability; the average is around 0, with most players sitting between -3 and +3.
While it is still a very early version of the build (and exact figures may change when it is eventually deployed), we are confident enough in the new data that it will now impact EVP decisions — meaning it makes sense to include it on the radars.
For transparency, the committee also had access to economy-adjusted stats for kills, damage, deaths, and KAST, where we looked at individual equipment value in each gunfight to adjust the value of each action.
In combination with the usual important metrics, these new metrics will help make the top 20 and EVP lists even more accurate to what actually affects a round, event, or year.
Dorian "xertioN" Berman must be thinking he's cursed. The three times he's been MOUZ's best player in a trophy win, he's been denied the MVP.
First it was Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut at Pro League, then Danil "donk" Kryshkovets at BB Dacha, and now NiKo here.
xertioN's overall event numbers don't jump off the page but he was MOUZ's best player in four of their seven playoff map wins, their best in map wins (1.37 rating, +2.37 RS), and clear leader in round wins (1.05 KPRW, 108.4 ADRW).
His grand final is where he snuck into the MVP race proper, but NiKo simply had too big a lead for two bad maps at the end to allow xertioN, as impressive as he was, to overtake.
When Lotan "Spinx" Giladi was announced, much of the community were too busy debating the merits of removing Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek to notice that MOUZ had assembled five of the top 22 (Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin was 22nd) players of 2024.
After Cluj, we are all far too aware of the firepower of the new lineup, with Spinx a key part of that with result-altering peaks on Inferno versus Astralis (27-19) and especially on Nuke in the final (26-14, 1.57 rating).
He was actually MOUZ's Round Swing leader in playoffs, proof of the impact he has already made in his new team.
Ádám "torzsi" Torzsás provided a stable base for MOUZ's riflers to succeed off of, and he was there to save them when needed.
He was the team's best in groups (1.17 rating) and confirmed his EVP in playoffs after winning five clutches in the arena (six overall).
His ability to turn late rounds, whether 1vX or 2vX, is a crucial part of how he ended the tournament on a better Round Swing (+1.97) than NiKo and all of his teammates — torzsi's output wasn't anything crazy, but his kills turned rounds.
David "frozen" Čerňanský demolished the group stages, past tough opposition in the form of Eternal Fire and MOUZ, and ended them on a 1.36 rating and whopping +5.15 Round Swing.
That was enough for him to nearly confirm an EVP already, before a decent quarter-final against SAW and third place decider pushed him into award territory with three good maps in the arena.
His deaths didn't cost FaZe and his frags came with Round Swing and in round wins (1.05 KPRW), explaining his placing just below MOUZ's trio.
Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard has not made an appearance in one of these lists since HEROIC lost the Katowice 2023 final to G2.
But, four months into the Casper "cadiaN" Møller Astralis era he is starting to look like his old self again with impactful lurks, and by translating his trademark headshot aim into fast multi-kills.
His EVP case was hurt slightly by where he was good — some of his best maps came in lost series, or in map losses — but the sheer body of work over the tournament made an award inescapable.
He was Astralis' best in their key match, the quarter-final against The MongolZ, and his impactful lurking was a big part of why the Danes made Inferno their home map.
Leading them in round wins (1.07 KPRW) and sporting solid eco-adjusted numbers are extra factors that put an EVP beyond doubt.
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski sneaks in to grab the final EVP thanks to a high level of output all tournament long.
87.9 event ADR was bettered only by NiKo in teams that made top eight as EliGE put his aggressive tendencies to work in Romania.
He had huge peaks versus SAW (2.30) and MOUZ (1.73) in groups and was FaZe's best in two occasions in the arena, map two versus SAW and the quintuple OT Mirage versus Astralis.
But he was liable to give away advantages at times, with a high deaths per round count, low Round Swing (just +0.64), and only 68.4% of his kills coming in round wins.
The EVPs of PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, in order
Dorian "xertioN" Berman Lotan "Spinx" Giladi
Ádám "torzsi" Torzsás
David "frozen" Čerňanský
Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski
Honorable mentions
Jimi "Jimpphat" Salo just missed out an EVP due to a lack of playoff peaks.
Emil "Magisk" Reif had great moments in groups (+1.46 RS) but struggled in playoffs, where Abdul "degster" Gasanov took over as Falcons' main EVP candidate (+2.41 RS in playoffs) before he fell off in the final.
Nicolai "device" Reedtz was Astralis' best in map wins and in Round Swing but lacked jabbi's peaks and performances versus top 10 teams (1.10, versus 1.22). Victor "Staehr" Staehr also gave himself a chance with 1.06 KPRW in playoffs but fell just short.
João "story" Vieira, Lucas "nqz" Soares, and Azbayar "Senzu" Munkhbold were great in groups but didn't confirm their EVPs in the arena.
Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş' streak of EVPs (he had 2/2 before this event) ends here. He had a 1.08 event rating when you remove the opener against Imperial Valkyries and struggled badly in map three versus Falcons.
Best Five
MOUZ may not have got the MVP but getting four players into the Best Five is proof of their team effort.
Only xertioN, unlucky to be in the same category as NiKo again, misses out as Brollan receives credit for leading the team to victory in his first event as captain with their full lineup.
The EVPs of 2025
Oscar 'AZUWU' Bell
Maikil 'Golden' Selim
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Zainab 'zAAz' Turkie
Victoria 'tory' Kazieva
Kamen 'bubble' Kostadinov
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Helvijs 'broky' Saukants
Justin 'jks' Savage
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