The EVPs and Best Five of BLAST Open Lisbon

3-4-2025 13:55

ZywOo and donk continue their tussle in the early race for Player of the Year.

Vitality were not as flawless as in Pro League, but they still leave Lisbon with their eyes firmly set on an era by the end of summer and the Austin Major.

They are on a 16-match LAN winning streak, the fourth-best in history and have proven that they have elite resilience as well as being exceptional frontrunners.

But you cannot underestimate the year Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut is having, even if we want to talk about how good the rest of the team is too.

Down 2-1 to MOUZ going into map four of the final, it was ZywOo who dropped 39 kills across two 13-7 victories to push his team over the line.

It was ZywOo who ended the tournament 0.16 KPRW ahead of any teammate, with a +5.61 round swing to boot. He'll take some catching in this year's race and is halfway to matching his tally of six MVPs from 2020 already.

ZywOo on his best year: "It was online? F*ck's sake. I'll beat it this year because f*ck online"

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.

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, how many players are alive on each team, and which map the player is on for targeted CT-T percentages.

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.

The man with the best chance of battling ZywOo four months into 2025 is undoubtedly Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets.

2024's best player hasn't won a trophy since Bounty but he remains above a 1.35 rating at all four of the year's Big Events and hit 0.90 KPR or higher at all four.

Lisbon was no different, the highlight being a demolition of Natus Vincere in quarters, before he ended the event with 1.22 KPRW, 98.2 ADR, and a 26% multi-kill rate.

Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov has been in for a fair share of criticism in 2025 despite continuing to post good numbers, but he stepped up in a big way for his team here.

He ended the event on a +3.22 round swing and 1.01 KPRW (1.04 when you exclude the match vs The Huns); he may be a save machine but he uses his saved AWP to deliver round wins for Spirit.

Spirit CEO: "[m0NESY] is an incredible player and I’d love to work with him, but right now we have someone just as good"

Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın earns his first Big Event EVP after coming close on several occasions in the past, a just reward for his March form that saw him take over as Eternal Fire's clear rating leader.

He did most of his good work in two group stage series, the matches versus G2 and a great showing versus Natus Vincere, and finished proceedings with a 1.08 KPRW.

The rifler also did a great job of saving his EVP in the MOUZ semi-final, starting 2-10 on Nuke but recovering with a 120 ADR second half and then posting 88 ADR on Dust2.

It was an edge case, but when you lead your team with good performances against tough opposition, great round wins, and no drop off in round swing or eco-adjusted metrics (in fact improving, given how often he was on an SMG in gun rounds), it's hard to say it was not an exceptionally valuable performance.

The best players of BLAST Open Lisbon 2025, in order

Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut
Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets
Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov
Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın

Honorable mentions

Silver medalists MOUZ are the conspicuous absence on the EVP list, with all four of their fraggers sharing credit for their run.

Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás and Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman earned the most credit for the run to the final, but it was Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi who delivered most against Vitality, making it difficult for any to earn an award. Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo had great round swing as always but only posted 0.74 KPRW in the team's map wins.

Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool and Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan also missed out for similar reasons, as credit was given mostly to ZywOo and then shared amongst the rest of the team.

flameZ actually ended the event on negative round swing (-0.01) and was a passenger for many maps. ropz had a higher floor but lacked peaks, also keeping him just out.

Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia had his best event by rating in Spirit, but let the team down in all four of their crucial map losses versus MOUZ and Vitality.

Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov needed to go super-saiyan versus M80 for G2 to survive, but could not get an EVP at such a high-tier event off of two good series when one came against the world number 24.

Yesuntumur "⁠nin9⁠" Gantulga entered the highlight of the year race late on against Spirit, and put up a fantastic fight (1.20 rating, +2.38 round swing, 1.35 KPRW) in The Huns' last-placed finish.

Best Five

ropz does get a nod in the Best Five, pipping out zont1x for the anchor spot and joining teammates Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and ZywOo.

The EVPs of 2025

xantares finished

2025-04-03 13:57

6 replies

no evp for vitality and mouz? wtf

2025-04-03 14:01

2 replies

arenasy robbed

2025-04-03 15:01

1 reply

No way he would get an EVP after 2 mid performances in group stage and a 0.93 quarterfinal on top

2025-04-03 22:00

His back was injured for like a month. Maybe that's the reason of this performance.

2025-04-03 14:15

he just gave birth let the man breathe bro

2025-04-03 14:25

xantares is also extremely unwell

2025-04-04 05:04

donk has solid teammates

Sh1ro with the bigger WPA Pls save donk

2025-04-03 13:59

Pls save sh1ro?

2025-04-03 14:05

Ali Haydar Fucking Yalçın let's go!

MOUZ are getting punished for being a well-oiled machine with no egoistic superstar, unlucky :(

2025-04-03 13:58

13 replies

they had 2 players with 1.15 before the final, they could have gotten one i think

Why it wasn't the case for Navi 2024?

2025-04-03 14:04

11 replies

iM got like 2 EVPs and jL was their quazi-star

10 replies

In mouz it's Spinx who is their "quazi-star" but he wasn't good enough to get evp, only turned on in final

2025-04-03 14:07

9 replies

xertioN is also competing for that spot in MOUZ, meaning there's no star nobody challenges jL for his spot in NaVi

2025-04-03 14:09

8 replies

Nothing stops them from performing better and more consistent, for now it looks like 1 farms groups and shits in playoffs while another does the opposite

7 replies

lol spinx has been a little below his regular level but he plays new roles so it makes sense, but xertion and torzi was the mouzs stars all tournaments thus far this year. Xertion didn’t choke a single playoff this year quite the opposite tbh… Also I’d say they’re consistent as hell, only team they’ve lost to is vitality… If losing to only a single team is being inconsistent to you then it’s a bit of a problem

2025-04-03 16:29

xertion 1.8 against G2, 1.01 against EF in the very next playoff match and even worse in final. So where is actually their consistency?

2025-04-03 16:35

5 replies

As a team they are very consistent, as players not as much, but xertion was great in epl playoffs and was the best player in cluj playoffs, Torzi has been consistently good and spinx is adjusting to new roles. And they are still the 2nd most consistent team in the world by a pretty big margin…

2025-04-03 16:38

4 replies

Well I was talking about their individual stats, we are under EVPs topic, come on.

2025-04-03 16:39

3 replies

It’s still relevant tho, my point about xertion and torzsi still stands…

2025-04-03 16:41

Not consistent enough to get an EVP, let alone MVP, it's all that matters in this context. Reminds me of old Heroic who also couldn't get mvp at won events, because stavn was always playing badly in playoffs, teses inconsistent, jabbi the same. They were good as a team, but their individuals weren't consistent enough

2025-04-03 16:45

I mean yeah I wasn’t really complaining but at the same time, wicadia also couldn’t do anything in playoffs yet he got one solely for his group stage performance so I can’t say those evps really value consistency as high… Feels like all they value is high rating

2025-04-03 16:46

Expected

5.61 vs 2.42 Round Swing ZywOo so clears donk

35 replies

Apparently so does sh1ro

Bait used to be unbelievable

2025-04-03 14:00

23 replies

Did I write something that wasn't true? I only wrote facts. Round Swing shows how a player actually affects a team's victory. And even sh1ro is ahead of donk in that metric. Makes you think...

22 replies

Makes you think how bad that stat is We don't even know it's formula and how it works It's just "trust me bro"

It's very generic, doesn't say anything about formula and extact calculations. It is clearly inspired by Leetify rating that was always inflating heavly passive player's stats like Jame or Sh1ro. Also entry fraggers were always punished hard by it. And look, FlameZ with negative round swing ? That feels like a joke. But also even when you see other entries like Elige or Xantares, their Round swing looks very low. I don't believe it comes only to eco frags. Seems like it favourizes late round kills at some lvl

2025-04-03 14:30

#48 nero admits it himself

2025-04-03 14:36

Maybe before EVPs BLAST came out they just updated the WPA and improved that score for aggressive players

2025-04-03 14:38

Only 4 days passed since he said that, so i highly doubt, not impossible but development of such meteic takes so long that it's really unlikely

2025-04-03 15:05

If only you knew how this metric is calculated, bro. It is highly influenced by clutching, which obviously means that donk would never be as high as ZywOo in it because he is never in a clutch. Therefore, this would keep happening every time unless they remake it. Also, this metric literally suggests that sh1ro has a higher chance of winning a round by himself than donk, which can’t even be mathematically true if you consider raw impact. I recommend you dive into at least some details and notice minor patterns before actually making a bait so that it isn’t so easy to disprove.

15 replies

The fact that this metric takes more account of Clutching is something you came up with in your head. Obviously HLTV has been working on this metric for a long time and has already balanced it. donk was just doing a lot of useless kills in this tournament. If you look at past EVPs, he had more Round Swing with a lower Rating.

2025-04-03 14:12

14 replies

I don't think this metric is balanced, and I would never believe so unless I see the full formula. Regardless of your take, looking at the EVPs this year, ZywOo has a higher or similar Round Swing every time, which makes me think it is due to their playstyle differences and clutches. I recommend once again that you put more effort into analyzing and at least examine the information you are using as your disproving point.

2025-04-03 14:18

This formula isn't fully finished or balanced, as they claim in the article. So the only person here making claims "in your head" is you. You've stated that ZywOo is better than donk based on a single, simple metric that isn't even fully developed. Well done! I should not expect more from you, I guess. But instead, you stick to lowquality baits, you seem to be better at that than actually analyzing anything beyond the rating provided directly on HLTV. You probably think, "I'm so good, I know everything and math can never be wrong". However, this isn't pure math; it's an unobjective set of formulas created based on human thoughts and feelings, which are inherently influenced by biases and subjective interpretations.

2025-04-03 14:41

12 replies

I just watched all the games and saw who and how really makes a difference in a team winning. I'm glad that HLTV is finally implementing a metric that will analyze this.

2025-04-03 14:44

You don’t seem to have any qualifications to evaluate a player’s impact on rounds, considering the low quality of your takes. I’m glad that people like you, without any education in the field of mathematics, aren’t working at HLTV, because otherwise, the ratings concept would have been much more fragile than it already is.

2025-04-03 14:48

Keep coping

2025-04-03 15:02

That's a nice response for me to consider that you don’t have any arguments left, so you resort to a childish response like that. I guess your ego has fallen into the dirt since I’ve counterargued every point you made. I’m glad I now know that you’re not debate-worthy, so next time I won’t even bother arguing with you. So you might continue coping with responses that require an average IQ like yours to make.

2025-04-03 15:08

cry is free

2025-04-03 15:09

Your reply only proves you can't handle the fact that your arguments don't hold any weight. intelligent people make mistakes and learn from them, but fools never learn. Resorting to childish insults like "cry is free" just shows you're avoiding the real debate.

2025-04-03 15:16

I haven't read your last 3 replies and I won't read this one either

2025-04-03 15:18

Just proves my point, that you can't handle the argument. I guess you've never read anything in your life outside of HLTV forums either.

2025-04-03 15:23

Classic strawman, while it might not be perfect it is good enough to highlight TRUE impact. Discrediting whole thing because donk farmed eco kills whole tourney and had low stat is such a cope lol, it was fine when donk matched WPA in previous tourneys.

Same there. Ner0 literally said in one of his tweets that donk farmed ecos as much as non-ecos, and yet he still got a smaller rating. I don’t think this stat is complete garbage, but as they say in the article, it’s in an alpha version and needs improvements, which I just agree with.

2025-04-03 15:21

Nah donk farmed a lot of eco kills, everytime he struggled on a map, he got multikills in eco rounds in succession,for instance he had like 30 eco kills in 3 maps vs vitality while zywoo had like 8. Obviously zywoo will have a lot better WPA. 2.42 is already good enough for what he did.

2025-04-03 15:34

x.com/NER0cs/status/1906277232336674969 It is still lower, mostly due to him dying, unfortunately.

2025-04-03 15:37

baiter stat same as leetify and k/d. kprw clears

2025-04-03 14:14

No, it's really a breakthrough metric that will best show a player's influence on winning a round. We can't wait for the release of Rating 3.0

no, it was known for years with leetify and even before that. basically the same as k/d and heavily favors passive players. rating 3.0 would be better only if would be adjusted for aggression.

2025-04-03 14:24

Not related to leetify at all

2025-04-03 14:27

lol you are clueless

2025-04-03 14:29

Rating 3.0 Eco kills Force kills Exit kills WPA That's enough

2025-04-03 14:34

?? wpa is the same as leetify before the adjustments

an eco ace has 5 kprw. its also useless

yes its should be adjusted for economy

2025-04-03 15:31

LETRS GOOOOOO WICADIA EVP

Wicadia will be in Top 20 2025 ?

yes i think

2025-04-03 14:42

I expected to see Torzsi tho

Good list. Ropz, flamez, torzsi, xertion were next on the list but maybe that was too much.

maybhe but they deserved

2025-04-03 14:02

I feel like round swing heavly favourizes late round kills, which will obviously inflate stats of more passive players This is still alpha so i hope it will be fixed yet

2025-04-03 14:03

@NER0cs

Well we don't know the exact calculation. But it seems to take into account the economy and score impact of the kills. (reducing impact of eco frags, and reducing impact of kills not leading to a round win). Obviously it needs work but I think it's the right direction.

2025-04-03 14:06

we know, its the same as leetify rating. heavy favors passive players and awpers who are saving k/d and undervalues aggressive players.

2025-04-03 14:13

But eco kills also lead to round win 😊

2025-04-03 14:17

yeah but you adjust their weights in the algorithm specifically.. don't act stupid man😊

2025-04-03 14:19

I was don't know this details

Yeah it's generally good intent since it takes economy into account, and looks at each kill separatley, but it needs to be done better. So far it feels like leetify rating

2025-04-03 15:43

Nero (I believe it was him) said that they will likely shift the formula to give more weight to entry kills and "aggro moves". edit: I found his post. "wpa is also going to get updates soon that reward early-round play a bit more (and punish saving etc) because obviously clutches impact it a tad too much rn. final rating is also gonna have some extra bits that rewards aggressive and explosive play. still very very early stage rn, try and take this with a pinch of salt" hltv.org/forums/threads/2994967/donk-exp..

yes we're aware of the flaws of round swing and ofc it will only be one part of 3.0

2025-04-03 14:58

That's great news

2025-04-03 15:04

Thank you so much mate <3 Didn't saw that before Good thing that hltv staff ( especially nero ) are awarw of that and are working to improve round swing.

2025-04-03 15:45

Honestly thinking about it,one of the biggest flaws of the system is that it is given just with the ratings and like,sometimes when you play your last series you get destroyed and lose all the "rating" you have,that completely destroys your chance to get an evp. I think AT LEAST torzsi deserved one,he played out of his mind until the final but he did poorly there and lost it,but without him they would have never gone that far.same to be said for ropz who was great in getting vitality to the top4.

sh1ro beating donk's round swing, +m0nesy dreams are so over

-donk +kyousuke

vitality and mouz robbed from evps. lol

woxic robbed. 1.21 playoff rating 1.17 event rating. @NER0cs

should be honorable mention at least, i think

He wasn't robbed. Only three EVP's were guaranteed, woxic wasn't one of them.

Wicadia... first of many my boy!

GOATWOO ma boiii ^^,

2025-04-03 14:10

donk with usual packman

It used to be mushroom when there was DPR stat

2025-04-03 14:21

Hey @NER0cs do you think you could post m0nesy's stats with the same circular infographic? with his Round Swing score etc.. Just to know how badly he needs to be saved...

2025-04-03 14:11

he farmed most of his stats against m80, he wasnt even that good in this event

2025-04-03 14:45

I know. But i still want to see his round swing stat. Because it looks promising and I wanna see how it behaves on weird cases like this.

first of many wicadia lezgo

ropz evp robbed

and mouz players no evp. what a joke. just because they meet vita and spirit too much? come on...

Wicadia first EVP.. MVP next

unblock me on twitter aka X pls, I cant comment in the community that you mod

2025-04-03 14:46

Nick?

2025-04-03 14:52

Wicadia should MVP man

2025-04-03 14:37

zywoo +5.61 >>>>>>>> sh1ro +3.22 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> donk +2.42 save sh1ro, -donk +kyousuke pls

2025-04-03 14:39

@NER0cs great job as usual! Are you going to add “MVPs and multiple EVP winners” list like last year?

When there's more people, just 6 atm with multi evps

Ok, ty!

donk just keeps on getting exposed more and more each tournament such inflated stats, rating 3.0 will show his true colours, eco and exit cobra

Bait used to be believable.

2025-04-04 08:34

My boy John Wicadia is on fire

2025-04-03 14:49

Nin9 robbed

2025-04-03 14:55

It's funny how donk circle is perfectly round except for the clutch points

Donk's chart looking like a pie with a missing piece is funny because sh1ro is eating all the clutch points

yum

well deserved for wicadia

2025-04-03 15:10

If only donk didn't farm eco kills this hard whole tourney. 1.48 is so fraud

2025-04-03 15:13

I get they were lowering EVPs from last year, like i get its not quota but based on performance but still 3 looks so weird maybe 4 min

2025-04-03 15:17

wicadia evp youtube.com/clip/UgkxN-kfG-NXwIPXYb_CWKr..

EVP for 2 playoffs maps, really?

definitely some MOUZ players deserve EVPs as does ropz.

Ah it all makes sense now. Donk without clutch factor = Pacman

2025-04-03 15:47

Torszi deserved an evp too.

2025-04-03 15:48

Lol so the grand final must be EF vs Spirit right?

Lmao no Vitality and mouz evp. @NER0cs change ur flair to russki allready

2025-04-03 17:52

Hard to say wicadia deserves...for playing with noobs

2025-04-03 18:02

“flameZ”“passenger” “m0nesy"“super-saiyan” G2tv confirmed again

2025-04-03 18:03

When are we getting that table of players with an MVP or multiple EVPs back?

2025-04-03 18:16

#68

2025-04-03 19:53

2025-04-04 13:55

“ But you cannot underestimate the year Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut is having, even if we want to talk about how good the rest of the team is too.” Look that they are not good enough to get an evp

2025-04-03 18:29