IEM Cologne 2025The EVPs and All Stars of IEM Cologne & FISSURE Playground 1
Spirit's superstar wants to prove the race for Player of the Year is still on.
Spirit's 2025 has been up and down. The team, fresh off a win at the Shanghai Major, entered the year as the number one but were soon dethroned by Vitality.
Their trophy wins, at Bounty, Astana, and now Cologne, have come without facing Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut and company head on.
But that cannot take anything away from Danil "donk" Kryshkovets who, regardless of his team's level, is as consistent and terrifying an opponent as ever.
The 18-year-old earned his ninth MVP last Sunday, matching the total of Nikola "NiKo" Kovač, and boasts a 1.45 rating this year. That figure is far clear of both his 2024 standard (1.37) and ZywOo this year (1.37, too).
There is still a very long way to go for donk if he is to catch up to septuple MVP ZywOo but Cologne was proof that he is capable of such a Herculean task — if the Frenchman gives him the opportunity.
Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy earns the top EVP after a fantastic playoff performance (1.21 rating, 117 ADRW, +2.65% round swing).
The Ukrainian anchor has been quiet this year, but still boasts EVPs from the two premier ESL events in the form of Katowice and Cologne.
He was Natus Vincere's best in round wins (1.09 KPRW) and put up a fight against Spirit in the semi-final with 87.7 ADR over the series.
A player of the map showing on Inferno against The MongolZ also helped push his case, with b1t averaging a 1.38 rating in the 8 map wins that put Natus Vincere into the top four.
Ádám "torzsi" Torzsás was donk's main MVP rival before the final, after having fantastic series against FURIA in quarters and being the star man as MOUZ ended Vitality's 37-series winning streak.
Vitality had also beaten MOUZ eight times in a row, which must have made torzsi's 40-frag, +5.32% round swing, performance even more satisfying for the Hungarian.
He may have fell short in the final, but like b1t he led his team's charge to their final placing with a 1.34 rating in MOUZ's map wins and is more than worthy of an award.
Another EVP means torzsi is up to four in 2025, one of only six players to have that many awards so far, as he looks to improve on his #20 placing in the top 20 last year.
Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov's floor and consistency are sometimes forgotten, such is donk's brilliance, but his stability was a crucial factor for Spirit as always in Cologne.
His brightest moments did come in group stage matches, but he was still Spirit's top-rated player in their 10-2 first half against MOUZ in map one of the grand final — a performance that set the tone for yet another Spirit 3-0.
He contributed effectively to round wins (1.03 KPRW, 97.3 ADRW) and dropped a multi-kill in 20% of rounds en route to the trophy, which was more than good enough output for an EVP.
Danil "molodoy" Golubenko has his first-ever EVP after stepping up massively for FURIA, particularly on CT side where he had a 1.45 rating.
The young Kazakh AWPer did well on debut in Astana and at the Major in Austin, but crossed the EVP mark here thanks to a solid arena series against MOUZ.
That quarter-final, however, was more confirmation than crowning moment: It was molodoy's contributions against Falcons (1.70-rated decider) and G2 (31-13 K-D on a 16-14 win on Inferno) that put him in contention.
It may be his first, but we can bet it won't be molodoy's last EVP. After a fairly quiet first half of the year for Rookies, he has put himself in a good position for the award just as Maxim "kyousuke" Lukin enters the fray.
Group stage EVPs are a very rare commodity, but kyousuke — on his debut no less — has cracked the code.
Despite his team only winning 49.7% of rounds and being dumped out in 9-12th place, kyousuke posted a 1.39 rating.
Opposition wasn't the toughest he could have had, but still featured the solid GamerLegion, Major finalists The MongolZ, and a resurgent FURIA.
Given that, his baffling raw statistics (0.94 KPR, 95.4 ADR, 1.29 KPRW, 23.8% multi-kills, etc.) and impressive peaks (four maps at or above a 1.60 rating) got him into a select club of players to earn an EVP before they play their first tier one playoff match.
The best players of IEM Cologne 2025, in order
Danil "donk" Kryshkovets
Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy
Ádám "torzsi" Torzsás Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov
Danil "molodoy" Golubenko Maxim "kyousuke" Lukin
Honorable mentions
Dorian "xertioN" Berman was closest to an EVP out of MOUZ, having joined torzsi for their demolition of Vitality, but he had a fairly low floor (6 maps below 0.89).
Mihai "iM" Ivan (1.32 rating) and Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov (+2.85% round swing) were great in groups but did not confirm their EVPs later on.
Robin "ropz" Kool was the only Vitality player in contention for an EVP, after putting up a great fight in the semi-final (147.7 ADRW, +3.78% round swing) against his former club MOUZ, but still fell short.
That means ZywOo, who struggled in the arena, remains on 0 EVPs for 2025, which would be concerning if he did not have a whopping 7 MVPs.
All Star
MVP donk waltzes into our All Star lineup, joined by EVPs torzsi and b1t as AWPer and Anchor.
ropz beats out Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia and Lotan "Spinx" Giladi to be our Closer, buoyed by his step up in playoffs.
Finally, Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov joins our merry gang as in-game leader after orchestrating a rock-solid defence (63.5% RW) and making Spirit the only team in playoffs with a T side win-rate above 50% after the economy changes boosted the defence.
The EVPs and All-Stars of FISSURE Playground 1
We also had some housekeeping to do with the awards for FISSURE Playground, where the dust has started to settle on Yi "JamYoung" Yang's ridiculous 1.40-rated showing.
His dominance is further proved by the fact that no TYLOO player even came close to an EVP.
Nicolai "device" Reedtz and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard do claim EVPs for their part in taking Astralis to the final, but nobody else had a bulletproof case for an award — André "Ag1l" Gil lacked multiple peaks, and Artem "ArtFr0st" Kharitonov was unconvincing against top opposition.
EVPs:
Yi "JamYoung" Yang (MVP)
Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard Nicolai "device" Reedtz
All-Star: Jingxiang "Mercury" Wang (IGL) Yi "JamYoung" Yang (Opener)
André "Ag1l" Gil (Anchor) Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard (Closer) Nicolai "device" Reedtz (AWPer)
Players with multiple awards in 2025
As we mentioned in the intro, it's a long old hill for donk to climb after ZywOo's unprecented first season of 2025.
But it's an even bigger gap behind donk, with plenty of time for players to make their case for a podium spot at January's award show or to crack the top 20 list itself.
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García
Matúš 'MATYS' Šimko
Eetu 'sAw' Saha
Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri
Oldřich 'PR' Nový
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