The EVPs and All-Stars of FISSURE Playground 2

24-9-2025 22:00

An extended format, eight-team playoffs, and more top-heavy performances than usual resulted in plenty of EVP awards to be handed out.

It's been a long eight years for FURIA, but their wait is over for a Big Event title.

And, if you went back to 2019 for the Brazilian team's last grand final in a Big Event, nobody could have predicted that the MVP of their eventual triumph would be a youngster from Semey in Kazakh Siberia.

But here we are, with Danil "⁠molodoy⁠" Golubenko a deserving medalist after a series of high-floor performances in Belgrade.

The 20-year-old is a revelation, the latest in a series of prodigies who have handled the jump to tier one so well we should start being less surprised when they do.

But to do that would be a disservice to the likes of molodoy; it is no fluke that he is so stable already. It is a product of all the years of hard work before he had even entered a server for a HLTV official.

molodoy on reaching this point so quickly: "I dreamt, I knew, and I had faith that I could"

Radar Chart stat glossary

Rating 3.0: HLTV's composite rating of kills, damage, survival, KAST, multis, and Swing
Swing Added: the positive half of Round Swing
eKPR: eco-adjusted kills per round
ADR: damage per round
RWS: round win share
2k+: rounds with two or more kills
1k+: rounds with one or more kills
KAST: rounds with a kill, assist, survival, or death traded
RW Δ: kill differential per round win
Damage Δ: damage differential per round
eKills Δ: eco-adjusted kill differential per 24 rounds
Round Swing: the win probability sum of a player's actions

The MVP race was extremely tight with four contenders, separated by just 0.02 rating points between 1.17 and 1.19. molodoy had the best final, so ended up ahead but Ayush "⁠mzinho⁠" Batbold was only just behind after a magnificent semi-final (1.54 rating) and solid final (1.14, despite a poor map one).

mzinho led The MongolZ in damage per round win (109.4, 107.0 eco-adjusted) and round swing (+1.62%) in another explosion for one of the team's anchors after Sodbayar "⁠Techno⁠" Munkhbold earned the MVP at the Esports World Cup.

It was a performance worthy of the 18-year-old's very first Big Event EVP, even without mentioning an incredible 1.96 rating in pistol rounds.

Usual The MongolZ star Azbayar "⁠Senzu⁠" Munkhbold was neck-and-neck with mzinho, having great playoff peaks (1.61 vs G2, 1.72 vs Liquid, 1.78 vs FURIA) and leading the team in map wins before the final (1.35 rating over ten maps).

His floor did let him down at times, having fairly little impact in six of the eight maps in the semi and grand final, but his peaks and raw statistics (1.03 KPRW overall, 1.13 in playoffs) made up for it.

The 19-year-old missed out on the top 20 last year, but has now added his third EVP of 2025 as he sets his sights on a maiden placing.

Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato is the last of our four MVP candidates, who will all get similar credit for this event, such was their proximity.

He falls just behind the other three because of a fairly quiet semi and final (1.05 rating), but was fantastic in quarters against Astralis (1.40 rating) and in FURIA's map wins overall (1.27 rating).

The 26-year-old rifler had to deal with grief during the event, losing his grandfather, but was able to pay tribute in a fitting manner after ending his search for a Big Event title.

Falcons played fairly weak opposition (only 4 maps against top 10 teams) in Serbia and profitted with a 62.7% round win rate that inflated the team's ratings overall.

But they would not have won so many rounds had it not been for Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's scintillating individual form, the Bosnian ending on a 1.34 rating, 108.7 ADR in wins, and a +5.55 kill differential per 24 rounds.

A 1.37 rating in four playoff maps when his teammates were more quiet was confirmation of that, and the reason why NiKo alone out of Falcons has secured an award.

Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken had the opposite run to NiKo, an arduous run through the lower bracket and only a 49.5% round win rate, but showed just as much class in his final event for Liquid ahead of his return to FaZe.

A 1.25 rating and team-high 105.0 ADR in wins was a parting gift Liquid needed, a performance that almost single-handedly guaranteed a Major berth for the team Twistzz is now leaving behind.

NertZ: "It will be a good Liquid with or without Twistzz, even though he's one of the best players in the world"

Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr only played two maps in the Belgrade Arena, but boy did he have an impact. He left the quarter-final with his head held high and a 1.52 rating against eventual champions FURIA.

After being up-and-down for a few events, and struggling badly in Cologne, Staehr has now put together a second EVP-worthy performance of 2025 in style.

It was not just the quarter-final, either, since Staehr had a rating above 1.45 in five of Astralis' six crucial group stage wins too.

That led to 1.13 kills per round win, and a round swing added of +11.3% (2nd to NiKo (+11.5%), making the FURIA series a cherry on top of an already well-decorated cake.

Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis was not having an outstanding tournament before the final but he was the key man on Sunday, after posting 1.78 and 1.84 ratings in map three and five against The MongolZ.

He also had strong output throughout, despite having to pay the price in deaths for some of it, and had a 1.22 rating in FURIA's 13 map wins.

That put him as the third prong of the FURIA trident, with similar statistics to KSCERATO in map wins despite falling lower overall, earning him his first EVP since December 2022.

Matúš "⁠MATYS⁠" Šimko was the most borderline of our many EVPs from FPG, having only a middling impact against The MongolZ in the quarter-final.

But after monstrous peaks in a 1.27-rated group stage, he entered the arena only needing confirmation for an EVP and 80 ADR against the world number 2 was enough.

All together, he finishes proceedings with 1.09 kills per round win, a massive gap to Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa in second for G2 with 0.92, a clear sign of exceptionally valuable impact on the team's run to the quarter-finals.

The best players of FISSURE Playground 2, in order:

Honorable mentions

Like MATYS, Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş was good in groups (1.74 rating vs FURIA) and only needed confirmation in playoffs to turn his 121.5 ADR in wins into an EVP. Unfortunately, he failed to have an impact against Liquid and fell short.

Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker was Aurora's best in that fateful quarter-final, but did not do enough beforehand for a nod.

XANTARES' poor quarter-final cost him

As we mentioned in the NiKo section, the rest of Falcons did not pass the bar for an award. Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin had the best raw numbers, but only one strong playoff map and credit had to be shared between the team; René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen' output was too low (+9.6% swing added, lower than Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski's, and just 0.80 KPRW); while Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov ended playoffs below a 1.00 rating.

It's a similar story for Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares and Franco "⁠dgt⁠" Garcia, who fired paiN to playoffs but did not do enough in the arena for awards.

Only Linus "⁠nilo⁠" Bergman did enough for a mention from the group stage teams, with a 1.20 rating despite HEROIC going out 0-3.

All-Stars

The MVP conversation may have caused a headache but the All-Stars is an easy one, putting all four of our candidates in alongside Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo as skipper.

Players with multiple awards in 2025

This list keeps on growing, with molodoy, MATYS, and Staehr joining the party.

The absence of Spirit and Vitality, however, mean this event is not quite at the same level of prestige as those to come when it comes to award season, and it is a good time to add a reminder that not all EVPs are equal.

The EVPs of 2025

EPL S21

2025-09-24 22:00

2 replies

xantares got robbed he smurfed on fissure's winners like a faceit pug

2025-09-24 23:31

1 reply

he robbed young turks dreams. totally deserved.

ayyyy NiKo

2025-09-24 22:01

lets go twistzzzz omg

2025-09-24 22:02

FIRE ZONIC

chances for molodoy top 10?

2025-09-24 22:03

5 replies

maybe? (no particular order) zywoo donk ropz sh1ro niko frozen senzu m0nesy mezii molodoy

2025-09-24 22:10

4 replies

Mayo is not top 10 this year

2025-09-25 00:46

3 replies

Maybe not in your list, but he is making the top 10 at least this year, if you like it or not

2025-09-25 09:51

also niko at 5 bruh what has he done this year except get that mickey mouse pgl mvp

2025-09-25 13:47

i said no particular order man, nobody wants to read anything

2025-09-25 15:50

lets go Yeki, Matys and Kscerato

@NER0cs the stat glossary was really helpful! Good idea to include it!

2025-09-24 22:04

flair + name + my flair

2025-09-24 22:09

Yeah, senzu is pretty freaking good too, It’s nice to see he managed to overcome his stage thing that he had last year and beginning of this year and be able to show hr’s not a gruopstage merchant

2025-09-24 22:14

wtf is your flair and name combo bro

2025-09-24 22:15

Composite name, I can change who is better than zywoo at any moment, but for now there is only one player rn that fits that category and it is my flair

2025-09-24 22:18

damn niko still got it in himself

8 evps lowkey crazy

W MATYS EVP

2025-09-24 22:05

molodoy top 13 atleast inshallah

2025-09-24 22:07

senzu top5 hopefully this year

niko 1v9 you love/hate to see it

2025-09-24 22:13

8 evps for an event like this? Damn they handing out evps like participation awards

6 replies

it's probably won't be worth in the end of year

But in 5 years people will talk about how many evp a player has and not remember they got 5 of them at these sub par tournaments

2025-09-24 22:45

NiKo the EVP goat

2025-09-24 23:04

Worst part is this event is covered as a big event

2025-09-25 11:34

well look at the teams, lineup is very decent

2025-09-25 21:08

What I mean is it will be remembered as big event EVP

2025-09-25 23:52

kyousuke

2025-09-24 22:16

10% of the tournament’s participants were extremely valuable!

2025-09-24 22:20

who would you have cut 👀

2025-09-24 22:32

Finally had a moment to read the article and perhaps I was a little harsh in my initial assessment because of the sheer number of EVPs Before I sound too critical I wouldn't exactly rip their EVP off their hands but I think anyone below Twistzz (Staehr, YEKINDAR, MATYS) would've been a good cutoff. Staehr - Highs were high but he had incredible lows too especially that stinker against Aurora. It's a personal taste thing, I think you prefer high peaks, while I prefer moderate highs for a little more consistency. Speaking of lack of consistency.... YEKINDAR - Again totally see the case for him, he was arguably the best player in the finals. To me I don't think it's enough but personal taste thing. I understand. MATYS - I think MATYS might be where I draw a definitive line. I might be wrong but there have been plenty of occasions where someone with a ~1.20+ group rating didn't do enough despite posting ~1.10+ rating in QF. Katowice FlameZ 1.24 Group - 1.18 SF vs Mongolz ESL Pro League Senzu 1.28 Group - 1.11 QF vs NaVi I can probably find more examples but it's 11:30pm I understand the context matters and I understand why Senzu and FlameZ didn't get their EVPs. -FlameZ probably didn't play enough maps due to Katowice's 'bye' format and then he put in an average finals performance. -Senzu got crushed by Vitality in the Semi's But should they be punished for getting further then putting up a below par performance while MATYS didn't have to face a SF to possibly lower his rating? I guess it's just a Playoff version of the Kyousuke / Donk debate :D TLDR: Possibly Staehr, YEKINDAR but I see the case and wouldn't argue too strongly against their inclusion. Definitely MATYS.

2025-09-25 00:28

yeah i get some of that I don’t see a world where Staehr wouldn’t have been an EVP though, he was so important in them making playoffs and then had a 1.52. Couldn’t do much more. YEKI is a bit more interesting but did take the end of that final by the scruff of his neck when ksc/mol were more quiet and still had good output beforehand. The other thing to remember is that when the MVP/top EVPs are weaker there is more credit to share. if molodoy was a 10/10 mvp there might not be room for yeki to sneak one but in this case there was. MATYS was the one we did go back and forth over, I can see that being where we’d draw a line if we wanted to arbitrarily reduce the number. But at the end of the day it is about individual cases and if a playoff player had a 1.20+ rating, okay QF, and this big a gap to his teammates in RW i’d expect that we would give them one. flameZ, i think, was hurt by ZywOo being a 10/10 and the credit being shared out (his rw would have been far worse than yekindars e.g.) but cant fully remember, think there was a lot of quiet first halves in stomps too when he stepped up at 9-3 or whatever for a good final rating senzu’s case sounds more similar to a kyousuke here where he just didn’t put it together in playoffs . that QF is also a bit inflated, bad map one and mzinho carried them on the first half of map 2 (17-5, senzu 7-5). plus spirit hurts him, there’s a lot of red overall. though we did do that in 2.1, not sure how much that changes some of those early ones if we go back

2025-09-25 09:49

Oh and I also forgot to thank you for your kind words, in my other thread! I didn’t want to boost that thread unnecessarily as it was getting petty in there :) I know I only experience like 1% of what you must go through!

2025-09-25 08:26

Too many EVPs. Staehr, Yekindar and Matys should not have gotten EVPs in my opinion

2025-09-24 22:40

Others i can understand but Yeki? He was outstanding in the final and played well the whole tournament, no?

2025-09-25 00:02

outside of the finals where he was fantastic he was mid

2025-09-25 18:47

Yekindar had a 1.11 during the whole tournament as a hard entry? Thats pretty fucking good if u ask me?

2025-09-25 19:23

as i said, if you look at his stats outside of the final he's at 1.05 with 0.99 KD

2025-09-25 19:44

Okay I understand xd. But imo the final performance was so good that the evp was deserved. Just my opinion tho :)

2025-09-25 20:49

nocries

2025-09-24 22:47

EVP inflation is real.

TeSes has been insanely robbed

2025-09-25 00:57

9 evps and no m0nesy kekw

2025-09-25 02:50

he was terrible man

2025-09-25 19:24

Ye i was laughing not complaining

2025-09-27 01:35

@NER0cs could you perhaps elaborate a bit more on what you guys mean on needing to confirm an award? I know you guys mention X player did well in groups but didnt "confirm" their evps in playoffs but how well does a player have to to do in playoffs to confirm a group stage evp? is there some criteria cause i remember sometimes a player didnt do terribly in playoffs but was still a denied a evp despite having a excellent group stage - frozen in blast london comes to mind

2025-09-25 04:36

7 replies

kyousuke also didnt have to "confirm" his group stage evp, despite getting second to last place edit: * in cologne

2025-09-25 09:23

there’s no hard and fast rule, and in frozen’s case the group stage was online so hurt him. probably similar to matys otherwise, off the top of my head. how much you need to do to “confirm” the evp is always relative to what you do before. people go on about kyousuke, but there’s plenty of times playoff players have “confirmed” their EVP in groups too - they just went on to do even better later so we don’t think of it in that way. the thing people often miss is just looking at raw rating, EVPs are about how far you push your team forward so it’s always important to look at rating/round wins relative to your team. if you’re your teams best player in groups with great RWs (xantares here) you only need a tiny little push for an EVP (like MATYS here) in a QF. if your groups are a bit worse, then you need to do more in QFs (Staehr, though his group map wins were fantastic). it’s all relative, a lot goes into it that people can’t really look at by themselves. they’re not gut decisions.

2025-09-25 09:58

The explanation of being better relative to your teammates is very logical and fitting. But I was still a little confused for kyousukes EVP since it was not only a group stage exit, but even second to last place, so arguebly he didnt really push his team forward despite his very good performance. A second question to that in general: since EVPs are usually in order, does it mean kyousuke was next closes to the Cologne MVP?

2025-09-25 11:28

kyo was the lowest evp

2025-09-25 11:29

Sorry my bad, I only looked at the event page since I thought they were in order there too. I think it would be great if they were in order on the event page. My point of him arguebly dont pushing his team forward still stands, but It is ok to disagree on that point.

2025-09-25 11:33

"I only looked at the event page since I thought they were in order there too." they are ordered by rating in the event.

2025-09-25 13:54

I did realize that. But I think them being sorted by rating is bad if there is an actual order behind it

2025-09-25 14:10

Honestly ig bigger sample size so fair, just feels odd after having events with 4/5 or less

2025-09-25 05:33

Pls make your EVP criteria consistant!!! 8 evps for fissure and only 5 for cologne? I know the format can be considered better for Fissure but cologne is WAY more prestigous and important. Also ropz performance in cologne was way more impressive than some of those evps.

2025-09-25 09:15

On 3.0 ropz does look better, when we have time we’re going to go back for the ones we did before release. But the criteria is consistent - that’s why there are different numbers of EVPs per event. if it was 5 evps every event people would say we robbed twistzz and staehr here. if you’re individually good enough you should get an award, regardless of how many other people were also good in that event.

2025-09-25 09:53

So there is a possibility of EVPs getting awarded in hindsight? And if yes for which timeframe? I understand that you need to have the room to give sometimes less and sometimes more, but I think the fluctuations on how many are very high imo. I also always thought that the caliber of tournament does also have something to do with the amount, or isnt that the case? see FPG only having 2 EVPs, despite same format (and I agree with less outstanding players). I appreciate your response, thank you.

2025-09-25 11:23

That's too many EVPs for my taste. mzinho, Senzu and YEKINDAR would be my EVPs and the rest of the EVPs are the HMs

2025-09-25 09:39

8 EVPs? For this event? None of the quarter-finalists should've gotten anything above a very honorable mention. KSCERATO, Mzinho, Senzu, NiKo, that's it Cologne had less, ffs

2025-09-25 10:51