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British esports personality James Banks has been named Talent of the Year, as one of the top stars amongst the 2025 HLTV Awards winners.
Danil “donk” Kryshkovets from Team Spirit also dominated the evening, taking home a total of four awards including Opener of the Year, Highlight of the Year, Rookie of the Year and the coveted Player of the Year.
The countdown for the Player of the Year launched on December 25th and saw HLTV countdown the best 20 players from 2024. It was also announced that Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov came in second and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut came in third.
The HLTV Awards presented by 1XBET ceremony took place in Belgrade, Serbia, and celebrated the biggest and best names in competitive Counter-Strike esports.
Awards were given out across three different categories; HLTV Awards, Community Awards and Panel Awards, with accolades such as Player of the Year, Creator of the Year, Women’s Team of the Year, and Team of the Year.
Navi emerged as a major winner of the evening, taking home the Team of the Year award and claiming multiple honours in the Panel Awards.
Justinas “jL” Lekavicius was named Closer of the Year, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen earned the title of IGL of the Year, Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy won Anchor of the Year and Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskiy was crowned Coach of the Year.
During the ceremony, GeT_RiGhT, HeatoN, f0rest and Potti were honoured with induction into the inaugural HLTV Hall of Fame.
The award was created to recognise players and coaches whose exceptional contributions have shaped the history of competitive Counter-Strike. To commemorate their induction, each member was presented with a custom Rolex featuring a Hall of Fame inscription.
“That’s a wrap on the 2024 HLTV Awards. The night was a fantastic success and we are grateful to be able to shine a light on the individuals and organisations that make Counter-Strike special. Thank you to our partners including 1XBET for helping us bring this event to life. Now onto 2025!” said Zvonimir Burazin, Head of Operations at HLTV.
List of 2025 HLTV Awards winners
Community Award Winners
- Talent of the Year – James “BanKs” Banks
- Event of the Year – Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024
- Creator of the Year – NadeKing
- Streamer of the Year – Mark “ohnePixel” Zimmermann
- Skin of the Year – AK-47 | Inheritance (Endrit)
Panel Award Winners:
- Opener of the Year – Danil “donk” Kryshkovets
- Closer of the Year – Justinas “jL” Lekavicius
- Anchor of the Year – Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy
- Awper of the Year – Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov
- IGL of the Year – Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen
- Coach of the Year – Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskiy
- Highlight of the Year – Danil “donk” Kryshkovets
HLTV Awards Winners
- Rookie of the Year – Danil “donk” Kryshkovets
- Women’s Team of the Year – Imperial
- Team of the Year – Natus Vincere
- Women’s Player of the Year – Ana “ANa” Dumbravă
- Player of the Year – Danil “donk” Kryshkovets
You can see the full list of 2025 HLTV Awards nominees (including UK player mezii and content creator 3kliksphilip) and finalists here, and see snaps from the 2025 HLTV Awards here.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
