The 4th annual HLTV Awards took place over the weekend, celebrating the best in Counter-Strike talent across the globe. Over 600 esports professionals, fans, advertising partners, and industry leaders gathered in Belgrade to honour the best and brightest of the CS2 community, a record number for the event.

With a host of stand-out moments, the night ultimately belonged to Russia’s , who won all four of the awards he was nominated for. A mere child at only 17 years old, donk has earned   from the 40 tournaments he has entered since his career began.

At Saturday’s awards ceremony, he managed to beat off stiff competition from Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut to win Player of the Year with his mind-blowing (and record-breaking) performance at the PW Shanghai Major. He also took home Opener of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and Highlight of the Year for his impressive 1v5 clutch against HEROIC at the Shanghai Major.

More than 150,000 votes were cast for the Community Awards category, which includes Talent of the Year, Event of the Year, Creator of the Year, Streamer of the Year, and Skin of the Year.

Among the Panel Awards category winners, Women’s Player of the Year went to Ana “ANa” Dumbravă, with the Team of the Year title scooped by Natus Vincere. There was also recognition for the typically unsung heroes of pro-gaming, namely In-Game Leader of the Year and Coach of the Year, won by Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen and Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskiy, respectively.

2024 Talent of the Year

— HLTV Awards (@HLTVawards)

HLTV: Home of the Counter-Strike community

With an average of over 270 million monthly pageviews, is the leading Counter-Strike coverage site in the world, featuring news, live-streaming, statistics, and on-site tournament coverage. In 2020, the site was acquired by the digital sports media group , which has grown rapidly to an estimated revenue of €20 million in 2024.

Sharing his thoughts on this year’s awards ceremony, Martin Rosenbæk, Co-Founder of HLTV & Senior Director of esports at Better Collective, said, “Having been a part of Counter-Strike from the very beginning, it sits at our core to cater to the fans of CS2 and help the sport grow and prosper. The HLTV Awards is a celebration of all the hard work and dedication from the talent within the Counter-Strike scene and it’s encouraging to see the support and traction the HLTV Awards get from the entire Counter-Strike community. I’m proud of our contribution to the wider ecosystem and grateful for the support from colleagues, partners, teams and participants in shaping this year’s event.”

HLTV award winners in full

Panel Awards:

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

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

Community Awards:

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)

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