Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut has been awarded his third Major Most Valuable Player (MVP) medal after guiding Vitality to a consecutive Major triumph at StarLadder Budapest 2025. The award caps another dominant showing from the French AWPer and cements his place among the all-time greats.
With this third Major MVP, ZywOo moves past Marcelo "coldzera" David and Nicolai "device" Reedtz to become the only player with three gold Major MVPs. He is also the first player since coldzera in 2016 to claim two Major MVP awards in the same calendar year.
Across 2025, ZywOo has accumulated eight MVP awards in total, drawing him level with Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's eight in 2021 — though only four of s1mple's were at so-called Big Events. When restricting the count to Big Events only, ZywOo's eight MVPs this year set a new single-year record, surpassing device's previous mark of seven from 2018.
The Budapest MVP was not an obvious foregone conclusion internally: teammates Robin "ropz" Kool and William "mezii" Merriman pushed hard for the medal. Both Vitality teammates produced standout moments across the event, making the MVP race unusually competitive for ZywOo compared to many of his previous awards.
ropz in particular made a case for the prize with a starring performance on Mirage in the semi-final against Spirit and an incredible sporting line on Overpass in the grand final versus FaZe, where he posted a tournament-high rating on that map. His Overpass showing — a 2.89 rating on that single map — was one of the most eye-catching individual displays of the event.
After that Overpass match, the head-to-head statistical battle between ZywOo and ropz was razor-tight. Their overall tournament ratings were separated by just a few hundredths (ZywOo 1.38, ropz 1.37), they were level in playoff rating (both 1.40), and their ratings in maps the team won were virtually the same (ZywOo 1.46, ropz 1.47).
Because the primary measures were so close, the tiebreaker used to decide the award was kills per round win (KPRW), and ZywOo held a clear advantage in that metric. Over the entire event ZywOo averaged 1.17 KPRW compared to ropz's 1.02 and mezii's 0.92; in the playoffs the gap widened further with ZywOo on 1.19 KPRW and ropz on 0.96.
Even when considering only the semi-final and final series, ZywOo kept the edge: his KPRW was 1.08 versus ropz's 0.95 across those deciders. Those marginal but meaningful differences in impact on rounds won ultimately swung the MVP decision in ZywOo's favor.
A short list of the most MVPs in a single calendar year highlights how exceptional 2025 has been for ZywOo: he leads with eight MVPs this year. Historically notable tallies include s1mple's eight in 2021 (four of those at Big Events), device's seven in 2018, s1mple's six in 2018, ZywOo's six in 2020, and Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund's six in 2013.
Looking specifically at Majors, ZywOo now sits at the top for most Major MVPs with three. Prior to this, coldzera and device were the only players to have won multiple Major MVPs, each with two.
ropz needed a significantly stronger championship Sunday to overtake ZywOo in the final reckoning. Despite his record-breaking single-map performance on Overpass, ropz's overall statlines across the three earlier maps in the final (14-16, 10-9, 14-14) make it difficult to claim he had the conclusively better final overall.
In the end, ZywOo stayed ahead to secure the MVP award. Both he and ropz, however, will receive significant recognition for their Hungary exploits and will be strong contenders in considerations for the year-end Top 20 Players list.
Brief player and team snapshots from the event: Marcelo "coldzera" David is 31, currently without a team, and holds a career rating around 1.11 across a very large map sample; he has played well over two thousand maps in his career. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, age 25, represents Vitality and posted an event rating reflecting his dominance; his broader career numbers include a rating above 1.20, roughly 1,572 maps played, a KPR near 0.84 and a DPR around 0.60.
Robin "ropz" Kool, also 25 and a Vitality teammate, has a career rating in the low 1.10s with more than 1,700 maps played and per-map metrics around a 0.74 KPR and 0.61 DPR. William "mezii" Merriman, 27, finished the event as one of the best players in the final overall; his career rating sits around 1.05 with over a thousand maps played, a KPR near 0.69 and a DPR about 0.63.
Other notable contemporaries referenced in this context include Nicolai "device" Reedtz (age 30, long career with a rating about 1.15 and thousands of maps played) and Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev (age 28, still among the most decorated players with a career rating above 1.20 and extensive achievements).
Team context: Vitality’s roster — led by ZywOo and supported by ropz, mezii and others — lifted the Budapest trophy to become back-to-back Major champions and stand among the world’s top squads. FaZe were the runners-up after a deep run to the final, and Spirit reached the semis, each team showing why they remain fixtures at the top of the competitive scene.