Paker_Games has won $5000 by winning the Spring 2026 HLTV Fantasy season.
A 32-year-old accountant from Cheltenham, Paker_Games only started playing Fantasy in 2024 but has followed CS since 2014, and set his sights on making the top 10 this season after seeing that he beat the full celebrity league in his first two full seasons.
“The pressure during Stage 3 and the playoffs was definitely there,” he told HLTV. “Ironically, I was feeling relaxed and good about my position until Stage 2 finished and I had a lead of 21 points. You can’t really ask for a better position with only two games left, but it now felt like anything except winning would be a failure.”
Despite an unfortunate Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich pick in Stage 3, Paker_Games secured top 20% in both of the final games of the season to win overall by a solid margin of 22 points.
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Paker_Games: $5,000 -
timixfyy: $2,000 -
realvancen: $1,000
In second place, timixfyy said he felt “pure joy and relief” having accepted that he could not catch Paker_Games.
One spot below, realvancen was pleased to beat isthisreallajjf, a task he cheekily called “pretty easy”, but was disappointed to finish two points behind second knowing that one booster could have made the difference.
A shoutout is also deserved for rickastley123, whose fourth-place finish this season makes him the first user to make the top 10 on three occasions. As a reward for this achievement, he will receive $300. There is competition from Jurodiwy, however, who has now made it to the top 10 twice after finishing seventh.
In the celebrity league, HLTV senior writer Danish “Nohte” Allana’s hefty lead from early in the season was maintained as he romped to first place.
He said: “It’s always a pleasure competing against colleagues in fantasy; it’s a fun way to stay invested in each event and have something to talk about. That said, despite my best efforts to nearly troll my lead away, finally playing all the games in a season paid off. GGs to everyone.”
Alex “hawka” Hawkins and Alex “Mauisnake” Ellenberg completed the top three, with Anastasija “Heccu” Tolmačeva in fourth and Lucy “LucyLuce” Eastwood pipping Harry “NER0” Richards to fifth after 27 points from her double Falcons gamble at the Cologne Major.
