Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut earned four MVPs in the first half of the year, but he’s had to wait for his fifth as Vitality declined in form.
But at StarSeries, he decided that enough was enough as he dragged his team to the title with a 1.50 rating and 1.24 KPRW.
With a whopping +6.13% round swing overall, there wasn’t even a hint of an MVP race once the grand final started and ZywOo started running out Mid on Cache with an AK-47.
Usually coy on individual honors, ZywOo admitted that breaking his duck was a relief here: “I wanted at least one MVP for the second part of the season,” he told HLTV post-game, “just to be a bit more confident and to win also a trophy. So I think it will come also with that. So now it feels good to have this MVP.”
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ZywOo: “It’s crazy to say it’s been a while for us to win a trophy”
Radar Chart Stat Glossary
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Rating 3.0: HLTV’s composite rating of kills, damage, survival, KAST, multis, and Swing
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Swing Added: win probability added from positive actions
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eKPR: eco-adjusted kills per round
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eADR: eco-adjusted damage per round
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eKPRW: eco-adjusted kills per round win
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2k+: rounds with two or more kills
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Positive Swing Rounds: rounds with more than 0% round swing
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KAST: rounds with a kill, assist, survival, or trade
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eNetDmg: eco-adjusted damage differential per round
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eNetKills: eco-adjusted kill differential per round
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Round Swing: the win probability sum of a player’s actions
Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato
There is more pressure on KSCERATO to deliver with Danil “molodoy” Golubenko’s eye issues, but he is delivering with four events in a row above a 1.20 rating.
StarSeries was even stronger, at a 1.26 with 89.9 ADR for the event, which allows him to claim the top EVP spot despite FURIA not making the final.
He posted seven standout maps, only two fewer than ZywOo, including big map wins against MOUZ and MIBR.
KSCERATO was also the only one to put up a fight against the big dogs, with a 1.23 rating against top 10 teams and his highest teammate on 0.97.
Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo
We said there wasn’t an MVP race, but if there had been, it would have been Jimpphat who could have challenged ZywOo for the medal.
An awful final prevented that, but he was brilliant beforehand with a 1.41 rating in map wins en route to the final and three player of the maps.
The demolition of Vitality in the upper final may not have been for elimination, but it showed the sky-high potential still present inside the Finn.
Having endured a quiet few years, this is his first EVP since IEM Rio at the back end of 2024 as Ashley “ash” Battye makes good on his promise to make him a star anchor once more.
Robin “ropz” Kool
ropz was definitely the second fiddle in Barcelona, but he still added plenty of value via 0.98 KPRW, a 1.28 rating in map wins and a 1.24 rating in the six maps Vitality played on the final day.
Outside of the upper final against Aurora, where he struggled badly, this was the ropz of the first season and not the one who has averaged a 1.06 rating since July.
On that Sunday, he was great on Cache against FURIA with a 113 ADR first-half that set the tone for a day of Vitality domination reminiscent of the first half of the year.
It’s easy to focus on ZywOo’s heroics, but ropz’s return to form might prove just as important as we head towards the Major.
The best players of StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026, in order:
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Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut -
Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato
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Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo
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Robin “ropz” Kool
Honorable mentions
Shahar “flameZ” Shushan was as good as ropz over the last two series, but didn’t have quite as much credit for their wins before that last day, so missed out.
Ali “Wicadia” Haydar Yalçın made a late push for an EVP with a 1.17 rating in playoffs, and a team-high 1.15 rating in the grand final. But he wasn’t too important in getting Aurora into that final, and only had a 1.05 rating in map wins.
tomaszin has made an impact since joining MIBR
Felipe “insani” Yuji and Tomas “tomaszin” Corna both came close to nods for great group stage form but couldn’t get over the line because of middling form against FURIA, the only top ten team MIBR played against.
Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov did all he could in the elimination series against MOUZ, but could not prevent another group stage exit for Natus Vincere. Abdurakhim “mo0N” Issa was also impressive in defeat for magic.
All-Star
Unlike normally, we only have two players from the champions with Dan “apEX” Madesclaire slotting in alongside MVP ZywOo.
KSCERATO beat out ropz for closer, while Jimpphat is the other easy pick for anchor.
Opener is a bit more tough between flameZ and insani, but insani smashed him on KPRW (1.16-0.84) and was more important to his team’s run.
Multi-award winners
ZywOo’s tenth award also makes it his fifth career year with five or more MVP medals.
