I still enjoy going back to the HLTV Awards 2023 because it captures a very specific moment in Counter-Strike history. The ceremony took place on January 13 in Belgrade, and it was not just another ranking reveal. HLTV turned its traditional top 20 into a live awards show, with the final three podium places saved for the broadcast and social media. From my 2026 vantage point, that night feels like a bridge between the last CS:GO Major era and the CS2 season we now follow. The final nominees for Player of the Year were Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut, Robin 'ropz' Kool, and Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač. Even now, that trio tells a great story: one superstar with absurd individual ceiling, one incredibly consistent FaZe Clan star, and one of the most durable superstars the game has ever seen.

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Why this race still matters to me

The HLTV Awards 2023 were an evolution of the classic HLTV top 20. Instead of simply publishing the list, HLTV made the final podium a live moment. That change mattered because Counter-Strike fans love debates, and the Player of the Year race is the biggest debate of all. Was it the Major winner? The most consistent star? The best player on the best team? I like that the final three nominees represented three different answers.

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Here is how I break down the final three:

Finalist Team in 2023 My quick read
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut Vitality The headline case: Paris Major champion, five first-place finishes with Vitality, and a peak level that bent maps in his team's favor.
Robin 'ropz' Kool FaZe Clan The consistency case: a rising stock after placing 8th in the 2022 top 20, and a player whose quiet impact often turned into huge rounds.
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač G2 The longevity case: a top-20 fixture since 2016 and five top-5 finishes since 2017, which is a wild standard of excellence.

The ZywOo case was hard to ignore

Let me be honest: if I had a vote, ZywOo would have been my pick. He was part of the Paris Major winning Vitality roster, and that team took home five first-place finishes in 2023. The Major is the biggest trophy in Counter-Strike, and ZywOo was not a passenger on that run. He was the engine. His combination of timing, positioning, and ridiculous highlight-reel moments made Vitality look unbeatable when everything clicked.

There was also a legacy angle. The reference material noted that if ZywOo won, he would follow Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev in achieving three HLTV top 1s of the year. That is the kind of stat that makes an award feel bigger than one season. It puts ZywOo in the all-time conversation, not just the 2023 conversation.

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ropz and NiKo were not filler nominees

I want to push back on the idea that this was a one-man race. ropz had a genuinely strong 2023. His stock rose, and he went from 8th in the 2022 top 20 to a finalist for the biggest individual award. That is a serious jump. FaZe Clan fans know what I mean: ropz is not always the loudest player on the server, but he is often the one who wins the round that decides the map. His lurks, timings, and late-round reads are exactly the kind of details that HLTV rankings reward.

NiKo is almost the opposite story. He has been elite for so long that people start taking it for granted. Entering the top 20 since 2016 and posting five top-5 finishes since 2017 is not normal. Most players have one great year. NiKo has built a career out of great years. In 2023, he was still one of the most mechanically gifted riflers in the world, and his impact on G2 was obvious in big matches.

What actually happened

ZywOo took the HLTV Player of the Year award, with NiKo and ropz completing the final three. I still think that result aged well. In 2026, with CS2 fully established, it is easy to forget how strange and exciting that transition period felt. The 2023 season had one foot in CS:GO and one foot in CS2, and the HLTV Awards 2023 ended up as a perfect snapshot of that bridge.

A few things I still take from that night:

  • 🏆 The Major still carries enormous weight in Player of the Year debates.

  • 📈 Consistency is not boring; ropz proved that quiet excellence can earn a podium spot.

  • 🧠 Longevity matters; NiKo's resume is a reminder that staying elite is its own superpower.

  • 🔥 ZywOo's peak was the difference, and his third HLTV top 1 put him in rare company.

So yes, I still think about the HLTV Awards 2023. It was not just a list of names. It was a live debate about what we value in Counter-Strike: trophies, consistency, longevity, or a peak so high that it changes the shape of a season. My answer is still ZywOo, but I respect the other two cases completely. And that is exactly why the Player of the Year race remains one of the best conversations in the scene.