Esports World Cup 2026: donk named MVP; EVPs revealed

Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets received the MVP award at the Esports World Cup 2026 in Paris after a series of high-impact performances. Organizers released the event’s list of EVPs and an All-Star five when the tournament concluded.

Donk recorded his ninth event at or above a 1.50 HLTV composite rating for 2026. At the World Cup he posted a 1.32 eco-adjusted kills-per-round-win (eKPRW) and a 27.4% multi-kill rate across his matches. Tournament reports highlighted repeated opening kills and several rounds on Mirage that shifted match momentum in his team’s favour.

Santino ‘try’ Rigal placed second among EVPs with a 1.26 event rating, his first EVP after leading Legacy through several difficult matchups. Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov posted the event-high 1.56 rating across seven maps for Falcons. Danil ‘molodoy’ Golubenko earned his fourth EVP of 2026 for FURIA, and Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato joined the list based on steady peak maps and strong overtime showings.

Dmytro ‘dem0n’ Myroshnychenko was the top EVP for FUT following the team’s run to the final. Yasin ‘xfl0ud’ Koç led FUT in eKPRW at 0.97 and produced five player-of-the-map performances. Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov bounced back from an early low-rated match to deliver multiple high-impact maps, including a 1.73 rating on Ancient and a 24-frag overtime on Anubis. Bruno ‘latto’ Rebelatto secured his third EVP of the year with notable results against top-ranked opponents.

Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut posted three maps above a 2.00 rating and finished with five player-of-the-map honours. Nikita ‘tenzy’ Kochenyuk earned a career-first EVP for his performances with magic, highlighted by a high-kill match against 9z and continued impact in the playoffs.

The All-Star five included Boris ‘magixx’ Vorobiev and donk. Santino ‘try’ Rigal was selected as the AWPer after guiding Legacy deep into the event. KSCERATO was chosen as the closer over dem0n based on higher map-win impact and more standout maps against top-ten teams. Vinicius ‘n1ssim’ Pereira was named anchor ahead of Džiugas ‘dziugss’ Steponavičius because he produced a greater number of standout maps.

Coach and commentator Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan praised donk’s Mirage performance, saying, “Sometimes you have to respect individual brilliance, and today donk on Mirage was just… He took the show, and when some player at this level with a rifle takes it to his own hands and makes sure, like, everywhere we go, he gets two, three entries, it’s going to be tough to get the game.” Analysts referenced donk’s opening kills and multi-entry rounds when noting his match impact.

Organizers said award decisions relied on a set of performance metrics, including composite ratings, eco-adjusted kills and damage per round, multi-kill rates, and rounds contributing to win probability. The Esports World Cup 2026 field in Paris featured a mix of established teams and rising squads from multiple regions, with final placings and individual awards published at the event’s end.