NAVI inactive superstar Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev downplayed Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut's 21st MVP award earned at IEM Katowice 2025. He claimed that the Frenchman received "extra" medals for European online RMR events when some of the EEU ones weren't scored by HLTV. The AWPer shared his opinion in several voice messages on Telegram.
Seriously, remember the MVPs for online? There were RMR tournaments in Eastern Europe and Western Europe. They did not give MVPs for RMR in EEU because they thought the teams were weak. When Eastern Europe started to wipe everyone out, HLTV editors decided to add MVP for the following RMRs.
They thought that the CIS scene was really terrible, they did not give MVPs, but in the end, the CIS scene started to win. Back then, NAVI and Gambit were the ones fighting for first place [in world rankings]. These were these RMR MVPs that weren't included for... How much did ZywOo get? Three or four medals. That's how it happens.
Apparently, s1mple talks about the DreamHack Open Fall 2020 and cs_summit 6 medals of the Frenchman. The events were a part of the RMR cycle, but were held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The same RMR events in other regions had weaker competition, so HLTV didn't count them as the equal tier, and did not give same awards.
If there were MVP medals in events for Eastern Europe, s1mple would've likely earned one more medal at WePlay! Clutch Island but he was nowhere near the top at the following event, where NAVI finished 4th. So, while s1mple would've still been on the first place by the amount of MVP awards, the difference between them most likely would've been just one title.
