Counter-Strike: Global Offensive website, HLTV.org, has had a Top-20 Players list since 2010, where they rated the Top-20 Players playing Counter-Strike 1.6. In 2021, they expanded their culmination of the year of Counter-Strike into an entire award show. This year, HLTV Awards 2024 will take place on January 11 in the Dom Sindikata, a concert hall in Belgrade, Serbia. The show will be presented in front of a live audience and on Twitch and will feature many guests from the Counter-Strike scene.
This year, there are three segments of awards, with Community Awards, Panel Awards and HLTV Awards and therefore our predictions will be split into three articles. The Community Awards, the focus of this article, are decided by a community vote, so predicting is as much about our opinion as it is about how we think the community will vote. And therefore, without further rambling, here is who we believe deserves each Community Award at the HLTV Awards 2024. How many do you think we have predicted correctly?
Contents
Talent of the Year – Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill
The first award is “Talent of the Year”, with this year the same top three nominees as last year and those are James “BanKs” Banks, Conner “Srawny” Girvan and Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill, who went on to win in 2023. They all, again, had phenomenal years and are integral parts of the Counter-Strike Esports scene, with BanKs having multiple roles, featuring as a stage host, interviewer and desk host at twenty-three events over the year. Scrawny, now the face of BLAST events in terms of commentary, was on the mic at all big events this year, including the Majors, the three BLAST Premier Finals and Katowice and Cologne.
However, with that said, SPUNJ still is our favorite, being the voice of Counter-Strike in our opinion for 2024. SPUNJ was on comms for the Grand finals at Cologne, Katowice and the Shanghai Major and therefore it is no surprise he gets our vote.
Creator of the Year – Nade King
Next up is “Creator of the Year” and again there are repeat entries from last year, with both 3kliksphilip and NadeKing featuring in 2023, coming first and second respectively. The new entry for 2024 is Virre, a more traditional Counter-Strike creator. Virre is known for his spectacular fragmovies and it is nice to see him getting recognition as fragmovie-making gets less and less common. Last year’s winner, 3kliksphilip, is again one of the nominees, to nobody’s surprise. The Brit has been in the industry for over a decade and is still making quality Counter-Strike-themed content to this day.
Our pick for the “Creator of the Year”, however, is Estonian content creator NadeKing who really stepped up his content in 2024. He has had some super interesting videos throughout the year, where he consistently pushes Counter-Strike 2 to its limits alongside professional players and fellow YouTubers.
Event of the Year – Perfect World Shanghai Major
The third award is for “Event of the Year”, an award won by the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023. The first nomination for this year is IEM Katowice 2024, the event where Danil “donk” Kryshkovets established himself as a force in the Counter-Strike scene, averaging a 1.70 rating on his way to the MVP Award. The second is PGL Major Copenhagen, the first Major of the year. This Major saw an out-of-form Natus Vincere win their second Major, a victory that many considered a fluke at the time. The final nomination and our pick for “Event of the Year” is the Perfect World Shanghai Major. This was the first Major tournament held in Asia and hopefully will not be the last. This Major had so many good moments, with that final map of Dust2 in the Grand Final alone enough to make it worthy of the award.
Streamer of the Year – ohnepixel
Up next is the award for “Streamer of the Year”, an award that was won emphatically in 2023 by ohnepixel, who received over 40% of the votes. We feel it may be the same story in 2024. The first nomination is dima_wallhacks, a Lithuanian content creator best known for his consistent grind to Global Elite. His appearance on this list alone is something to be proud of. The third nominee is fl0m, an established and well-known content creator in the Counter-Strike scene, considered a legend of the North American scene by some. The Mythic AWPer has been a joy to watch throughout the year but there was only one winner and that is ohnepixel. His content alone is enough to win the award but the German also coached a team to the Asia RMR of the Perfect World Shanghai Major, an achievement that alone has won him this award.
Skin of the Year – AK-47 | Inheritance
The final award in the Community Award section is for “Skin of the Year” and 2024 has brought plenty of note-worthy skins to Counter-Strike 2. The three nominations are the AK-47 | Inheritance made by Endrit, the M4A1-S | Black Lotus made by moonfighter and the Zeus x27 | Olympus made by apel8.
All three are gorgeous in their own right but our pick for the best skin of 2024 is the AK-47 | Inheritance, a spectacular AK-47 skin inspired by traditional Chinese porcelain and Delft Blauw art. This beauty is a well-deserved winner of the award. To quickly touch on the other nominations, the M4A1-S | Black Lotus features a stunning black lotus flower as the focal point of the design on a blue and purple base and the Zeus x27 | Olympus, the first Zeus x27 skin ever added to Counter-Strike, depicts Zeus, the God of Thunder, a design perfectly befitting the gun it is on.
