HLTV has released its Coach of the Year nominees for 2024, and CS2 fans are taking turns laughing and cringing at the options.
December is awards season for nearly all forms of media. With the Game Awards set for December 12 and the Esports Awards happening tonight, all sorts of governing bodies are getting in on the action. HLTV is the latest entry into the award show series, with the series beginning in 2021. The Counter-Strike-only event is usually beloved by fans, but this year, a certain category has fans riled up.
Here’s why CS2 fans are up in arms over HLTV’s nominations for Coach of the Year.
There are only two nominees for 2024 Coach of the Year, Natus Vincere’s Andrij “B1ad3” Ghorodensjkyj and Passion UA’s Mykhajlo “kane” Blaghin.
Both nominees don’t seem too strange in isolation. Natus Vincere had a banger year, winning the Copenhagen Major, IEM Rio, Pro League 20, and Esports World Cup. It also topped the BLAST leaderboards for the year.
However, it bombed out of the BLAST Worlds Finals just a month later. While its peaks have been massive, the team is streaky. Navi faltered at both Pro League 19 and IEM Dallas, failing to reach top eight in either event. Most notably, Navi fell 2-3 in the group stage for the ongoing Shanghai Major. Defending champion captain Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen even mentioned the crowd as one of the team’s obstacles. If a coach’s impact is reflected by consistency, that’s a strong argument against B1ad3’s nomination.
The other option is the coach of rising star Passion UA, which squeezed through the European RMR to reach the Shanghai Major play-ins. However, the squad failed to secure three wins and bowed out as early as possible.
While reaching a major as a new stack is quite impressive, the team’s performance still leaves much to be desired. Its only other victories are some tier two wins at European Pro League and Real Game Cup 2024. Judged entirely by results, the team’s coaching doesn’t necessarily warrant a nod. Some fans claim that recency bias may be in effect, as Passion UA was relatively unknown before its miracle RMR run.
Other CS2 fans pointed out a severe lack of Coach of the Year nominations, especially when certain teams clearly improved thanks to staff contributions. The MongolZ coach Erdenedalai “maaRaa” Bayanbat played a considerable role in the team’s meteoric rise. Mouz mastermind Dennis “sycrone” Nielsen is a surprising snub for similar reasons.
HLTV has yet to respond to social media criticism, but the nomination list could change before the event starts on January 11, 2025.
Here are all the previous winners of HLTV’s CS2 Coach of the Year.
Note that while HLTV first began its award show in 2021, it did not appear to award a CS2 Coach of the Year until 2022.
Both wins were quite deserved. After an insanely dominant 2021, Natus Vincere underwent roster troubles after the removal of captain Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov. With then-underdeveloped talent Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev standing in, the team stayed a top-level threat. That difficult transition can be partially attributed to B1ad3’s leadership in the star-studded roster.
As for zonic, the one-man institution brought out Vitality’s full potential with consecutive wins at IEM Rio and the Paris Major. The team only narrowly missed out on the three-peat at BLAST Spring Final with silver. With yet another major under his belt, zonic further solidified his position as the most decorated captain in the game’s history. Unfortunately, he has yet to replicate that success with Team Falcons.
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