Mauisnake: “There is a very high probability that m0NESY will be the player of 2026 according to .org version”

CS2 analyst Alex Mauisnake Ellenburg believes that Ilya m0NESY Osipov has a chance to beat Mathieu ZywOo Herbault and Danil donk Kryshkovets in the race for the title of best player of 2026 according to .org. Ellenburg shared his opinion on the Last Free Nation Counter-Strike podcast on YouTube.

This is a controversial opinion. I was thinking about the race to become the best player in the world. And, in fact, it finally began to gain momentum in 2026. Because for about the first three months it seemed that this was a confrontation between only two players - ZywOo and donk. ZywOo started to really take off because he was winning all these MVPs and Vitality was winning almost every tournament. Donk was very close thanks to his incredible statistics - and they still remain the same. We may be seeing some of the best individual stats a player has ever produced. But that's not exactly how .org defines the world's best player. And this is where my thought begins. It may not even be entirely mine, but I do believe that there is a very high probability that on January 10, 2027, when the Awards ceremony for the 2026 season takes place, the .org Player of the Year will be m0NESY. I think the likelihood of this happening is very high indeed, given the way the Falcons are building momentum right now. At the same time, I am not at all sure that Vitality will be able to return to its previous level. Thorin, you said that apEX will become even better after he became a father. But I don't know if mezii will get better after the birth of my second child. Perhaps the "young father buff" has a limit. His form has deteriorated slightly recently, and now he also has a second child. I'm not sure it will return to its previous level. And in general, it seems to me that some Vitality players have already passed that “honeymoon”. Then they had something to prove to themselves and to everyone else. And now I have a feeling that the team will gradually begin to cool down. This is more of a gut feeling than something based on fact. As for Team Spirit and donk, the problem is that the team has yet to find its ideal game. They are still in the process of becoming. For example, TN1R looked great with S0tF1k behind him. And when the coach wasn't around, he looked much more lost at IEM Cologne. In addition, I believe that magixx as an in-game leader still needs to improve significantly to even approach the level of apEX, not to mention karrigan. So I think the Falcons will be more successful next season. That's how I view this situation. Of course, when talking about player of the year, I would like it to come down solely to the question: “Who is the best player in the world?” And perhaps at the end of the year we will again disagree on how .org decides the winner. But, given the calculation methodology, I believe that m0NESY now has a really excellent chance of becoming player of the year.

Earlier, Ilya m0NESY Osipov became a major champion for the first time in his career. He was also named MVP of that tournament. At the same time, ZywOo at the time of publication of the material had already earned four such awards in 2026.