cobrazera in the running for Rookie of the Year

A couple of days back, HLTV gave a sneak peak into how this year's HLTV Awards might shape up. IEM Cologne 2026 concluded the first season of the year and at the halfway mark HLTV revealed frontrunners under several categories. cobrazera, who was brought in to fill the colossal shoes of Senzu is currently in the running for Rookie of the Year. Senzu was one of the hardest hitters on The MongolZ and his departure has made a big dent in the firepower department for the Mongolian squad.

cobrazera's initial games with The MongolZ saw underwhelming performances until the 20-year old finally came online at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026 where he put up a 25-3 showing in the decider against paIN in the group stage with a rating of 2.61. However, cobrazera did not put up his best numbers at the recently concluded IEM Cologne 2026.

In the Opener of the Year category, donk, flameZ, kyousuke, makazzee and xertioN have thrown their hats in the ring. While HLTV has not revealed who leads the category at this point, the community confidently believe that donk clears the rest by a big margin. donk has been delivering lights out performances for Spirit throughout the year so far with his best numbers this year coming against 9z at the IEM Cologne Major. In Spirit's 13-1 win on Nuke, donk put up an insane 2.76 rating at an ADR of 145.