m0NESY: "I had a bit of pressure in the grand final, but next time I'll be even crazier"

The youngster immediately praised his teammates when he was presented with his very first HLTV MVP award.

Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov became the youngest player to win an MVP Big Event award at BLAST World Final, where he was the engine in a refined G2 that went all the way to win the closing tournament of 2022 with a 2-0 grand final victory over Liquid.

The young AWPer topped the rating chart in Abu Dhabi, UAE with a 1.24 average throughout the event, and he posted at least 1.15 ratings in all but one of G2's nine map wins en route to the championship.

The Russian sniper took a few minutes after lifting the trophy on stage to pick up his HLTV MVP medal and give a quick comment before going on to continue celebrations with his teammates. The 17-year-old was humble and positive, putting his teammates before himself and saying that he would be even better in future grand finals.

"The players on my team helped me achieve this," he said before also mentioning the team's coaching staff and G2 management, or what he expects of himself in the future. "I just want to say that I can do even better, guys."

First title, first MVP. What's running through your mind right now?

We just did an amazing job with the team. The first guy to do an amazing job is HooXi, he's been working so much and it showed that we can do a lot of things together.

How important was it for you to win this event for him, to give him something to cheer about?

It was important for him to win, when we got to Abu Dhabi he didn't feel good because of a personal tragedy, so we tried to help him. We spent time together and tried to help him inside and outside of the game. He wanted this win, I could feel it, and I could feel that we would win if he played like he plays usually.

You're now part of a very small group of players that won an MVP award before turning 18, and you're the youngest to be given the award at a Big Event. What does it mean to you to reach this milestone at such a young age?

Maybe for people it means a lot that some young players wins an MVP at a Big Event, but for me it means that the players on my team helped me achieve this. Of course it's me, but it's also all of the players since I've joined this team.

I've been learning a lot from NiKo, huNter-, HooXi, jks, XTQZZZ even though he's not with us anymore, Swani, everyone on the team, and also management staff. They've all helped me do this, so I want to thank them, first of all.

Second, I just want to say that I can do even better, guys. I had a bit of pressure in the grand final, but next time you see me I'll be even crazier.

You've made a lot of progress since joining G2 and you've put on incredible performances of late, including here at this last event of the year. How has your evolution been this year, playing at the top level?

Sometimes it's not easy to play some opponents. Since joining the team I've been playing tier one and before I was just playing against academy teams, which was much easier. When you join a top team and don't have experience, like b1t, me, and those academy players, you just need to shoot better against top players. Experience will come, you just need to believe and be around people who will help you.

How about the game against Liquid. It was a bit of an unexpected grand final, G2 vs. Liquid. In the end you won it 2-0, were you confident you'd take it?

It was just as usual, I woke up today and felt the same as yesterday. We were confident in ourselves, we beat Vitality, we beat FaZe and took revenge, so yeah, we're just confident in ourselves. Also HooXi, he was confident as fuck... Sorry. [laughs] But also me, I was confident. I was so calm this tournament, I was so chilled and relaxed. I don't know why, maybe I just played without expectations. I just wanted to play my game, I was just myself.

You played really good T-sides today. It was very hard for Liquid to get good reads and know what you were going to do. How did you manage that?

It was HooXi, he was calling a lot. Of course we help him to make some calls if we get some info to rotate or not rotate, but Rasmus is doing a great job and that's why we won so many rounds on T-side. I can say that we're still struggling in some clutch situations and even in advantage situations, but if we do better in those situations we'll be so much better than we are now.