XTQZZZ: The Best Coach of the Year

Coach of the Year in CS 2 is perhaps one of the most difficult individual awards to determine in esports. Unlike snipers or riflers, whose effectiveness is visible in K/D and highlights, a coach’s work often remains behind the scenes. It consists of tactical timeouts, hours of demo reviews, psychological support, and building a structure that doesn’t break under pressure. However, 2025 gave us such brilliant performances that choosing the best mentor became a matter of mathematics and facts. The selection of Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam for this prestigious award is based on a lethal combination of three factors: an incredible number of maps played at the Tier-1 level, a phenomenal win rate, and, of course, the number of gold medals. Amidst fierce competition, his results became the benchmark for coaching excellence. In this material, the CSGO-NEWS blog breaks down the top 5 mentors of the past season and explains why the French specialist ended up on top of Olympus.

Selection Methodology: How Did We Calculate?

To determine the winner objectively, we cast aside personal preferences and turned to dry numbers. The calculation for this award was based on a simple but effective formula:

1. Volume of work: How many official maps the coach conducted over the year against top opponents.

2. Effectiveness: Win rate on those maps.

3. Productivity: Number of trophies, finals, and podium finishes. It is this combination of volume, success rate, and actual titles that allowed for a fair comparison of mentors with completely different management styles and tournament schedules.

5. Sidnei “sidde” Macedo (FURIA) — Marathon Runner of the Year

Opening our top five is the Brazilian specialist who proved in 2025 that persistence and hard work overcome all. Sidnei “sidde” Macedo carried the heaviest load among all nominees. Just think about it: under his leadership, FURIA played 216 maps at the highest level! With such an insane schedule, keeping a team focused is no easy task, but sidde handled it brilliantly, maintaining a win rate around 60%. This isn’t just “good stats”—it’s a result that converted into four full trophies, including the prestigious IEM Chengdu 2025 and BLAST Rivals Fall 2025. Add to this two bronze medals, and it becomes obvious: the systems built by Macedo withstand the longest competitive calendars. Undoubtedly, 2025 became the best year in the history of the FURIA tag, and a huge credit for this belongs to their coach, who managed to find a balance between aggressive Brazilian style and European discipline.

4. Danny “zonic” Sørensen (Falcons) — The Standard of Stability

In the fourth spot is the man many call the “Godfather” of the coaching scene in Counter-Strike. Danny “zonic” Sørensen once again confirmed his class while working with the ambitious Falcons project. His numbers speak of signature Danish stability: 199 maps against the world’s best teams and a solid win rate of 58%. Yes, perhaps Falcons didn’t dominate every tournament as fans expected, but zonic’s work is visible elsewhere—in the ability to lead the team to the decisive stages.

• One trophy: Victory at PGL Bucharest 2025.

• Seven finals: The team constantly stopped one step away from the title.

• Three third-place finishes. Even when the game wasn’t perfect, Sørensen’s players almost always found themselves fighting for the cup on the final day of the event. This is a sign of class and the immense experience of a mentor who knows how to bring a team to its peak form by the playoffs.

3. Dennis “sycrone” Nielsen (MOUZ) — Architect of Young Talents

Taking the bronze in our ranking is the Dane who turned a youth academy into one of the most fearsome forces on the world stage. Dennis “sycrone” Nielsen guided MOUZ through 191 maps, maintaining a win rate at the 58% mark. While he slightly trails the leaders in dry numbers, sycrone’s impact on the game cannot be overstated. Under his leadership, the “mice” secured the PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 cup. But even more impressive is the stability: six second-place finishes and five third-place finishes. This proves that the CS 2 Coach of the Year isn’t always the one who wins everything in a row, but the one who knows how to build long-term projects. Sycrone showed that he can repeatedly create playoff-level rosters that remain competitive throughout the grueling season, despite the youth of the players.

2: Sergey “hally” Shavaev (Team Spirit) — Efficiency and Power

Second place goes to the mentor whose team in 2025 was associated with pure firepower and the fear they struck into opponents. Sergey “hally” Shavaev led Team Spirit through 159 maps of Tier-1 level. Why fewer maps than the competitors? Because Spirit often closed out matches faster and moved through the upper brackets. Their win rate is mind-blowing—approximately 70%! This is incredible efficiency. In hally’s assets for 2025:

• Six top-tier trophies.

• Participation in one more grand final.

• Five top-3 finishes. These statistics clearly demonstrate how often Sergey’s tactical developments and Danil “donk” Kryshkovets’ individual performance turned good form into real titles. Spirit under hally rarely settled for “almost victories”—they came and took what was theirs. It would seem impossible to surpass such a result, but one man was found who could do it.

1. Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (Team Vitality) — Absolute Champion

The achievements demonstrated by the CS 2 Coach of the Year—XTQZZZ—look like something out of science fiction. In 2025, Rémy Quoniam created a machine that didn’t just win but dominated over the distance. Let’s look at the facts that make his position undeniable:

• Colossal volume: The team played over 200 maps at top-tier tournaments.

• Incredible win rate: With such a huge number of games, Vitality won approximately 74% of their matches. Maintaining such a bar over a distance of 200+ maps is a coaching feat.

• Award collection: XTQZZZ led the team to nine trophies! Add to this three silver medals and four third-place finishes. This is absolutely the best resume among all coaches in the world. But the most important thing isn’t even the quantity. The quality of these victories speaks for itself. Under XTQZZZ’s leadership in 2025, Vitality won two Majors and secured the prestigious ESL Grand Slam Season 5. This is a historic achievement that puts Rémy on the same level as the greatest mentors in the history of the discipline.

Why is XTQZZZ the best?

Even in a season where hally showed miracles of efficiency, sycrone built ideal mechanisms, zonic leaned on experience, and sidde on endurance—XTQZZZ combined all these qualities. The combination of a massive volume of matches played, the highest win percentage, and a record number of major trophies made his lead over competitors unreachable. The numbers don’t lie: no other coach led his roster to elite success as consistently, confidently, and uncompromisingly throughout the entire calendar year. Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam is deservedly the best coach of 2025 according to CSGO-NEWS.

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