With the last Big Event of 2018, BLAST Pro Series Lisbon, in the rearview mirror, it is time to present the Exceptionally Valuable Players (EVPs) of the $250,000 tournament.

Astralis made sure to end 2018 on a high note as they won the BLAST Pro Series Lisbon title - their tenth Big Event crown of the year - after coming back from a map down to defeat Natus Vincere 2-1.

After the final, Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif was presented with this first-ever Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for his contribution to Astralis' success in the Portuguese capital, where he posted 1.25+ ratings on every map won by his team to leave the tournament with an impressive 1.39 rating.

BLAST Pro Series Lisbon had three EVPs

The tournament's unconventional format, with a fairly low number of maps played and the lack a playoff bracket, resulted in just three EVPs, all from different sides, with MIBR being the only team who did not make the final and still provide a player to the list, which you can find below:

HLTV.org's EVP picks (by order):

Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen

Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev

Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David

dupreeh capped off a great individual year with a year-high 1.39 rating to pick up his eighth EVP mention of 2018 (on top of an MVP medal at the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals). The 25-year-old and Magisk were neck-and-neck in the MVP race, with the grand final game on Cache being the deciding factor that tipped the scale in the youngster's favour.

Boasting a tournament-high 1.47 Impact rating, dupreeh was Astralis' second-best player in the round-robin stage (1.43 rating), and he stepped up in the grand final as he led his team with a 1.34 rating. He was by far the best CT player of the event, averaging a 1.53 rating on the defensive side, and he was a solid contributor with the AWP, picking up 20 kills with the AWP (0.10 per round).

dupreeh, who was second to Magisk for rating in map wins leading to victories (1.40 vs. 1.46), was in the stats leaderboards in 13 categories, leading six of them, including ADR (92.6), kills per round (0.90), percentage of rounds with at least one frag (55.4%) and KAST (78.2%).

s1mple was in line for the MVP award for most of the tournament, but slipped out of contention for the honour after cutting a frustrating figure on the last two maps of the final (1.09 rating on Cache and 0.75 on Dust2).

With Denis "⁠electronic⁠" Sharipov a far cry from his usual form, s1mple took matters into his own hands and carried his team to the final, his 1.46 rating in map wins matched only by Magisk. The Ukrainian registered 1.20+ ratings in each of Natus Vincere's round-robin stage wins, and he also acquitted himself well on the opening map of the grand final, Overpass, with a 1.61 rating.

The 21-year-old was top for clutches won (five), total AWP kills (73) and opening frags (26), and he appeared in nine other stats leaderboards, most notably rating (1.22), kills per round (0.83), percentage of rounds with at least one frag (54.1%) and AWP kills per round (0.38)

BLAST Pro Series Lisbon may not have been the best tournament for MIBR as far as results are concerned, but for coldzera there were still positives to take as he registered a 1.31 rating, his second best of the year at a Big Event.

The Brazilian was a consistent performer for his team at the Altice Arena, posting above-average ratings in all of MIBR's round-robin stage matches except the 7-16 defeat to Astralis. His 2.23 rating against Natus Vincere was only his second 2.0+ rating score at a Big Event in 2018, but that match has to be taken with a grain of salt as MIBR were by then already out of contention for a place in the final.

coldzera ranked first for headshots per round (0.54) and opening duel success (76.5%), and he featured in the top five in seven other stats categories, including rating, ADR (88.2), kills per round (0.89) and percentage of rounds with at least one frag (52.8%).