Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken has been named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of IEM Sydney by HLTV.org and betway.

An incredibly close race to the accolade saw Twistzz come out ahead of two of his teammates, Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic, as well as one of his final opponents, Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell, after the fifth map of the title decider.

His peaks in each series of the playoffs, including the highest rating on the last map of the tournament (1.52), a 1.47 rating in an overtime victory on Nuke against MIBR, and a 1.56 rating on the same map versus Ninjas in Pyjamas, swayed the decision the Canadian's way, in the end.

The 19-year-old scooped the award after leading Liquid to their first big-event title, putting in a team-highest 1.25 rating across the 12 maps he played throughout the $250,000 tournament.

The Canadian star recorded a number of other top-five placements in the leaderboards with both great fragging (0.82 KPR) and ability to survive (0.57 DPR), which helped him top the charts in K-D difference (+78). Furthermore, although it didn't impact the decision on the award, he was also the best at headshots with 0.55 per round and a percentage of 67.1%.

This is the second MVP award Twistzz has claimed in his career after he was the best player of ESL One New York 2018 in a losing effort.