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Riot Games and Valorant awarded multiple awards at Esports Awards
The 8th iteration of the Esports Awards brings a sweeping victory for Riot Games and their jeweled FPS title, Valorant. The crowning achievement of their esports efforts, Valorant walked away with the lion’s share of awards. Players, coaches, content creators, team owners, and developers related to the FPS title all brought home something last night.
GOTY
Most fittingly, Valorant won the ‘Game of the Year’ award in last night’s Esports awards. Unsurprisingly, the list of contenders for this award included some of the industry’s heaviest hitters. This included Riot’s biggest IP; League of Legends, Valve’s CS:GO and Dota 2, as well as other big names such as Rocket League, and Call of Duty.
Evil Geniuses Deliver Even Amidst Exit
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Evil Geniuses brand, their Valorant roster’s rise to the top of the franchise league’s rankings and lifting of the Champions trophy cemented their storyline of underdogs to world beaters.
Two constants in all the retellings of this expectation-defying season is the impact of Head Coach Christine “potter” Chi and rookie star Max “Demon1” Mazanov. Their contributions in 2023 was a large factor in EG’s dominant performance throughout the latter half of the year.
EG ended up earning 4 nominations, winning 2 of them. Demon1 received nominations for ‘Breakthrough Player of the Year’ and ‘PC Player of the Year.’ He won the former, losing the latter to Faker, who cemented his GOAT status with a whopping 4th Worlds title.
Potter was nominated for ‘Coach of the Year’, which she won. The organization EG was also nominated for Esports Team of the Year thanks to their Valorant division’s performance. However, they lost to T1, whose performance at Worlds earned them the accolade instead.
Publisher of the Year
Riot Games also once again cemented their own legacy as a games publisher with the award ‘Publisher of the Year.’ Their dual crown titles of League of Legends and Valorant both had an intensely incredible year esports-wise.
Unlike GOTY, the competition was less fierce, with Mobile Legends, Valve, and EA the most notable of the bunch. Supercell, Pokemon, and Psyonix were also nominated. However, taking into account their year, Riot far outpaced them all in 2023.
Members of Valorant’s Community Earn Their Stripes Too
Alongside the other notable awards, key members of the Valorant ecosystem earn recognition at this Esports Awards as well. Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Wang earned ‘Esports Personality of the Year’ for his incredible investment and efforts in 2023. Disguised has quickly become one of the biggest names related to influencer-propelled esports, fielding teams in Valorant, League of Legends, and Teamfight Tactics.
Despite not making franchising or partner yet, the Disguised rosters in both Valorant and LoL are/were considered top prospects in the Tier 2 scene. The Disguised LoL team recently won the NA Challengers League Summer Split, and a large number of their former players are now enjoying positions on LCS rosters for 2024.
While Disguised’s Valorant roster may no longer be a top prospect, they were an exciting venture in Disguised’s first foray into esports. They also fielded some high profile names such as Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and Joshua “steel” Nissan.
Desk analyst Mimi “aEvilcat” Wermcrantz also won ‘Esports Desk Analyst of the Year’ for her impressive body of work in 2023, earning popularity, followers and recognition for her key contributions on the desk in the VCT Americas league and international competitions.
The Esports Awards is an annual event that serves to shed the limelight on those special individuals that work at the heart of the industry. To recognise their achievements, their contributions, and their legacy. This year’s Esports Awards was held at Resort World, Las Vegas, US. It was also live-streamed on Twitch and YouTube. Complete list of winners. Check out their website for more information.
Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
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