The Game Awards are right around the corner (December 7th), and include several categories across a multitude of gaming areas, including influencers, ESports, and the games themselves. Here are our picks for the ESports categories:
Content Creator of the Year
Nominees: Doctor Lupo, Myth, Ninja, Pokimane, Willyrex
Tyler: Ninja, only because who the hell are those other people?
Ashton: Usually I’m a fan of the pokemans, but what can I say, Ninja is actually the only name I know on this list. Don’t see Dunkey, sounds like a rigged election to me.
John: I guess Ninja?
Tyler: Let’s keep Dunkey off this list.
Best Esports Moment
Nominees: C9 Comeback Win in Triple OT vs FAZE, G2 Beating RNG, KT vs IG Base Race, OG’s MAssive Upset of LGD, SonicFox Side Switch Against Go1 in DBZ
John: Cloud9 winning the Boston Major in the fashion they did to be the first NA team to win a major definitely wins it.
Tyler: This isn’t my scene. I’m going to go with, uhh…. G2
Ashton: I really liked the sports moment where the esports players almost lost, but then won. SO that one.
Tyler: Yeah, I think LeBron going to LA wins this one for me.
John: We’ll never forget The Block.
Best Esports Host
Nominee: Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez, Alex “Machine” Richardson, Anders Blume, Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere, Paul “RedEye” Chaloner
Ashton: Wut?
Tyler: Who is this appealing to?! But really, Goldenboy. Stay Golden.
John: RedEye sounds a little too close to Pink Eye. He should get that looked at.
Best Esports Event
Nominees: ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, EVO 2018, League of Legends World Championship, Overwatch League Grand Finals, The International 2018
Ashton: Overwatch is pretty good I guess.
Tyler: Yeah, Overwatch League is exactly how these leagues should be run. It’s fantastic.
John: Y’all crazy, EVO is an incredible production, spanning several games. And we had some fantastic fights this year (looking at you, SonicFox).
Tyler: EVO doesn’t even have the game’s name in it.
John: It’s best Esports EVENT. Respect the game, Tyler!
Best Esports Coach
Nominees: Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu, Cristian “ppasarel” Banaseanu, Danny “zonic” Sorensen, Dylan Falco, Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi, Janko “YNk” Paunovic
Ashton: Going to have to give this one to Coach Steve from Big Mouth, he’s the man.
Tyler: No, you’re the man! But Coach Pop.
John: I don’t see Pete Carroll on this list, so I have to excuse myself.
Best Esports Team
Nominees: Astralis, Cloud9, Fnatic, London Spitfire, OG
Ashton: What even are these teams? Spitting fire sounds painful, so I guess I’ll pick OG, because those are two of my favorite letters.
Tyler: Spitfire. I’ve heard of them.
John: The Spitfire is currently the best gun in Black Ops 4, so I’ll go with that.
Best Esports Player
Nominees: Dominique “SonicFox” McLean, Hajime “Tokido” Toniguchi, Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Sun-hyeon “JjoNak” Bang
Tyler: My god, these Esports categories go on forever.
Ashton: Whichever one of these guys auto-locks Hanzo in Overwatch and refuses to switch.
John: Why are there so many of these? I called out SonicFox earlier, he’s fun to watch on YouTube. Plus he’s bringing awareness to the Furry movement, which is always good.
Tyler: Wait, what?
John: Exactly.
Best Esports Game
Nominees: CSGO, DOTA2, Fortnite, LoL, Overwatch
Tyler: Now we’re talking. I already discussed my love of the Overwatch League. And CSGO is the best multiplayer game around. So either one and I’m good.
Ashton: Alright, this is a tough one. I think I can already say Fortnite is going to win this year just because of its sheer presence in the gaming community, but in terms of spectacle and entertainment? It’s got to go to Overwatch. Overwatch League is growing every year and I love the seamless integration to the game
John: No Siege makes John a sad boy. That being said, definitely Overwatch. Well managed league in OWL, and the viewer counts speak for themselves.