Thursday’s The Game Awards that was held at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles was a very big day for eSports lovers who got to meet and see various eSports heavyweights nab some awards and recognition.
Overwatch – Best eSports Game/Best Ongoing Game
The first headliner was Overwatch whose team walked away from the event with two awards – one for the ‘Best eSports Game’ which it also received last year and another for the ‘Best Ongoing Game.’ The Blizzard-game has been very successful and this is expected to get even better with their newly launched competitive scene that was kicked off on Thursday with the Overwatch League preseason. Being fan-voted awards, the backlashes that have arisen regarding Blizzard’s success with Overwatch were overlooked since the numbers clearly reflected how devoted its fans are. Overwatch beat out Rainbow Six: Siege, Warframe, Destiny 2, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Grand Theft Auto Online to win the title.
Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok – Player of The Year
Having been long considered as the world’s best League of Legends player it was not surprising that the decorated international eSports star would walk away with the award. Faker beat out Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovac and Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David, Overwatch player Ryu Je-hong and Dota 2 player Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi.
This is, however, not the first time that Lee ‘Faker’ is basking in the glory of an anticipated win – he led his team, SK Telecom T1, to the League Legends World Championships for four consecutive years since 2013. SK Telecom T1 emerged the victor three times in 2013, 2015 and 2016 before they were beaten by Samsung Galaxy in 2017. Faker has also been for the past four years representing Korea as the mid-laner at All-Stars.
Cloud9 – Best eSports Team
To nab this award, Cloud9 bested some other great finalists that included Team Liquid, Lunatic Hai, FaZe Clan and even Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok’s SK Telecom T1. Earlier this year, the team raised about $25 million during their first round of venture capital financing and this award is a great way of capping off their already impressive year. The eSports team is popular for fielding professional eSports teams in Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Rocket League, Vainglory, League of Legend, and Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. In the League of Legends Championships Cloud9 finished second and this earned the team a spot in the quarterfinals of the World Championships.
Other worthy mentions included; Capcom’s Resident Evil 7: biohazard (Best VR/AR game), The Last of Us Part 2 (Most Anticipated Game), Forza Motorsport 7 (Best Sports/Racing Game), Super Mario Odyssey (Best Family Game) and Injustice 2 (Best Fighting Game) among many others.
