The Esports Awards, dubbed by many within esports as the Academy Awards equivalent for the industry, has crowned its winners for 2020. In what has been a watershed year for the esports industry in general, we saw the Esports Awards first held as a virtual celebratory event with millions of viewers tuning in to watch the event via live stream.
The star-studded event featured a number of famous faces from the esports industry and beyond. Hosted by Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere, the event also featured the likes of DJ Steve Aoki and the current Tottenham Hotspur and England footballer, and newly announced brand ambassador for EXCEL Esports, Dele Alli.
In total around 30 different awards were handed out in the show across a wide range of different genres within the industry. This included six new members in the Lifetime Achievement in Esports category, as well as the gongs for a number of top awards including the Esports Game of the Year, Esports Mobile Game of the Year, and Esports Publisher of the Year.
The Big Winners
Amongst the big winners on the night were esports team Team Secret who bagged themselves three awards in total. The first for the Esports PC Player of the Year, which was won by Michal “Nisha” Jankowski, the second for Esports Coach of the Year for Lee “Heen” Seung Gon, and perhaps most impressively, their Dota 2 team landed the much-envied Esports Team of the Year prize.
It was also a very positive night for Riot Games, who earned themselves a slice of a number of awards too. Not only did they win the Esports Publisher of the Year award, but they doubled up on that by landing the Esports Game of the Year award for League of Legends. Furthermore, the League of Legends European Championship and LOL Season Opening were also named the top Esports Creative Piece of the Year too.
Read also: League of Legends is the most impactful game of 2020's Q3
Individual Winners
Alongside the prizes for the big organisations, we also saw a number of individual players honoured too. Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro was featured heavily here as he landed two awards on the back of his famous Call of Duty Championship win. He landed the Esports Console Rookie of the Year award and then partner that with the Esports Console Player of the Year award, which is no mean feat in his Rookie season.
Other players of the year, included the Esports PC Rookie of the Year which was won by Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, and the Esports Mobile player of the year, which was won by Made Bagas “Zuxxy” Pramudita.
The Mobile Game of the Year award went to Freefire, while Emily Rand was named the Esports Journalist of the year. Perhaps fittingly, the host of the show, Eefje,”Sjokz” Deporteere was named the Esports Host of the Year, and Esports Personality of the Year was won by Carlos “ocelote” Rodriguez Santiago.
Hall of Fame – Class of 2020
Six new members of the “esports Hall of Fame” were crowned with the Lifetime Achievement in Esports awards at the event too including outspoken journalist Richard Lewis joining the likes of Johnathan “Fatality” Wendel, Daigo Umehara, Craig “Torbull” Levine, Michael Sepso and Lim “Boxer” Yo-Hwan in earning the award.
This is the fifth year that the awards have been held, although the first time the ceremony was conducted virtually.
