The Esport Awards for 2020 have released information regarding nominees, and there is a bit of salt and confusion stemming from this. With seemingly little rhyme or reason aside from whatever is the most popular, the lists have generated quite a buzz online and has the esport world scratching their collective head.
Interestingly, they have included professional players from Fortnite standing toe to toe with the uber-competitive titles such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow 6: Siege, and even Valorant. Note that this is not a hit against professional battle-royale players, but observation that the 2020 Esport Award nominees for the ‘Player of the Year’ award (and almost every other category) has frustrated a large swath of players across multiple titles.
For a genre that appears to offer far more random factors instead of consistent skill in tightly-knit maps, some are a bit flummoxed and frustrated that the Esports Award committee has managed to bypass some of the greatest players across a wide swath of extremely competitive titles, seemingly in favor of which players have more potential clout and following that would then drum up hype for the Esport Awards themselves.
Being that the Esport Awards are arguably a popularity contest instead of gauging merit and mental agility, achievements and fortitude, perhaps it should be expected; it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth of many players.
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This is only for PC, as well; other areas are similarly puzzling to figure out precisely how the committee figured which nominations were contracted into the awards.
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Shottzy was a Halo world champion two years ago on console prior to shifting to Call of Duty. Sinatraa was similarly nominated for PC Rookie of the Year in spite of blowing the competition out of the water within the Overwatch League before abandoning the team mid-season for Valorant.
Yet there in itself lies the challenge and difficulty of a singular entity attempting to claim that one individual player is ‘the best’ of 2020; w ide bevy of titles with players from all walks of life coming to compete in extremely varied circumstances. The best player of Call of Duty League going head to head against the best from Fortnite in a match of Rocket League proves nothing (yet offers obscene entertainment value) aside from which player happens to be better at aerial mechanics.
In the same way, having a multi-title nomination pool seems to incite fans to simply vote for whichever title they enjoy to be represented instead of going through an arduous process of discovering which player has proven themselves to have a bevy of confidence and leadership throughout a year.
The committee continues to be seemingly disconnected in including Gaules, the Brazilian streamer largely responsible for a massive heft of death threats levied at teenagers because MIBR can’t shoot straight, in the Streamer of the Year category. Speculation that Gaules has appeared due to his Esport company in South America, which Valve saw fit to amusingly give free rein to for a regional major, and the amount of popularity he can offer to the awards.
Even the Esports Team of the Year award nominations are perplexing, offering up CS:GO‘s Vitality instead of EG, BIG, or Heroic who have all surmounted massive hurdles throughout the year. In Valorant, the Sentinels have put together a surprising competent team that continues to slap the opposition in every match up aside from when they meet Team SoloMid.
Regardless of whatever confusing reasoning the Esport Awards committee has for the pools that they’ve put together in nominees, and the rising levels of salt and bafflement from fans and players alike, these are the 2020 nominees. May whoever is the most popular win.
