CS:GO Beats Among Us to Win the “Labor of Love” Award in the Action-Packed Steam Awards 2020

The Steam Awards, one of the year’s most-awaited gaming extravaganzas was delayed for its 2020 edition. But, it finally came to fruition yesterday with a huge list of nominations and titles. But one of the most coveted awards at the event, the ‘Labor of Love’ award, went to Valve’s famed shooter title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Year in and year out, fans always wait for this category (Labor of Love) of the event, in particular. This year, although CS:GO won it, they did have tough competition. Their closest competitor was the multiplayer sensation of the year “Among Us”, which was closely followed by the likes of No Man’s Sky, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Terraria. All the other entries or nominees for the award title had the huge advantage of being popular among the youth and also of being fresh. But CS:GO again proved that old is truly gold, as its loyal player and fan base helped the famous title bag the craved honours. 

Despite the ups and downs, as well as the different challenges thrown its way throughout the year, CS:GO had quite a successful and memorable 2020. Although it was released almost a decade earlier in 2012, it was only in 2020 that the game hit a milestone of one million concurrent players, which enabled the popular game to top many of the charts on Steam all over the year. CS:GO, on the way, beat out the longtime kings Dota 2 and the buzzing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, for the reigns at Steam. CS:GO, though, had one or two new competitors this year, including Riot Games’ extraordinary “Valorant”, but the game from Valve held its ground, powered through and broke records for fun.

The real highlights of the year for CS:GO have to be the perpetuation of the fan-favourite Operation Shattered Web throughout the earlier part of 2020 and the launch of Operation Broken Fang only last month. Valve’s shrewd and emotional handling of its most-coveted title in the dark year of 2020 really warranted the game the “labor of love” label. 

Steam published a description for each title that won a prize with the winner cards. CS:Go’s description read: 

“This game has been out for a while. The team is well past the debut of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation.”

The Steam Awards is one of the most-awaited gaming award shows of each year. The annual spectacle includes very interesting and imaginative titles, exclusively for the games only available to play on Steam. In 2020 alone, Steam had a total of 40,000 gaming titles present on its servers, with only a few of them making it to the list of nominees for the prizes. The whole award ceremony consisted of 10 categories, with no less than five nominees for  each of those categories.

Steam itself crossed quite a few milestones last year, with a total of over five million players being cast over a little more than 30 million actual nominations, which is a new record. One of those few titles that made the cut was of course, CS:GO. Red Dead Redemption ll was the most successful name in the awards, though, as it was the one title that won the most number of awards (2) in the event.

Winners of the Steam Awards 2020

Game of the Year – Red Dead Redemption ll

Labor of Love – CS:GO

VR Game of the Year – Half Life: Alyx

Better with Friends – Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Most Innovative Gameplay – Death Stranding

Outstanding Story-Rich Game – Red Dead Redemption ll

Best Game You Suck at – Apex Legends™

Outstanding Visual Style – Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Best Soundtrack: Doom Eternal

Sit Back and Relax: The Sims™ 4