The Esports Awards presented by Lexus is one of the most prestigious nights in the esports calendar. This year’s spectacular ceremony was held at Resorts World in Las Vegas. It was a who’s who of esports, with representatives surfacing from almost every corner of the landscape, from organisations and developers to streamers and competitors.
Over 40 awards across Entertainment, Industry, Creative, Pro, On-Air Talent and Collegiate were given out as some of the most prominent brands, organisations, and influencers from the esports industry and beyond were in attendance.
The Esports Awards were also witnessed by millions of viewers who tuned in to see their favourite esports and gaming stars crowned as winners and as the gaming community celebrated yet another landslide of a year for the industry.
Amongst the biggest winners, Riot Games is the one that picked up the awards for Esports Publisher of the Year, Esports Broadcast/Production Team of the Year and Esports Game of the Year for VALORANT. LOUD also won big picking up the awards for Esports Team of the Year and Esports Creative Team of the Year.
On the mobile gaming front, PUBG MOBILE won the Esports Mobile Game of The Year. Also, Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag took home the trophy for Esports Personality of the Year.
On the Indian continental front, S8UL Esports made history by winning the Content Group of the Year award. This for the first time that an Indian team has been nominated, let alone, bagged a trophy at the Esports Award.
The winning team, S8UL Esports, is an amalgam of Team SouL and 8bit, co-owned by Naman ‘MortaL’ Mathur, Animesh ‘Thug’ Agarwal and Lokesh ‘Goldy’ Jain. S8UL was nominated along with some heavy hitters like Faze Clan, LOUD, and 100 Thieves.
The Esports Awards ceremony was hosted by legendary hosts, Eefje ‘Sjokz” Depoortere and Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez. The eventful night played host to many show-stopping moments, including Lexus showcasing its LC 500 and NX 350 (100 Thieves NX) cars, and the unveiling of the exclusive League of Legends Wild Rift-themed cans from Coca-Cola.
The awards charity partners’, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, smashed their fundraising goals of raising $50K USD. There were also special musical performances from the cinematic-rock band, City of Sound and rapper, bbno$.
During the ceremony, Matt “MobileMatt” Rutledge had taken to the stage to announce the launch of a new segment of laurels, the Mobile Awards. It is founded by the Esports Awards, and Matt Rutledge, and is a new initiative to document, recognise, and reward excellence in the mobile industry.
The Mobile Awards is reportedly supposed to host an annual ceremony starting in 2023 called,
“The Mobies”, to celebrate and recognise top-class performance and innovation in the mobile gaming industry.
The Esports Awards was founded in 2015 and went on to become the only global award show that aims to recognize esports excellence. It is dedicated to showcasing world-class performance and innovation from every corner of the industry throughout the year.
It reaches its pinnacle at its end-of-year ceremony, which is considered the ‘Oscars of Esports.’ The ceremony celebrates everyone from the players, teams, media, hardware providers, games, events, and personalities that shape the esports industry.
The 2021 Esports Awards had seen a record-breaking 20 million viewers across the campaign, and nearly 10 million votes were accounted for. Let’s get to the full list of winners from the prestigious night of the gaming industry.
- Esports Game of the Year presented by Amazon Music – VALORANT
- Esports Mobile Game of the Year presented by Verizon – PUBG MOBILE
- Content Group of the Year – S8ul Esports
- Esports Play of the Year – Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken
- Esports Cosplay of the Year presented by Crocs – Kinpatsu Cosplay
- Esports Content Series of the Year – Players
- Esports Creative of the Year presented by Roland – Christian Skimmeland
- Esports Colour Caster of the Year – Andy ‘Bravo’ Dudynsky
- Esports Play By Play Caster of the Year – Lauren ‘Pansy’ Scott
- Esports Content Creator of the Year – Juan ‘Hungrybox’ Debiedma
- Esports Host of the Year – James ‘Dash’ Patterson
- Esports Mobile Player of the Year presented by Verizon – Ceng ‘Order’ Zehai
- Esports Team of the Year presented by Secretlab – LOUD (VALORANT)
- Esports Personality of the Year presented by Coca-Cola – Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag
- Esports Controller Player of the Year – Matthew ‘FormaL’ Piper
- Esports PC Player of the Year presented by RAID: Shadow Legends – Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev
- Streamer of the Year presented by Lexus – Ibai Llanos
- Esports Organisation of the Year presented by Lexus – OpTic Gaming
- Esports Coverage Platform of the Year presented by Sizzle Creative – Dexerto
- Esports Hardware Provider of the Year – Logitech G
- Esports Journalist of the Year presented by CTRL – Ashley Kang
- Esports Supporting Service of the Year – Esports Engine
- Panel’s Choice Award – Heather ‘Sapphire’ Garozzo
- Esports Creative Team of the Year – LOUD
- Esports Collegiate Program of the Year presented by Blinkfire Analytics – University of Hawai’i
- Esports Desk Analyst of the Year presented by Aim Lab – Jessica ‘JessGOAT’ Bolden
- Lifetime Achievement in Esports
- Dennis ‘Thresh’ Fong
- Emil “HeatoN” Christensen
- Daniel ‘OGRE1’ Ryan
- Tom ‘OGRE2’ Ryan
- Morgan Romine, PhD
- Alexander Garfield
- Jason Lake
- Esports Commercial Partner of the Year – Verizon
- Esports Publisher of the Year – Riot Games
- Esports Broadcast/Production Team of the Year – Riot Games
- Esports Apparel of the Year – 100 Thieves
- Esports Creative Piece of the Year – The Bellhop | Gucci Gaming Academy
- Esports Photograph of the Year – Colin Young-Wolff
- Esports Collegiate Ambassador of the Year – Christine Fan
- Esports Coach of the Year – Andrii ‘B1ad3’ Horodenskyi
- Esports Controller Rookie of the Year – Enzo ‘Seikoo’ Grondein
- Esports PC Rookie of the Year – Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov
Michael Ashford, the CEO of the Esports Awards said,
“This year we set ambitious goals to make the 2022 Esports Awards a true milestone event with a new location, new awards and extended events offering. As the ceremony reaches its conclusion, I can safely say that we have turned our dreams into a reality.”
He concluded,
“It’s great to see so many people gather to celebrate what has been a truly incredible year. I wanted to say a massive congratulations to all our winners and thank you to everyone that has played a part in this year’s Esports Awards. See you next year!”