The Esports Awards Reveals 2024 Nominees, Part II

Second batch of Esports Awards 2024 nominees revealed. Credit: Esports Awards

The Esports Awards announced that it will host a second broadcast in November to deliver the remainder of its awards categories for 2024. The first awards were given out at a lavish event at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the end of August. Those first awards in Saudi Arabia were the beginning of a three year deal between the Esports World Cup Foundation and the Esports Awards to bring the ceremony to the Saudi Arabian capital—last year’s awards took place in Las Vegas. 

Partners for the Esports Awards include Oakley, the Saudi Public Investment Fund-backed city project Qiddiya, and Saudi government-backed competition the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF).

The categories and nominees that have been announced include (you can vote for your favorites here):

Esports Team of the Year

• T1 – League of Legends
• Team Falcons – Dota 2
• Natus Vincere – Counter Strike: 2
• Edward Gaming – Valorant
• w7m esports – Rainbow Six: Siege
• GenG – League of Legends
• G2 – Rocket League
• Team BDS – Rocket League
• Team Liquid – Dota 2
• Optic Texas – Call of Duty
• WILDCARD – League of Legends
• WILDCARD – Counter Strike: 2

Esports PC Player of the Year

• Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, G2 – Counter Strike: 2
• Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, Gen.G – LoL
• Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang, EDG – Valorant
• Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, Sentinels – Valorant
• Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk, Team Spirit – Dota
• Joona “Serral” Sotala, BASILISK – Starcraft 2
• Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, Team Spirit – Counter Strike: 2
• Shaun “Gunnar” Pottorff, Cloud9 – Rainbow 6
• John “Hakis” Håkansson, Alliance – Apex Legends
• Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Team Vitality – Counter Strike: 2
• Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, T1 – League of Legends

Esports Console Player of the Year

• Landon “BeastMode” Konerman, G2 – Rocket League
• Xavier “Shifty”, Team Falcons – Warzone
• Zeng “Xiao Hai” Zhuojun, KuaiShow Gaming – FGC
• Chris “Simp” Lehr, Atlanta FaZe – Call of Duty
• Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro, OpTic Texas – Call of Duty
• Anders “Vejrgang” Vejrgang, RBLZ Gaming – FIFA
• Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique, Twisted Minds/Red Bull eSports – FGC

Sim Racer of the Year

• Joshua Rogers, Coanda Esports
• Kevin Siggy, Team Redline
• Sebastian Job, AlphaTauri Esports Team
• Chris Harteveld, Ferrari Esports
• Frederik Rasmussen, Red Bull Sim Racing
• Maximilian Benecke, MOUZ
• Marcell Csincsik, Team Vitality
• Steven Wilson, M80
• Luiz Felipe Tavares, Bengutan Racing

Esports Organisation of the Year

• Team Falcons
• G2 Esports
• Team Liquid
• Team Vitality
• Gen.G
• T1
• Team Spirit
• NAVI
• Fnatic

Esports Coach of the Year

• Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun, T1 – League of Legends
• Kim “Kim” Jung-su – Gen.G
• Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling, Team Falcons – Dota
• Andy “Kassio” Landais, BDS – Rocket League
• Samy “Stooflex” Smail – BDS Rainbow 6

Esports Play by Play Caster of the Year

• Steven “Tasty Steve” Scott
• Lauren “Pansy” Scott
• Alex “Machine” Richardson
• Conner “Scrawny” Girvan
• Aaron “Medic” Chamberlain
• Victoria “VikkiKitty” Perez
• Seth “Achilios” King
• Daniel “Drakos” Drakos
• Jake “Hysterics” Osypenko
• Mark “Onset” Hatcher
• Brandon “Bsmith” Smith
• Mitch “Uber” Leslie

Esports Colour Caster of the Year

• Isaac “Azael” Cummings-Bentley
• Austin “Cap” Walsh
• Dan Gaskin
• Jennifer “LemonKiwi” Pichette
• Mohan “launders” Govindasamy
• Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill
• Shannon “SUNSfan” Scotten
• Lauren “GlitterXplosion” Laracuente
• Niclas “Pengu” Mouritzen
• Thomas “Chance” Ashworth

Esports Host of the Year

• James “BanKs” Banks
• Yinsu “Yinsu” Collins
• Evan “Raynday” Raynr
• Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden
• Caleb “WavePunk” Simmons
• Lottie “Praagy” Van-Praag
• Chris Puckett
• Soe Gschwind

Esports Content Creator of the Year

• Tarik “tarik” Celik
• Ibai “ibai” Llanos
• Marc Robert “Caedrel” Lamont
• Martin “MrSavage” Andersen
• Alexandre “Gaules” Borba
• Cody “Clix” Conrod
• Justin “JWong” Wong
• Kyedae “Kyedae” Shymko
• Treyven “Lethamyr” Robitaille
• Naman “Mortal” Mathur
• Arran “TacticalRab” Francis
• Timothy “iiTzTimmy” An

Esports Supporting Service of the Year

• Overwolf
• RTS
• ESG Law
• Night Media
• Blitz.gg
• Character Select Agency
• U.GG
• Battlefy
• Tracker.gg
• Aftershock Media Group
• Prodigy Agency

Esports Live Event of the Year

• League of Legends World Championship 2023
• PGL Major Copenhagen 2024
• M5 World Championship
• The International 2024
• Valorant Champions 2024
• EVO 2024
• Call of Duty League Championship 2024
• Six Invitational 2024

Esports Broadcast & Production Team of the Year

• ESL FACEIT Group
• RIOT GAMES
• PGL
• BLAST
• ConCom Inc
• Garena
• Microsoft Activision Blizzard

Esports Creative of the Year

• Gregory “Seso” Ortiz
• Jay Braga
• Tiago “Liquid Enigma” Paixão
• Kevin “kvindsgn” B.
• Sydney “SydneyCreates” Malham

Interestingly enough, one of the most contentious categories this year, Esports Journalist of the Year, has been delayed, as has the announcement on where the second half of this year’s awards will take place—earlier this year the Esports Awards said that it would take place in London. 

Esports Awards President Mike Ashford told The Esports Advocate on Tuesday that additional announcements are forthcoming:

“Our intention is to offer the Journalist of the Year award recognising and celebrating Journalists after consultation with previous nominees, winners, and other key stakeholders within the industry,” said Mike Ashford. “This has delayed the announcement. We are expecting an announcement on location next week and exploring opportunities that have been presented to us to present the show in the best way and format possible.”

The Esports Awards announced its partnership with the Saudi Arabian government-funded Esports World Cup in June to some pushback from the community (TEA and this author shared their views on this topic publicly in this social media post).

The Esports World Cup is a multi-week, multi-discipline esports competition that ran from July 3 – Aug. 25, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is funded by a grant from the Saudi Arabian government. Qiddiya is a city project wholly owned by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund with the goal of creating a business hub for gaming, esports, entertainment, and technology companies to set up shop in the region, hire locally, and do business within the region.  

Projects backed by Saudi Arabia have been criticized for helping the government engage in “sports washing,” or using sports and other forms of entertainment such as gaming and esports to cover up its record on human rights, women’s rights, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms have been highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.