The Rookie award goes to a player who had a cinderella story in the World Cyber Games. Ending 4th in WCG USA, and was later called in to play in Singapore. He took his chance, and in his debut he went 6-0 in his group. This award goes to CocoA!
The Rookie of the year 2005 title had a lot of aspirants. The Brazilian ReasoN[SomE] who defeated Silent_Control was looked upon as a big surprise and an upcoming player in 2005. He received a total of seven nominations, where most of them were based on his World Cyber Games Grand Final performance. Then there was iG.KaaZ, the Swedish Zerg player who had a great year, playing well in many online events, such as Queen of the Hill and numerous tournaments. He also ended second at DreamHack Winter 2005, just after ToT)TreK(.
CocoA taking Yosh's spot in Singapore
We also saw the American player iG.CocoA (picture), who quit StarCraft after ending fourth at WCG USA and took up Age of Empires. Three days before WCG Grand Finals, he was called by the WCG administrators to fill up rS.Yosh's spot. In the group play he came out on top 6-0 beating players such as Pj and Zelotito after practicing StarCraft only for three days before the event.GosuGamers, 19th of November 2005:
"However, it is notable that iD.CocoA won his group (H) since we only managed to get him on the official player list the very day before start. He was never officially accepted by the Head Quarters but still sent by the WCG USA. Just before check-in, CocoA went up to me asking "I am not going to be able to play, am I?". His reaction on hearing the answer was, too least say, positive."
"However, it is notable that iD.CocoA won his group (H) since we only managed to get him on the official player list the very day before start. He was never officially accepted by the Head Quarters but still sent by the WCG USA. Just before check-in, CocoA went up to me asking "I am not going to be able to play, am I?". His reaction on hearing the answer was, too least say, positive."
A true cinderella story
And this cinderella story with CocoA caught the jury's eyes, and many of the community votes, which is why the medal for Rookie of the year 2005 has CocoA carved in it. When CocoA showed up in Singapore, he was told he was not going to play because of some mistakes in the paper work from the WCG USA management. However, the next day, the same day the group play was about to start he was finally allowed to play.- I remember the look in his face when I told him the same day that we indeed was able to play and that HQ had fixed it, says Mazor, jury of the StarCraft Awards 2005 and StarCraft World Cyber Games referee. His World Cyber Games debut was a remarkable one, and with such a good story like that behind it, the jury almost agreed fully.
2005's rookie: iG.CocoA |
 CocoA (6 nominations) |
| "Unknown 16 year old made top 16 at WCG, cinderella story!" |
| "Eliminated from WCG USA, then he became last minute entrant into WCG, then has a dream run through the matches on his debut attempt." |
| "16yo and top16 wcg. Very nice skill. respect." |
| "He just pwned everybody in his wcg group including random player PJ.Nobody would have seen that he would go 6-0 in his group" |
| "World Cyber Games, he destroyed them after about what.. 3 days notice?" |
Two awards left
Now, we have 2005's game and 2005's surprise yet to announce. Which one will be announced first is not decided yet, but keep your eyes open for it in the upcoming days.
Links
GosuGamers.net - StarCraft Awards 2005
GosuGamers.net - Feature coverage of WCG USA