Welcome to the second non-annual GosuGamers Fluff Awards for Hearthstone, as we totally forgot 2015. Today, we give out some, shall we say, nonconventional prizes to those who couldn't really shine in our official and rather serious GosuAwards.
As with our inaugural edition of the Fluff Awards, we hope that they bring a warm smile on your face in this cold winter time. Pour a cup of hot coco, drop some marshmallows on it, enjoy it and spread the word - these guys all deserve it!
Winner: TJ Sanders
It’s 2017, people. Everything is art. And if Skrillex and Justin Bieber can win a Grammy Award, so can we make up stuff that doesn’t even make sense.
Except this one award does! Blizzcon 2016 was a memorable event. You would think it’s because some guy got totally lucky and won exclusively because RNG and not at all because he was a good player and totally deserved it. Not at all. The circuit was the first time the gorgeous chalkboard art of TJ “Azumo” Sanders was displayed, including the soon-to-be-million-dollar portrait of semi-finalist Artem “xD” Kravets.
Winner: FalconePunch
Everybody can cast from a desk. Everybody can cast from a paper castle. Not everybody can cast on a desk, in an 18-wheel truck next to a paper castle.
With his performance at Esports Superstars, FalconePunch transcended the line between the mundane and the divine. We’ve asked many times what the future of Hearthstone casting will involve. This, it will involve this.
If FalconePunch plays his cards right, he might even give Sottle a hard time in 2017’s “Best new caster” award.
Winner: Priest
After spending so many months trying to be unique and sucking at it, Priest finally put on the big boy pants, dusted off its “Make Hearthstone Interactive Again” blood red hat and debuted in December as Hearthstone’s newest old class.
Say goodbye to outlasting your opponents as Anduin, folks. It’s time to play minions on curve and make them bigger, just like Reynad and the rest of the dev team intended.
Winner: Sottle
Alongside FalconePunch, another Brit was revolutionizing Hearthstone casting. Sottle never got to cast from a truck but after a fierce competition against James “Firebat” Kostesich and Pavel “Pavel” Beltukov, the analytical mastermind takes home the inaugural “Best cardigan game” award, also known as “Dressing like an economics professor” award.
This was only the first year of Sottle going full cardigan mode but the future is cashmere. Sottle will no doubt return for the next edition of HCT Championship, and if recent reports are to be trusted, he might very well be the first person wearing a sweater on the Bahamas.
Thanks to @cf_suspectz for coming up with the category.
Winner: XNVX at the Malaysia major
Plebs will say that the goal of Hearthstone is to reduce the opponent to 0 health. Pro players, however, know better. It’s actually to make them concede.
Singapore player XNVX knew that when he played against Australia’s NaviOOT at the Malaysia major. Facing certain death on his RenoLock, only Leeroy could save him. And he did, though not in the way anybody expected.
Winner: [card]Small-Time Buccaneer[/card]
Ooooohhhhh…
Who lives in a big ship over the sea?
Small-Time-Bucca-Neer.
Imbalanced, and cheap, and abhorrent is he!
Small-Time-Bucca-Neer.
If nautical nonsense be something you wish
Small-Time-Bucca-Neer.
Then thin out the deck and the will to live squish.
Winner: Ostkaka
We continue with the musical theme, as the lull of the song takes us to Krefeld, Germany. In the center of romance, the land of the magically-sounding Kummerspeck, Backpfeifengesicht and Kuddelmuddel (words I found by Googling “the most German words ever”, completely disregarding my nine-year-long studying of the language) one young American finds unexpected love.
In one of the most memorable moments of 2016, reigning world champion Ostkaka gave the bless of his inebriated kiss. A few months later, its receiver finds himself on Forbes’ “30 under 30”.
Coincidence? Don't be naive.
Winner: HotMEOWTH
Sorry to all the other good-name-havers in Hearthstone, but there’s only one winner here.
HotMEOWTH is the standout candidate so HotMEOWTH gets the award. HotMEOWTH is to names what Reynad is to oblivious narcissism—the maximum, the peak, the peakest maximum. With its capital/lower-case split, that beautiful stress on the final syllable, and the wonderfully evocative choice of Pokémon, this name is so beautiful it makes me want to cry. God bless you, HotMEOWTH.
Text by: Modernleper
Winner: Tars' Summoning Stone Druid
The inaugural "What the hell is that deck award" was once given to MrYagut's Control Hunter and it probably cost a lot of players a lot of ladder ranks. We're not even at all sorry - did you really think it was a good idea?
Listen though, here's a totally great and intuitive deck: Tars' Summoning Stone Druid from DreamHack Austin. Man, those were the days, where you could see Naiman's expression of utmost puzzling on his face as he lost to a deck nobody ever dared to play.
Except you now, on ladder. Come on. Do it.
Winner: [card]Babbling Book[/card]
In a famous interview, TJ Sanders told Amnesiac his name is too long to chant. The Young Savage then replied "You know what has less syllables TJ?"
If TJ and the viewers didn't get the joke right away, they would a few days later. On the biggest of stages for the biggest of prize pools, Amnesiac's mighty dragons and dwarf emperors got toppled by a 1-drop. Legend says it that somewhere in Yekaterinburg, Russia, a young Hearthstone champion is still counting his quarter million, whispering the victorious mantra in question.
Babb-ling-book.
Babb-ling-book.
Winner: The Fluff Awards
Because Hearthstone doesn’t have its own Esports Express to pander to reddit 24/7 (read as 24 publications in 7 months), the GosuGamers Fluff Awards are awarding themselves with the “Shameless Reddit pandering award” for 2017.
It's a high honor on an even higher horse for us to award ourselves, especially given the close race against whoever invented Twitch Clips, thank you very much. And since we tricked you into reading all this nonsense (of which there's more from 2014, if you feel like reminiscing the original Fluff Awards), it's time to get back to a very serious 2017 for Hearthstone.
