Blizzard's newest creation took eSports Game of the Year and Multiplayer Game of the Year, along with two other gongs
What has been a good year for Blizzard games got a lot better Thursday night as the publisher was announced as the winner of a bevy of awards at the 2016 Game Awards. Their latest release, colourful FPS Overwatch, was the star of the show, taking home Game of the Year for 2016 as well as Best eSports Game, Best Game Direction and Best Multiplayer Game.
Of the awards, the gong for Best eSports Game might be the most interesting, with competition from established titles like DOTA2 and CS:GO. This made us expect that Overwatch might have to make do with other prizes. Combined with the Game of the Year prize over titles like Inside and Doom, it suggests that Blizzard’s latest creation is doing more than the company could have hoped although there were some rumblings of discontent as certain winners were announced.
As mentioned, many had expected CounterStrike to be a strong contender for the esports Game Title, especially with Overwatch still in an early stage from a competitive point of view. Other areas saw controversy as AMD sent an early tweet congratulating Juan ‘HungryBox’ DeBiedma on winning Best eSports Player. Heat was only intensified when the data seemed to show the Team Liquid player had vastly more support than eventual winner Marcelo ‘Coldzera’ David of SK Gaming, as the award was fan voted.
With the ceremony itself a success, featuring a performance by rap duo Run The Jewels, there is no doubt that The Game Awards are a sign of the industry moving forward, although not a stunningly significant one. With talks of player unions and the potentially revolutionary new Overwatch League Blizzard has planned, 2017 is going to be fascinating. For the creators of StarCraft, Heroes of the Storm and our colourful new FPS masterpiece, 2016 ended in pretty spectacular fashion as well.
