It is that time of the year again - it's time for the GosuGamers Awards 2014! Every year, GosuGamers awards the best of the best - who was the strongest Carry of them all, who dominated his midlane the most and who else is reading this in LD's voice?
A few awards have been changed in contrast to previous editions, as we now distinguish between play-by-play and analytical casters. We also decided to not include "Best Personality" anymore, instead however introduced Best Host/Interviewer - to truly honor the people that make our events so much more entertaining.
As always, there will be an Editor's choice as well as a community poll for each category. We may or may not (yes we do!) have a few Honorary Awards to give out, but they shall remain secret for now. What are you waiting for? Cast your verdict and choose your favorites of 2014!
The following teams have impressed the scene with consistent and high quality plays throughout most of the year. They were the cream of the crop and most of the time, if not always, amongst the favorites for every event they attended.
Champions of The International 2014, Newbee was one of the strongest teams on the planet since their inception in February this year. Formed from the remnants of the TI3 4th placing TongFu squad, the addition of captain Zhang 'xiao8' Ning clearly changed the tides in their favour. Despite not being as dominant as the Alliance of TI3, Newbee's progression through TI4 is in a class of its own. Fighting their way out from 10th in the group stages, and through the bubble race into the upper bracket, they peaked when it mattered most, earning their place as the top earners in eSports history.
Cloud 9 is possibly the most consistent team ever – consistently second place, that is. Having placed second in 9 different tournaments this year, we wonder when they will seal their first victory in a grand final since MLG Columbus. To take nothing away from them, their consistency in getting to the podium is a hallmark of their excellence and mastery of the game. Their greedy play focuses on getting as much efficiency on the map as possible, and coupled with Jacky 'EternalEnvy' Mao's creative talent, makes for a combination to be feared.
The dream team of 2014, Team DK were undoubtedly one of the global favourites from the moment they formed in the post-TI3 era. Showcasing their dominance throughout the year, they only failed to place on the podium twice in all the tournaments they played. Newbee's main rival in China, they participated in more international tournaments, and their perfect 9-0 streak through the Starseries Season IX LAN Finals remain part of their legend. However, a disappointing fourth place finish at TI4 was a disappointing end to this team of Greats.
The blue bleeders are the most successful experiment in mixing youth with experience thus far. Formed only in January after a two months trial as S A D B O Y S, EG have proven that the North American scene is to be reckoned with. As the most dominant team of the West in 2014, EG have revitalised competition in North America, showing that it can indeed be stable and produce world-class talent after years of inconsistency and instability. Their third placing at TI4 and constant jostling for top position in all tournaments have proved their capabilities as one of the best as well.
Vici Gaming are the surprise team for contention for Best Team 2014. Their play throughout the early part of the year was focused on early aggression and early pushes. However, within China they never seemed to be part of the Newbee-DK-IG rivalry, and it would take TI4 for them to show their true mettle. Led by charismatic captain Bai 'rOtk' Fan, they perfected their early aggressive play to earn their 12-3 record at the TI4 group stage, capping off an eventful year with second place at TI4. Their roster changes post TI4 have seen them win back-to-back LAN events, including the prestigious The Summit 2.
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Many teams had high hopes - and more importantly many rares - to carry on their shoulders, but failed to deliver. Be it due to roster issues or just not grasping the meta, all these teams failed to live up to their expectations and most of them have completely disbanded at this point.
The Swedish powerhouse that dominated through most of 2013 has not found its rhythm. The team lacked a gameplan and tried to keep playing their splitpush style that won them TI3, but the meta did not suit that style and it certainly did not suit Alliance. Even after TI4, the team has been plagued with roster issues, resulting in the team pulling out of several tournaments.
The top brand in Dota 2 has been around since the dawn of the game and has been a dominant factor for almost just as long. 2014 however was the downfall of the Ukrainian powerhouse, as the team was unable to live up to the fans expectations. Despite several attempts, Na’Vi was unable to be the aggressor that they once were. Their top 8 finish at TI4 was quite the surprise, but it did not prevent the team from splitting up. After the event, the team still was unable to find its form.
The boyband of Dota 2 has been a big fan favorite ever since the players ventured from HoN into the Dota 2 scene. Despite lacking true tournament titles, Fnatic never gave up and continued to work on their performances. Up and downs plagued the team, but this year was truly just downhill. The drama surrounding Era and his health issues certainly didn’t help and the team eventually split shortly after TI4.
The European mix was enjoying quite the strong honeymoon phase, being able to win many matches and performing quite admirably online. Their run however did not last as long as fans would’ve hoped and starting at ESL One, the team started to crumble. Regardless, Mousesports was able to qualify for The International, and people thought that the team was maybe more than just a honeymoon phase after all. The team did in fact start a tremendous comeback in the groupstage and almost placed in the top 10, but ultimately failed and disbanded shortly after Ti4.
The North-American hope next to Evil Geniuses. NAR, later Na’Vi.US, was formed out of five high skilled NA players that wished to compete at the largest event - The International. The goal was to prove a point, that NA can produce more than just one stable team and that hard work will pay off. The team did indeed start out strong and many people thought they had a fair chance at getting into the top 10 at TI4. Despite dropping to the last two places at Ti4, the team was eager to improve. “We are in it for the long run” - this sentence may be paraphrased but it was the team’s initial goal. Na’Vi.us disbanded just a week ago, with the initial roster already crumbling shortly after TI4.
"Honorable" Mentions: Zephyr
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2014 has been rather fruitless for the first position players, as the 6.80 and 6.81 versions with their push/deathball strategies did not give them the chance to make a true difference in matches. The changes of 6.82, however, vastly increased the list of viable carries, allowing notorious farmers to show their value.
BurNing has been a steady nominee for the best carry award since 2010, with stellar performances in EHOME and DK. In 2014, the allstar DK roster decided to shoot for the stars, but they crumbled just before the end. Despite not reaching the top before his retirement, BurNing will always be a true insipiration for aspiring carry players inside and outside China, a prime example of how the first position should be handled.
The Canadian player EternalEnvy has been the target of continuous criticism for his unconventional playstyle since the early days of Kaipi and SpeedGaming.int. Unusual skill and item builds, dangerous farming patterns and reckless engagements, these are only a few things that characterize EternalEnvy. But in the end, without him, Cloud9 just would not be the same. He fits his role in the team like no other, and he has been a solid leader throughout a very successful year for Cloud9.
2013 may have been the perfect year for Alliance, but the Swedish squad lost much of its strength when the 6.80 version arrived. This weakness lead to the premature elimination of the defending champions from The International 4. But even at the darkest of times, Loda has remained a powerful and flexible carry player, capable of withstanding tremendous amounts of pressure by his opponents. He single-handedly carried his team to victory in several cases this year, and he has trully earned his place in this list with his performance.
Hao is certainly one of the most experienced carry players in the world, as he has been part of legendary teams including Nirvana.cn, iG, TongFu and of course NewBee. He has also been in every International since 2011, with different teams. However, before TI4, he was neglected by the Western scene, and only received 5% of the total votes in 2013’s GosuAwards. Hao’s solid performance and execution in The International 4 played a major role in NewBee’s triumph and now everyone knows who he is and what he can do. While many of his former superstar competitors may no longer be in the spotlight, Hao continues strong, and 2014 has trully his year.
Meracle is the only carry in this list that did not participate in The International 4. Since, October 2013, the Singaporean prodigy has played officially in five teams, including Titan and Rising Stars. After a year of instability, it seems that Meracle has finally found the atmosphere he has been looking for in First Departure. Despite his bad luck with rosters, his incredibly high individual skill and his large hero pool render him one of the most respected players in the world. Being as young as he is, we can only hope that he can flourish, and show his true potential outside the SEA scene once again in 2015.
Honorable Mentions: Dominik 'Black^' Reitmeier
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The midlane is home to probably the most prestigious role in Dota. Gankers of all kinds have roamed from here on out, making for flashy plays and fancy kills. As the game progressed, the tasks of the midlaner have become much more strategic and the playstyle much more diverse. The midlaner does not have to be the ganker anymore, and some of our nominees have shown that there is much more to this position than kills and plays.
Evil Geniuses’ midlaner could just as easily be in the carry category. Arteezy usually takes on farm intensive heroes, establishing heroes such as Naga Siren or Lycan in the midlane with his incredible micro, or sparking the era of the ever so popular Phantom Assassin in the midlane, together with EternalEnvy. Leaving obligatory overrated joke aside, Arteezy as proven himself over the course of the year as one of the top midplayers and has peaked to be arguably the best in the west. He is not your classic lane dominator, but his midgame movement, farming and execution is one of a kind.
China happens to be a land of mid lane superstars, but none perhaps more famous than Ferrari_430. One would never guess that the lithe and wiry person in front of you was that imposing and dominant mid player of Invictus Gaming. Over the course of his career, 430 has achieved numerous titles, including the TI2 championship, while often being the solitary bright spark on a faltering Invictus Gaming of the past year. Dominating with multiple heroes across multiple metas, 430 has proven two things: versatility breeds success, and class is permanent.
Mushi is the Malaysian superstar who gave up his roots to join the DK team of galacticos after TI3 last year. Arguably, he was less overwhelming in Team DK compared to his time in Orange, a consequence of him moving towards playmaking instead of snowballing or farming heroes. In spite of this, his versatility and lane dominance has established him as one of the greatest midlane players. One would be hard pressed to forget the times he put DK on his back with his Mekansm Shadow Fiend, or his hammer-dropping Outworld Devourer play.
Super year in Vici Gaming has been eventful, to say the least. On top of carrying his team with his magical Alchemist play, he is also feared for his Storm Spirit, Viper and Razor. The key thrust of Super's strength lies not in his ability to make flashy plays, but in his consistency and harmony with his team's support duo. Together, they often roam the map creating space and snowballing with perfectly executed pickoffs, allowing their carry to shine to his greatest potential. His early rotations and roaming play make him one of the best team-oriented mid players in this list.
A large reason for Newbee's success and their eventual victory at TI4 falls down to Mu, their often overlooked mid player. To say that Mu's performance across the entire year has been consistent would be a severe understatement. Mu regularly dominates his lane, even without the help of his supports. With four of the top five nominees this year within China, his pedigree is beyond doubt, but his Templar Assassin and Puck play ranks easily the most dominant in the world.
Honorable Mentions: Adrian 'Fata' Trinks, Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin, Max 'qojqva' Bröcker, Gustav 's4' Magnusson
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This year has been quite the year for offlaners, with the changes to creep equilibrium making it much easier for them to gain both XP and gold. As a result, it opened up the pool of potential heroes, making Faceless Void one of the more common choices.
Universe has been considered as one of the most underrated players for a long time, but by now it should be clear that he’s arguably one of the best on the offlane. He was known for only playing Dark Seer, despite actually disliking it, but this year has been his. Universe has proven to not only make the most out of the offlane, he’s also shown that he is more versatile than anticipated and he’s been an important factor of EG’s growth. His Faceless Void was and still is one of the strongest, best showcased here.
Much like his team, bOne7 has been very consistent throughout the year, being a true playmaker and being a fearful force on his Batrider. He is known for unique item builds on a multitiude of heroes and has in many occasions salvaged games for his team. The Romanian never shies away from making big plays, be it in-game or in front of a camera. His signature Clockwerk may not fit the meta at the moment, but he has already picked up Legion Commander as a new asset in his arsenal of fearsome heroes.
In both Team DK as well as Vici Gaming, iceiceice has managed to impress with versatility. His heropool is quite large and with all of them he is able to create enough space for the rest of his team to farm up and obtain objectives. He has been a key player in every team he’s been in and is hard to actually shut down. This year, Ice³ has been playing mainly on the offlane, fooling his enemies with heroes such as Timbersaw or Spirit Breaker, but even when he deviates and takes on other roles, the Singaporean has proven to be a key player.
Director 8, as he is nicknamed, was the last nuance Newbee needed to become a top team. The experienced player was able to lead the team, while not slacking behind in his own individual play. While xiao8 has not only occupied the offlane role, he displayed his most dominant performances there. Despite mostly playing farm intensive heroes, xiao8 proved to fit the role of the playmaker when needed.
Ohaiyo has improved a lot over the year and was a crucial factor in Titan’s strong performance at TI4. He usually takes on more farm intensive heroes and manages to find his farm both on lane and in the transition into the midgame. He knows to both splitpush and teamfight, adapting to whatever his team needs from him.
Honorable Mentions: Gleb 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov, Yao 'Yao' Zheng
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The support role - in most pubs dreaded, but a crucial role to success, especially this year. Good rotations can make or break the game and positioning is key for the most starved heroes in the game. Although for some supports, this does not apply, as they can farm just as efficiently as their carries can. We decided to mesh this category. While supports are traditionally put into the roles of 4 and 5, picks and certain strategies can deviate from such labels.
Only two support duos that played throughout the whole year made the list. Vici Gaming’s Linsen 'fy' Xu and Chao 'fenrir' Lu and Evil Geniuses' Ludwig 'zai' Wahlberg and Peter 'ppd' Dager have earned themselves the nominations for not only working well together, but also because they impressed on an individual basis.
There is one more support duo, but it was only formed recently. Team Secret's 'BigDaddy-N0tail' Sundstein and Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov have been in two rather underperforming teams up until Ti4, but both of them salvaged the situations, giving it their best and leaving their marks. It was only inevitable that both of them would end up playing together.
The following players have not played together, but still impressed with their performances. Former Team DK player Zhicheng 'LaNm' Zhang has earned himself a spot in this nomination despite retiring after Ti4. 'SlaNm' was truly an outstanding player during his time with Team DK, displaying exceptional plays on several heroes and being consistent at that.
Two more players in the Chinese scene made the list, namely Newbee's Jiao 'banana' Wang and Invictus Gaming's Wong 'ChuaN' Hock. While banana was an integral part in Newbee's success, ChuaN had a rough year as iG failed to consistently perform through 2014. He however was one of their stable factors, showing an exceptional performance at ESL One Frankfurt.
The last player on the list is Cloud9’s Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling. The Canadian has had both a phenomenal, as well as a rough year with his team, placing second a total of nine times. Aui was an integral part in their consistent performances throughout the year.
Honorable Mentions: Johan 'pieliedie' Åström, Lei 'MMY' Zeng Rong, Hui Wang 'Sansheng' Zhao, Hong Da 'Faith' Zheng
PhotoSources: GosuGamers & SCN.TV(LaNm)
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With a lot of Dota 2 tournaments sprouting throughout all regions, the demand was high in quality casters. The play-by-play category honors the casters that made these tournaments truly memorable with their innate ability to hype up plays and entertain thousands of people - be it live at an event or from their own home or studio. We honor the best Ensligh play-by-play casters for their tremendous work.
When it comes to Dota 2 play-by-play casting, one name has been present and in the spotlight ever since the dawn of the game. TobiWan has the innate ability to entertain. It is no surprise that many highlight reels include his voice, as he is able to infect others with the hype he creates. Casting in front of the biggest crowds of the year, TobiWan has had a strong year.
Much like TobiWan, LD knows how to entertain his viewers and never shies away from analyzing the games at hand. The American know to synergize with many different co-casters, and has, together with the BeyondTheSummit studio, organized two of the most prestigious and joyful events this year.
One caster keeps playing jump rope when it comes to the fine line that distinguishes play-by-play from analytical casting. Luminous is no stranger to both and has shown on many occasions to switch on and off between the two, but this year, as part of The GD Studio, Luminous has been acting more on the play-by-play side of things.
In comparison to some other casters, Ayesee has cast less tournaments and matches this year, but keeps on delivering with his golden voice and the professionalism he embodies. A true play-by-play caster that has improved over the course of the year, that knows how to communicate properly with his audience, despite not giving each player a shoutout anymore.
Two "newcomers" have punched a ticket into this category, impressing with exciting casting, both with unique styles. KotlGuy has come out of seemingly nowhere, impressing with his enthusiasm and fresh approach. Starting off in a Keeper of the Light costume, the American has proven to be a hard worker and was eventually rewarded with a trip to The International. Unfortunately for his fans, he did not bring his soundboard to Seattle.
The other one is Capitalist, who is not a newcomer per se. After signing with joinDota however, has been able to cast many prestigious events, two of them in front of live crowds as well. His knowledge of the game allows him to, in addition to his hype casting, synergize with his co-casters, being able to deliver high quality commentary while still maintaining a high level of excitement. He has also recently shown to be a rather resourceful man, finding his interviewing talents.
Honorable Mentions: Shannon 'SUNSfan' Scotten, Travis 'Maut' Bueno
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Analytical casters are often referred to as 'color'-casters - they add much needed insight to games in which the average viewer does not necessarily know what’s going on, while also helping out the play-by-play casters catch all the action. A lot of analytical casters, the best of them anyway, have experience in competitive gaming, some of them used to be pro-players, some of them still are. The following are the best of the best in English co-casting.
A true veteran in the co-casting business is syndereN. The Dane, who was most notably known for his cooperation with TobiWan, has now finished his first year as “just” a caster ever since his retirement in late 2013. His casting with DotaCinema’s SUNSfan is already one of the fan favorites, both being able to provide lots of entertainment. SyndereN however showed that he did not slack behind in terms of analytical casting, showcasing his talent during TI4’s main stage.
One of syndereN's former teammates has also been a very valuable asset in this year's TI4 production. 7kingMad has been co-casting for quite a while, but this year has definitely been a step forwards for the Frenchman. Attending both ESL Ones and TI4, he has shown that he is not hired because of his hair, but because of the insightful commentary he provides.
Another caster that can speak from professional experience is Merlini. The former pro player even had a short stint with Zephyr this year, but has still primarily focused on casting. Attending multiple events outside of BeyondTheSummit events, Merlini, much like 7kingMad, was able to attend the biggest stages of the year and is arguably a fan favorite, being able to synergize with many casters.
While Tralf has primarily been seen in D2L productions, he has proven to work well with his counter-part, namely Ayesee, and his fresh ties with the North-American competitive circuit make Tralf a knowledgable caster with lots of potential to grow.
The dad of The GD Studio, Madskyl - Draskyl goes by many names, but all of them show that he is truly a fan favorite. Being an active streamer and a good player as well help Draskyl being natural in front of both mic and camera. The winner of last year’s award has impressed more with his analytical part this year.
Much like Draskyl, GoDz is a skilled player himself, which he can immediately adapt into his casting. He still dabbles around with play-by-play here and there, but is usually the person to provide the insight and question, suggest or highlight certain moves, item builds etc. In many productions, GoDz has shown to be very versatile in what he provides, be it as a caster, a panelist or just an organizer.
Honorable Mentions: Cameron 'Basskip' Scott, David 'Blaze' Dillon
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The following personas have made sure that the tournaments are enjoyable even outside of the game, by either guiding the conversations on a panel or by talking to the players and interviewing them. When there are delays, when the pauses in-between games are too long, these people provide the content to fill the time.
Sheever has started out as a caster, but this year has made a bigger transition into other positions. Going from conducting interviews at LAN events, she made a big leap to becoming a panelist and eventually a host, most notably during DreamLeague Season 2 in which she took on the role of the host by herself. She has shown that hard work and dedication can truly pay off.
The Suiss interviewer is very versatile and is involved in many titles, not just Dota 2. But this year has been quite Dota intensive for Soe, as joining joinDota has given her the chance to do a lot more work in the scene. With years of experience, Soe is undoubtedly one of the more skilled interviewers in the scene. In addition, she established the much loved Matchmaking interviews.
It's hard finding a proper category for the man, that is seemingly everything at once - although he does not seem to be a statsman anymore. Bruno transitions from host, to interviewer, to co-caster, to just being there quite easily and impresses with his natural charm and humor. Bruno has done it all this year, fitting all the roles. He's like a chameleon and not only because he changes suits seemingly every hour.
Zyori joined BeyondTheSummit at the start of the year and has already become an invaluable member. Being host of their show “In the Studio” and taking up a lot of casting gigs, Zyori been an all-rounder for the studio. While he was not invited by Valve, Zyori continued to produce content at The International 2014 as an interviewer and has attended the most recent StarLadder LAN as the panel host.
The charismatic Brit has his unique style of entertaining the viewers. He doesn’t mince his words and never fails to voice his own opinion, while not lacking knowledge in Dota. The host of TI4 has stated to not return to Seattle as host anymore, which would arguably be a loss for the scene as it is right now.
If it wasn’t for Hot_Bid, this category could’ve been named just Host of the Year, but the former TeamLiquid employee has left such an impression in the scene that he deserves to be nominated, if not even win a trophy. The American has conducted many interviews over the year, earning him a spot at TI4 during which he conducted these interviews for Valve. Hot_Bid has his very own and unique style of interviewing, making every interview worth watching.
Honorable Mentions: Paul 'Redeye' Chaloner, ineska
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The ancient Greeks already knew that without drama, life can be quite boring. And while there is certainly some fun and entertaining drama out there, this year has seen some of the worst there is, overshadowing the fact that Dota is about passion and fun.
Era's participation was one of the largest flubs by an organisation this year, with the miscommunication between Valve and Fnatic leading to a very public airing of laundry. Official emails between Valve and the Fnatic organisation were published as each side attempted to make a case for the player representing Fnatic. Faced with the decision of rescinding their invitation to Era, Valve decided to honour their invitation and bring Era to TI4, as part of the Fnatic squad.
In an emotional blogpost following Liquid's downhill slide in April, Fluffnstuff, then captain of Liquid, expressed his frustration at not being able to lead the team. The ill-timed blogpost was a sign of greater changes to come as the Liquid management gave him the reins, but also issued a time ultimatum to pull the team back from the brink. His inability to do so resulted in his departure, and allowed for Liquid to rebuild for TI4.
GoDz's lost bet with Tobiwan must have caused him more nightmares than he would care to mention. Reddit decided that GoDz would have to cosplay Enchantress after a Chinese team failed to win TI3, and since then he had been stalked and constantly reminded by a fervent group of fans to don that cosplay, and flaming him for his otherwise non-provision of cosplay. A jokingly added stretch goal for The Summit 1 by the number of $3,220,000 certainly didn't help the case as many fans did indeed believe it was part of their promise. While he has eventually fulfilled the promise this past The Summit 2, the memory will remain with him as to how seriously Reddit takes promises by community figures.
The organisation of the second season of DreamLeague could be said to have been a fiasco of multiple orders. A lot of miscommunication led to decisions that ultimately asked a team to match their opponents' number of stand-ins. Teams had to play long hours of qualifiers very suddenly, as the dates were announced rather late and the format of a 15 day LAN event did not receive much love from both the community and the players. Things seemed to improve when the GD studio took over for the studio matches in phase 2, but the administrative errors had already done their damage.
The largest scandal of TI4 surrounded a GameFY staff leaving a video camera in DK's playing room before they played their match against EG in the round robins. That camera recorded down DK's discussions during the drafting stage, and a video was published in China before being swiftly taken down. While the damage done may have been contained and it will remain unknown if it affected the outcome of the tournament for DK, the drafting stage is undeniably important in Dota and DK were outraged by the infringement of their privacy.
The scandal perhaps most important to the professional scene was the revelations of matchfixing and an underground ring of match fixers in the South East Asian scene. While the Arrow Gaming and Mineski incidents were exclusive of each other, the similar timing to the incidents signalled the problems within the SEA scene – a lack of growth, disposable income, and tournament authority provided incentive for the players to throw matches for quick financial gain. Complicated with revelations about the manager/owner of Arrow Gaming, this scandal shook the foundation of the SEA scene.
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Much like 2013, many international competitions took place this year, with teams from all over the globe fighting, online and offline, for the ever increasing prize pools. However, the unexpected change of schedule of The International caught many tournament organizations off-guard, resulting in an unprecedented pileup of LAN events during the final days of spring. Furthermore, numerous official matches were stigmatised by sudden DDoS attacks, ruining the experience for both the teams and the spectators. Nevertheless, the verdict is rather positive for the tournaments of 2014, as we witnessed some of the most entertaining games in the history of professional DotA2. So let's take a look at the best tournaments outside of TI.
The Summit 1 was organized by the casting studio BeyondTheSummit during the first half of 2014, and it concluded with the LAN finals in June. The tournament was rather different from similar competitions of the same prizepool caliber, as its playoffs took place in a house, with very cosy and friendly atmosphere. Players, casters and personalities practically lived together for about a week, making us, the spectators, jealous of not being there with them. Besides its relaxing approach, The Summit featured several great games, created its own meta game and it served as the dawn of the gruesome pubstomp Tinker era.
When ESL One Frankfurt 2014 was announced, the competitive scene was astonished. ESL talked about a $150,000 LAN event that would take place in the remarkable Commerzbank Arena, a 52,000 seat stadium in Frankfurt, Germany. The playoffs took place in late June, with a unique production value that gave the local media something to talk about for weeks. The quality of the matches was rather high, and they were free to watch in DotaTV. The only flaw we can find for ESL One Frankfurt was its single-elimination format, as the participants were not given a second chance after getting defeated. It should also be noted that the venue’s time restrictions forced the grand final to be a best-of-three, instead of the classic and prefered best-of-five.
StarLadder Season 9 marked the first StarLadder tournament that had Asian teams competing. Both Chinese, as well as Korean teams went through their own regional online stages and Team DK and MVP.Phoenix were the first Asian teams to play in Kiev. Many deemed the tournament as a "mini-TI", being one of the first and few Western tournaments that included foreign teams of high calibre. It was Team DK that took the title and in combination with the production on site - LD and Merlini casting together with Sheever conducting interviews, the event was truly joyful to watch.
Following the rather succesful Kick-Off Season, DreamLeague Season 1 saw an extensive, yet entertaining online portion that lasted for several weeks and included the top teams from the West. Even though only Western teams attended, the LAN portion still saw the some of the best teams compete and the format allowed a refreshing change of pace. The production was well done and in cooperation with TobiWan, The GD Studio put up a rather entertaining show.
The second version of The Summit followed the same pattern as the first one, along with a few new introductions such as the Team Redemption vote system that allowed Cloud9’s participation. While the first day of the tournament was troubled by connectivity and stream issues, the problems were dealt with in a matter of hours. From that point, the event’s spectators were able to enjoy some fine DotA2, with a seperate stream showing the pros and casters relax in a lounge to play a variety of games. More pros joined the casts this time around, the maybe first overall entertaining all-star match (must watch!) and the high quality games made The Summit 2 a true success.
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The following theee categories are rather similar to one another and only a fine line distinguishes them, so bear with us and read carefully.
The Best Newcomer Award is given to players that, before 2014, were not considered to be players in the pro circuit. Some of these players have already dabbled in competitive environments before, but we could and did not consider them to be truly professional gamers just yet. All that has changed this year and they have become strong players who have earned their place in their teams and scenes. Some of them have already climbed to the "tier 1" region, others may still be on their way to it, but we are sure that all of them will be even stronger players in 2015.
Honorable Mentions: Joel 'Apemother' Larsson, Omar 'w33haaa' Aliwi
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The Breakout Player Award is reserved for pros that have been part of the competitive circuit in the year before, but that were not successful - either because their own individual performance was lacking or because the teams they were in did not prove to be the right environment. Either way, this year they have been able to pull off stronger performances, establishing themselves in the top ranks and becoming fearsome players on their own.
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The award for the Most Improved Player is in many traits quite similar to the Breakout Player Award, but in this award we take a look at players that have gradually improved over the course of the year. Some of them may have been in the spotlight more often than others, so following their progress was easier than it was for others. But the improvement is still there and these competitive players have shown that they are hungry for success and willing to work on themselves.
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GosuAwards committee:
Sovann 'Skim' Kim
Andreas 'drouks' Stavridakis
Linus 'Tjernobylbarnet' Staaf
Mervyn 'ISB' Tan
Bogdan 'MarelePisoi' Bugariu
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