The GosuGamers 2010 Utility Player of the Year Award
The 2010 Utility Player of the Year Award is an award that GosuGamers has created for the year 2010 in order to recognize the often-overlooked players that handle this new and incredibly demanding job of modern DotA. This award will replace the 'Ganker of the Year Award,' as the classic role of 'ganker' has become increasingly obsolete.
The 'utility' role is a modern metagame invention -- one that arose from the advent of the now-ubiquitous trilane. The players that ply their trade in this category are mostly former carries, semi-carries, and converted gankers; the heroes they utilize are specialized high-impact heroes, such as Enigma, Visage, Chen, and Dark Seer, control-oriented solo heroes, such as Venomancer, Wind Runner, Puck, and Batrider, and miscellaneous semi-carries, secondary supports, and initiation heroes as needed. A common thread these heroes tend to possess is their mid-game strength and team-fight potential.
As supports and solo heroes have become the primary gankers of modern DotA, utility players are mainly required to provide laning flexibility and team-fight strength. They most often take their team's side solo lane -- sometimes against a trilane -- and are entrusted with the responsibility of executing the team's mid-game vision, whether it be pushing, counter-pushing/turtling, or forcing and winning team-fights. In order to have succeeded in 2010, a team was required to have had at least one exceptional utility player that could effectively solo, initiate, and carry.
While a large part of a utility player's value comes from his capacity to handle the responsibilities previously mentioned, perhaps the greatest advantage a utility player provides for his team is flexibility during the drafting phase. A team with a strong utility player will also tend to have a much stronger draft, as the captain will be afforded more options for picking and counter-picking. A world-class utility player will make his captain near-impossible to out-draft, and his presence alone will make the opposition captain's job many times more difficult.
The defining traits of a top utility player are his ability to salvage difficult lanes, effectively and efficiently handle every hero in the draft, maximize the potential of high skill-cap/micro-intensive heroes, and consistently make winning plays in team-fights for his team. The five players nominated here represent what GosuGamers considers to be the most expert, creative, and versatile utility players for the year 2010.
The Nominees:
Banana / Hy - A natural carry player that spent his DotA career playing just about every hero in existence; Banana was a founding member of Nirvana.cn, and rose to prominence reprising his XFY roles for the 2010 Chinese powerhouse. Tasked with handling the team's 3rd-class carries and initiation heroes, Banana spent the year playing the heroes Nirvana would use to round out their drafts. As he is one of the most versatile players on this list, listing the heroes we've seen him play at the highest level would take more column space than we've got; his most notable roles in 2010, however, were Puck, Windrunner, Pirate, Beast Master, Brood Mother, Visage, and ES. While Banana's excellence as a utility player -- or excellence as any kind of player, really -- has never been in dispute, he perhaps suffers the most in terms of lack of recognition, out of all the players on this list. He is very often overshadowed by his more compelling teammates, but as anyone with an eye for DotA could tell you, Banana has been Nirvana.cn's most noteworthy player for at least the final third of the year 2010.
Sharingan / beNz - A player that simply oozes class and intelligence, and the most natural ganker and support player on this list. Sharingan is likely the most "specialized" player as well, in that he relies on his remarkable handling of heroes such as ES, Pirate, Lina, Batrider and Enigma moreso than he does his overall laning prowess or carry skill. While Sharingan was inactive during the first half of the year, his late-2010 comeback was marked by a series of incredible performances with his signature heroes, in addition to some very stable displays with heroes such as Necrolyte and various supports. As those who have followed the scene since 2009 would know, Sharingan was an iconic and trailblazing player of ES and Pirate in the old FTD days. And since his reemergence in top-flight DotA, he has already been largely instrumental to the reintroduction of Lina to competitive play. Truly one of DotA's most creative and pioneering players, Sharingan easily gets our nomination for Utility Player of the Year.
XtinCt - Xtinct was a WC3 pro before he switched to DotA; many would credit the micromanagement and multitasking skills he gained from this RTS background with making him the nearly-unmatched handler -- in both breadth and depth -- of DotA's trickiest heroes that he is. The much-admired captain of Cybertime joined Nirvana.my in March of 2010 with long-time teammate Mushi, bringing to the new team his unmatched versatility and incredible drafting skills. While Xtinct's Visage and Doom immediately come to mind as noteworthy heroes, the player has almost literally played every hero ever created by IceFrog, in 2010 alone. Whether it's solo semi-carries like Pugna and WR, or melee hard carries such as Alchemist and Syllabear, or micro-intensive gankers such as Chen, Xtinct has played it and played it remarkably well. Xtinct is a singular player in modern DotA; never have we seen a player excel at so many facets of DotA at once, as he has. He is a top captain, top player -- in every role short of support, though we don't doubt he could also play support if he chose to -- and certainly one of the strongest contenders for 2010 Utility Player of the Year.
Dread - Dread is one of the most unique and unpredictable players in competitive DotA. These traits are reflected not only by the heroes he can be seen playing, but also by the way in which he plays them. Dread joined DTS from the former RoX.KIS, where he mostly played semi-carries and gankers; his tenure at DTS has seen him mostly handle the secondary support role, with Witch Doctor being the most notable and perhaps most tragic, given his outspoken dislike for the hero. While he is most famous for his use of Pandaren Brewmaster, Chen, and Enchantress, Dread is also a top-level handler of more common utility heroes such as Dark Seer, Venomancer, and Lion. Of the players on this list, Dread has arguably sacrificed the most -- in terms of the heroes he likely wants to play and the heroes he ends up playing -- for his team. And while he's one of the weaker solo players on this list, he makes up for it by being one of the best ganking and support players.
KingJ - The prototypical utility player, and arguably the godfather of the utility role, KingJ is admittedly the first player that came our minds when we discussed this category. He mostly plays the 3rd-class or secondary carries for his team, as opposed to some of the more initiation-based heroes others on this list play -- most notably, his strength in these roles comes from his absolutely top-class solo abilities, as can be seen with his SF and Beast Master performances. His noteworthy heroes include Brood Mother, Visage, Enigma, and Doombringer, and in addition to the innumerable heroes he's played in 2010, KingJ can also be solely credited for introducing Venomancer to modern DotA. While he deserves this nomination based solely on his pioneering performances, KingJ truly distinguishes himself with the strength of his skill-set. The former FTD player is not only one of the most versatile players on this list, he is very likely the strongest solo and carry player as well.
Click here to vote!
You may only vote one time, voting again will only change your vote from what your previously voted to the most current. Once 48 hours elapses, voting will begin for the next category of the GosuAwards. Coming up next is the GosuAward for Solo Player of the Year.
(co-edited by heikki and Tjernobylbarnet)
Links
Overview - list of categories
