Gaming Personality of the Year
Winner – Alex ” Goldenboy” Mendez
This man lives and breathes the esports space and it clearly shows. It’s rare to find someone who can discuss the ins and outs or Call of Duty, and then turn around and give his opinion on the state of the Overwatch League.
Alex has had a great year, and we were glad to be there when he received the Ambassador Award for Personality of the Year at the Tempest Awards this past September.
Best Esports Event
Winner – Overwatch League
The entire 2019 season was a preview of what was to come in Philadelphia. Even with the San Francisco Shock and the Vancouver Titans as dominant as they were at the start of the season, no one would’ve ever guessed they would meet each other on such even ground. Their records against each other, even. Their map differential against each other, even. They had met in the stage finals twice and went tit for tat. The cherry on top? That the San Francisco Shock would dominate as hard as they did in the finals. When we talk about the biggest matches of this league, the Shock cemented their legacy right here.
Esports Team of the Year
Winner – Team Liquid
It’s no surprise to see Team Liquid come out on top of this category. In two different esports, Team Liquid had an incredible year. In Counterstrike: Global Offensive, Liquid showed a level of domination seldom seen in the first half of the year. While they came back down to earth somewhat in the second half of the year, they still put an Intel Grand Slam under their belt.
Meanwhile, in League of Legends, Liquid continued what they started in 2018. They won both the spring and summer splits, making it four consecutive in the LCS. They are thus far the only team to win an LCS split since franchising began in 2018. They also had a deep run at the Mid-Season Invitational, which saw them go all the way to the finals.
Game of the Year
Winner – The Outer Worlds
“It’s just Fallout in space” is what I heard from a lot of people as we eagerly anticipated the release of Outer Worlds. These statements weren’t incorrect, Obsidian Entertainment even did one entry into the Fallout Series with Fallout: New Vegas. The Outer Worlds ended up being so much more than just Fallout. With an intense focus on the RP part of RPG, the Outer Worlds has more in common with Dungeons and Dragons than anything else. The story was a little light and the game could played to completion pretty quickly. But the Outer Worlds have set up a universe and franchise that will take the industry by storm whenever the sequel ends up dropping.
Game of the Decade
Winner – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
It’s tough to argue with this one. For almost two decades, we’ve watched Smash Bros Melee own the scene, shirking off would-be usurpers like Brawl and Smash 4. However, after keeping Masahiro Sakurai chained to a computer for what we can only assume were many years, Smash Ultimate stormed onto the scene. Living up to its name, the game boasts every character to have appeared in a Smash game before it plus many many more.
With a strong competitive scene forming around it, the game finally supplanted Melee as the fighting game of choice. It also has an adoption rate around 70% on the Switch, which is almost unheard of. The game has a wide audience, appealing to casual gamers, party gamers, and hardcore fighting competitors alike. It all adds up to the voter’s choice award for best game of the decade.
We’d like to thank everyone who had voted during the Best of 2019 Voter’s Choice and we’d also like to take this moment to congratulate the winner, Omar, of the Respawn gaming chair, sponsored by Respawn Products.
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