Esports industry awards show, the Esports Awards, held its 2024 event at the Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on August 24th during the Esports World Cup.
The annual event saw Red Bull and Team Liquid win their respective categories whilst VALORANT won Esports Game of the Year for the third year in a row.
VALORANT was voted the Esports Game of the Year over nominees including Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), League of Legends, Dota 2, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and more. The Riot Games published title has seen a growth in viewership this year with VCT 2024: Masters Madrid having the highest peak viewership in VALORANT history.
Whilst Mobile Legends: Bang Bang didn’t win the Esports Game of the Year, it was crowned Esports Mobile Game of the Year. The game has seen huge growth in the last few years in terms of popularity and viewership, it currently has the highest viewership peak of any mobile game and the second-highest of all esports games, according to Esports Charts.
The other esports game award was the Breakthrough Game of the Year which was won by Teamfight Tactics.
The Esports Awards featured five individual awards; Esports Personality of the Year (Seth ‘Scump’ Abner), Esports Breakthrough Player of the Year (Stanislav ‘Malr1ne’ Potorak), Esports Analyst of the Year (Jacob ‘PIMP’ Winneche), Streamer of the Year (RiversGG), and Esports Community Leader of the Year (Marc Robert ‘Caedrel’ Lamont).
Other awards included Esports Content Creator of the Year (S8UL Esports), Esports Content of the Year (Gods ft. NewJeans – League of Legends Worlds 2023 Anthem), Esports Publisher of the Year (Riot Games), Creative Team of the Year (Team Liquid), Esports Commercial Partner of the Year (Red Bull) and Esports Content and Coverage Platform of the Year (Liquipedia).
The final award that was given out at the event was a lifetime achievement award given to Jens Hilgers, Co-founder of Bayes and G2 Esports and founding general partner of BITKRAFT Ventures.
Prior to the event, Esports Awards announced partnerships a number of commercial sponsors, including phone manufacturers HONOR and Saudi Arabian entertainment and tourist megaproject Qiddiya. As part of the sponsorship, HONOR presented the Esports Mobile Game of the Year award and Qiddiya presented the Streamer of the Year award and the Esports Awards Pre-Show.
Both HONOR and Qiddiya are not new to partnerships in esports with Qiddiya working to attract esports organisations to the city and HONOR being a partner of the Esports World Cup.
Earlier this summer the Esports Awards announced a three-year partnership with Saudi Arabia-backed multi-title esports tournament Esports World Cup (EWC). As part of the partnership, the 2024 Esports Awards ceremony is being held at the EWC on August 24th in Riyadh.
This partnership was met with staunch criticism partly due to Saudi Arabia’s stance on women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and censorship. Some voices in the industry have labelled Saudi Arabia’s competitive gaming ventures as ‘esportswashing’, an attempt to distract from its human rights record. There was also online commotion surrounding the lack of an ‘esports journalist of the year’ and the country’s history with journalists.
In a written interview with Esports Insider Mike Ashford, CEO of the Esports Awards assured that EWC will have no control over the award nominations or the adjudication process and that Esports Awards will remain an “independently owned and operated entity.”
