The Game Awards 2022: Esports category winners

December 9, 2022

by Brian Bencomo

The Game Awards honor the best in gaming, including esports. The 2022 edition of the award show took place on Dec. 8 in Los Angeles. There were five esports categories that received awards. Disclosure: Nerd Street was one of the media outlets that voted to select the winners. Whether you watched the show and want to look back at who won or missed out and need to catch up, here’s a closer look at the esports winners at The Game Awards 2022.

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Best Esports Game: VALORANT

The winner of best esports game this year is just over two years old, which speaks volume about how far the game has come in such a short period. Not only did the VALORANT Champions Tour provide a world-class competitive circuit for the top teams in the world, there’s a thriving Tier 2 scene that includes tournaments run by our own tournament operators here at Nerd Street. Riot has provided a lot of support for women and marginalized genders via the VCT Game Changers Circuit, which is arguably the best circuit for women and marginalized genders in any esport. It’s intangible, but there just seems to be a lot of excitement for the game this year and for its future, especially given Riot’s roadmap for VCT in 2023 and beyond.

Other nominees:

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dota 2
League of Legends
Rocket League

Best Esports Athlete: yay

Photo credit: Riot Games

Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker established himself as the best VALORANT player in the world this year. Not only is he a skilled individual player but he also won Masters: Reykjavík with OpTic Gaming. He stood above all other players across three international tournaments in the VALORANT Champions Tour. He had the best K/D at Masters: Reykjavík and VALORANT Champions and was top five at Masters: Copenhagen. After he became a free agent following the 2022 season he was the most highly sought-after player, and he signed with Cloud9.

Other nominees:

Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon (Gen.G, LoL)
Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok (T1, LoL)
Finn "karrigan" Andersen (FaZe Clan, CS:GO)
Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)

Best Esports Team: LOUD (VALORANT)

Photo credit: Riot Games

LOUD were the winners of VALORANT Champions, the season-ending championship event for the 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour. They also were the runners-up at Masters: Reykjavík earlier in the year. LOUD’s win carried extra significance because across six international VCT events in 2021 and 2022, the Brazilian team became the first squad outside of North America or Europe to win one of these tournaments.

Other nominees:

DarkZero Esports (Apex Legends)
FaZe Clan (CS:GO)
Gen.G (League of Legends)
LA Thieves (Call of Duty)

Best Esports Coach: bzkA

The best esports coach this year, Matheus "bzkA" Tarasconi, led his team to a victory at the biggest VALORANT tournament of the year: Champions. BzkA also guided LOUD through a challenging period in the middle of the year. After being runners-up at Masters: Reykjavík, LOUD were one of the first teams eliminated at Masters: Copenhagen. There were questions about whether the team would fall off, but LOUD persevered, likely due in part to bzkA’s guidance. He is now the coach of MIBR.

Other nominees:

Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)
Erik “d00mbr0s” Sandgren (FPX, VALORANT)
Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström (FaZe Clan, CS:GO)
Go "Score" Dong-bin (Gen.G, LoL)

Best Esports Event: 2022 League of Legends World Championship

Photo credit: Riot Games

This year’s League of Legends World Championship was remarkable on many levels. It lasted over a month, from late September to early November. It took place across two countries and four cities: Mexico City, New York City, Atlanta and San Francisco. The final filled the Chase Center in San Francisco with tens of thousands of fans and brought in a peak of over 5 million viewers, the most ever for Worlds. The team that won, DRX, had an incredible Cinderella run throughout the tournament and beat T1 and Faker -- the most legendary team and player in the game. Worlds 2022 was a treat for esports fans and even got the attention of media outlets that don’t normally cover esports.

Other nominees: