Best Carry of 2016

I don’t think it was a great year for carries. With mid heroes taking up more farm, carry players often have found themselves in a secondary farming position and a lot of the usual suspects among carry players have had shitty months. Arteezy’s Secret adventure was awful and he didn’t perform well then either. EE has switched to mid and even then you still can’t say it was his greatest year in terms of individual skill/performance either. Fear was great, though he also was lackluster (like his entire team) during their Manila disaster (EDIT: which he ofc also played as support). They did well to recover, but Fear also retired after TI. (basically same logic applies to Hao).

Now it may sound like I’m giving this award to n0tail simply because I can’t give it to somebody else, but I think you have to pay huge respects to his consistency and the things n0tail does for his team. He plays any carry that comes his way and will always pursue the next strategic move his team needs him to do: (split-)push, farm, rotate, you name it. To me, n0tail is the foundation the team is building on. There is no OG without n0tail and the team displayed incredible consistency throughout the year, very much so because of his efforts.

Shadow is a close second for me. Wings may not have been as consistent prior to The Summit and TI, but Shadow has been a super performer throughout any of Wings’ dominating performances and streaks.

Best Mid of 2016

This is a tough one. Miracle, SumaiL, w33ha, QO, Midone (edited), Maybe… and even Mu had an impressive “comeback” this year leading up to TI and Fata would be up there as well if not for Liquid’s drop-off during TI and his break after. All of them have proven to be at the top of the game at some point, with strong performances that has allowed each and every player to carry his team through tough times (granted this was the year of mid carries).

As much as I call it a tough decision, I find myself not hesitating to make this decision at all. SumaiL has been an absolute star performer this year and even during EG’s admittedly weak period, SumaiL showed that he still had the fire in him (still not great). He was and still is a key player and factor to their success and as much as Dota is a teamgame, SumaiL has once again proven to be at the very top of individually skilled players. I think Miracle has displayed stronger performances here and there, but to me SumaiL has been more impressive overall. That said, I wouldn’t blame anybody for choosing one or the other.

# Why not more Wings players / TI winners?

As much as TI is the world championships of Dota, it is still just 1 tournament. I hate the notion that a best player of the year has to be from the year’s champion. In football (or soccer), it has almost become tradition to award the Ballon D’or to a player of the world championships. And if it doesn’t happen (like in 2014…the one year Germany wins, come on Fifa), ppl criticize them for it.

People can very well play only one good tournament. That happens. For all we know, DC could’ve been a shit tier team after TI again.

Breakout of 2016

For me, a breakout player must’ve had his breakthrough performance this year. He wasn’t recognized as a tier1 player before, but through individual performance and team success he has established himself as a recognized pro. So just because player x technically attended TI5, doesn’t mean he was recognized as tier1 pro, nor that he was playing like one.

I’m going for the cop-out play and mention all of Wings Gaming here. Surely, some of them have played internationally prior to 2016, though that doesn’t take away from the fact that prior to ESL One Manila, most parts of the community didn’t have them on their radar. I’m not going to pretend I did (because I didn’t, I was hesitant and dismissive even), but that’s why to me, the team as a whole had a hell of a breakout performance this year. To top it off with a TI victory is a fairy tale in itself that nobody stresses enough for my taste.

I find it hard to consider anybody else as Newcomer or Breakout player because of this entire squad. None of these players would’ve been considered even remotely tier1 going into this year by most pundits and now they are undoubtedly at the top of the game (Boston drop-off somewhat natural).

Notable nominees in this category include Midone(edited), sep, MNT, saksa, YapzOr, Ramzes and Abed.

# Why no Newcomer category?

I find it rather redundant to name a newcomer, as most players will go through a phase where they play professionally to some degree before having their breakout performance. So to me, Newcomer and Breakout cover basically the same category.

EDIT: I definitely dismissed and overlooked Midone not only as an individual performer, but also his and his team’s accomplishments throughout the year. I still don’t think it makes him a top pick for any of the two categories I now included him in (Mid & Breakout), but it still should be noted that he was a beast of a performer that elevated Fnatic to another level. I’ve been very critical of Fnatic throughout most of the year, mostly because the poor individual performances from both Mushi and Ohaiyo, even in clutch moments. That said, both them and the team as a whole pulled through and a top 4 finish at both Manila and TI is quite remarkable. Midone continued to impress with Secret and even if the team didn’t qualify for Boston, he showed that he is still one of the better mids in the scene. Kudos!