GosuGamers Awards 2015: Dota 2 nominations

The yearly GosuGamers Awards have returned! Two weeks are separating us from a new competitive year so this is the perfect moment to take a retrospective look at 2015 and honor the best of the best in each category; the players, the teams, organizers, the casters and the hosts who make the events unique and memorable.

The GosuAwards are a long standing tradition of our community, dating back almost a decade. Every year, teams, players, stories and personalities from the major eSports titles are nominated in several categories and the GosuGamers community gets to vote for those who they think deserve the title. At the end of the year, during the official GosuAwards ceremony, the winners and runner-ups of each category will be announced. There will be two of those for each category: one awarded by the GosuCrew committee which is also the body that determines the nominations and another chosen by the community vote.

For 2015 Dota 2 GosuGamers Awards we’ve splitted the nominees in fifteen different categories. The polls will be open starting today and will remain so until December 26, 00:00 CET. At the end of the year, we'll reveal the GosuCrew and the community winners of 2015, plus a few special awards.

What are you waiting for? Cast your votes and choose your 2015 favorites!

Evil Geniuses

The masters of mixing youth with experience, Evil Geniuses have had an outstanding year, from winning the first tournament of 2015, DAC to making the entire Key Arena in Seattle bleed blue when they raised the most wanted trophy in the scene, the Aegis of the Immortal. As one of the most dominant teams in 2015, EG have won four premiere tournaments this year, and the most recent The Summit 4 victory shows that the TI curse can be broken.

Vici Gaming

Although 2015 was not the best year they could have had, Vici Gaming are still the strongest Chinese team out there and managed to finish top three at most of the tournaments they’ve been participating. Their key roster changes for the carry position in 2015 bounced them back and forth in rankings but they have never been outside of the elite circle.

CDEC Gaming

CDEC Gaming are the Cinderellas of 2015. Coming from nowhere to shatter the best of the best at The International 5, CDEC wrote history for their names from the first LAN they’ve ever attended. They redefined the term “aggressive play”, a thing that nobody could have seen it possible until TI5 and offered the most beautiful success story for a newcomer team in 2015.

Team Secret

There are two Secret rosters both of them featuring an all-star line-up that rapidly put the team into everyone’s heart. The TI5 roster accomplished this year a streak of four consecutive LAN victories, an achievement that hasn’t occurred since 2012. Their disappointing performance in Seattle shattered the entire team forcing Clement "Puppey" Ivanov to rebuild the Secret from scratch and with the new line-up he reached four grand finals in one month, winning two out of four LANs they attended.

OG

Created under the (moneky) Business name and rebranded just before the first ever DotA 2 Major, OG is the only team formed in the post TI5 shuffle that instantly became community favorites not only because of their charismatic line-up but mainly because of their fulminant success. Their true standout moment occurred at the Fall Major when they knocked out from the tournament all the favorites, CDEC, EHOME, Virtus Pro, Evil Geniuses and Secret and claimed the Eaglesong trophy for themselves.

Virtus.Pro

Virtus Pro, a very balanced and experienced team, rose beyond expectations and doubts of many with a quite successful year. Although the CIS giants weren’t able to touch the pinnacle, they performed with consistency. Of all the performances, the game against Team Secret at The International stood apart revealing the dominant side of Virtus Pro. They were able to secure a finish in the top six at the international 2015. Post the lukewarm performance at the Frankfurt majors Virtus Pro decided it’s a time for change by replacing Carry Player Illidan with Silent from Empire. The new synergized and aggressive Virtus Pro looks better than ever. Finishing second at The Summit 4 against EG in a close encounter and defeating favorites like OG and Team Liquid, it’s pretty evident that these guys are extremely determined.

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Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao

The Dota 2 scene would not be the same without EE - sama in it. Always being part of controversial topics, Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao is the most atypical carry. One that always strives to innovate item builds, picking unusual heroes and ultimately playing his own meta. For half of the year he has been the leader of the eternally second placed team, Cloud 9 and after the mediocre run at TI5 he joined forces with the most prolific Support ever, Clement "Puppey" Ivanov to become the carry of the one of the strongest teams of the year. With team Secret, EternLEnVy won his first trophies of 2015 and established himself once more among best carries in the world.

Clinton "Fear" Loomis

“The old man is back” or “FEAR returns” could easily be some of the taglines for 2015. Clinton "Fear" Loomis is the only player in the pro scene that has a decade of professional career in which he’s been always the most respected player. After almost one year break due to his arm injury, Fear returned on the carry position at the beginning of 2015 and established Evil Geniuses as the world’s best team right from the beginning of February when they won DAC. With The International 5 triump, “the old man” proved that age has nothing to do with great performance at the highest standard possible. Well, at least not for him!

Ilya "Illidan" Pivcaev

2015 is the pinnacle of Illidan’s professional career so far. The versatility of the long-time carry of Virtus.Pro allowed his captain to come up with surprising drafts and propelled the squad to the top of CIS region and made VP the strongest EU representatives at The International 5. One of the fewest carries of 2015 who mastered Intellect, Agility and Strength carry heroes, Illidan is regarded as the best Silencer of the moment and he plays possibly the scariest Slardar.

Sun "Agressif" Zheng

He might not have won any tournament this year but the CDEC Gaming carry, Sun "Agressif" Zheng has dazzled the entire scene with his International 5 performance. To come at The International from the ultimate underdog position as part of the wild card competition and to reach Grand Finals is something that no one has accomplished before. And that happened thanks to his new vision of how the carry should set up the map rations and the entire game tempo.

Artour "Arteezy" Babaev

Arteezy has a long history in Dota 2 scene but 2015 marked his full ascension. Bouncing between the top two teams worldwide, this year he’s been present on the stage of all the important tournaments. Although the fate toyed with him as he seemed to always be on “wrong” team when it come to the most important matches, Mr.Baby Rage Artour "Arteezy" Babaev is now regarded as the best Shadow Fiend in the world and his ability of swapping mid lane with safe lane with ease made him one of the hardest carries to deal with in 2015.

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Lu "Maybe" Yao

The former captain of CDEC.LGD Gaming, Lu "Maybe" Yao began his ascension last year when he was just making it into the pro scene. Given the chance to play next to some of the greatest players in China, like xiao8 and Sylar at LGD Gaming, Maybe developed into one of the most fearsome Chinese mid laners and LGD’s third place at this year’s International has a lot to do with his performance in Seattle.

Syed Sumail "Suma1L" Hassan

Only 16 years old, Suma1L literally stormed the mid lane this year. From DAC to the recently concluded Summit 4, he dominated in every tournament. He holds two impressive records on Storm Spirit: most deaths in the first five minutes and most kills at the 10 minute mark but the amazing fact is that the records are both registered in the same game.

Amer "Miracle-" al-Barqawi

Miracle is the only player from this category that did not participate at The International 5. He entered the scene in the post TI shuffle when was offered by both Team Secret and (monkey) Business (now OG) and chose to go with N0tail and Fly. He popped on the Pro’s radar when he became the highest MMR player world-wide, surpassing w33. Same as Arteezy last year, Miracle could be easily considered either carry or mid player. In the few months since he joined OG he played from Gyrocopter to Invoker all possible heroes which proves his incredible versatility and his amazing mechanical skills.

Sergey Alexandrovich "G" Bragin

The G God is amongst the most experienced players from this year’s mid lane nominations. He’s been to all five Internationals but in 2015 there was no Virtus.Pro game where casters and viewers alike wouldn’t exclaim “Oh my god, G! “. His propensity towards mid heroes capable to morph into hard caries in late game made him the monster mid laner that he is now, easily capable of dominating any opponent.

Huang "ShiKi" Jiwei

There is no doubt that the entire CDEC success in Seattle was a team effort but even so ShiKi managed to shine on his own. Not only at the International but even afterwards, when Agressif’s heroes faded in the 6.85 patch, he kept his team’s recently acquired reputation clean with his impeccable Lina or Queen of Pain plays.

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Bai "rOtK" Fan

Throughout the years rOtK became a true Chinese legend. His Clockwerk, Dark Seer, Earthshaker and Phoenix plays in the EHOME offlane, put the team among top Chinese teams and under his command EHOME finished top five at this year’s International. He is loud, he likes to ambush his prey and he puts huge pressure on his lane. There few offlaners in the current DotA 2 scene capable to dismantle a trilane on their own and Bai "rOtK" Fan is one of them!

Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora

Is there anyone who doubts Universe’s unique game sense which makes him one of the best offlaners ever? Should we mention his $6,000,000 Echo Slam jump at TI5? Or should we just look at his always perfect coordinated Vacuum - Walls into whatever big ultimates Suma1L and Arteezy might have available? Universe is the type of player who can make the most out of his lane no matter what hero he handles or what combo he is facing and he will remain as one of the main engines for EG’s success.

Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang

iceiceice has settled at Vici Gaming since last year’s great shuffle and his crazy swapping roles from DK times have faded away except when he goes all yolo with Invoker (with which he boasts a 64% win rate this year). Nevertheless, iceiceice remains the same incredibly versatile offlaner who can mess with anyone’s plans. His aggressiveness and timely rotations, and his insane Hookshots across the map are clearly making the difference for VG.

Andrey "Mag" Chipenko

Mag is the guy always in search for a new hero to master and his capability to push the limits of any hero he chooses to play with makes him a truly remarkable offlane player. We will often see him playing almost exclusively a certain hero throughout a tournament. If last year he was named Centavrenko because of his obsession with Centaur Warrunner, this year he shined with Dark Seer and Broodmother. The ESL One NY victory for Vega Squadron can be entirely attributed to his Broodmother, a hero that was either picked or banned in almost every game against Vega. An interesting fact that says a lot about his determination is that he started to practice with Brood only after seeing Dkphobos’s success with the hero at TI5.

David "MoonMeander" Tan

The Canadian player is still a fairly new face into the competitive DotA 2 scene. Coming as a Heroes of Newerth star, he adapted extremely fast and he definitely has the potential to surpass the veterans in the near future. A first step in that direction was made at the Frankfurt major where he was the star for OG. He played ten different offlane heroes at the first ever Dota 2 Major and his Doom, Earthshaker, Tusk or Night Stalker plays indubitably played a huge part in OG’s triumph in Frankfurt.

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The support role was and still is crucial to a team success. As we’ve done in the past year, we acknowledge and honor position four and five separately.

The many roster changes of 2015 left only two teams with a stable supporting duo but as the games this year put even more emphasis on supports actions it was really hard to delimitate them. Vici Gaming and Virtus.Pro are the teams that went though the entire year with the same supporting cast. But after an intense debating session, we decided to nominate only Artem "FNG" Barshak and Linsen "fy" Xu for our top five.

However, there is one more support duo that would fit the criteria but it was formed only a couple of months ago. OG’s Tal "Fly" Aizik and Andreas Franck "Cr1t" Nielsen banded together at the end of August this year when (monkey) Business was formed. Their stories are totally different; Fly started the year as offlaner for MeePwn’d and joined compLexity Gaming just before the TI5 qualifiers when he came back in the fifth position that made him famous.After a decent TI showing, he parted ways with Complexity and got reunited with his long-time friend Johan "N0tail" Sundstein. Cr1t is one of the newcomers of this year and impressed everyone with his Jakiro and Io plays. He is now what fly used to be for N0tail during Fnatic times and he is already proving as one of the best roaming supports in the scene.

Another newcomer of this year is the CDEC captain and position four support Fu "Q" Bin. Harnessing Agressif’s offensive nature, Q turned the entire roaming concept upside down at TI5 when the chinese duo took by surprise even the Russians with their full on aggressive stance. His Winter Wyvern usage in the early game and his relentless zoning out of any opposing lane composition enabled Agressif’s to skyrocket his farm which established CDEC’s dominance in Seattle.

Another player who made an outstanding contribution for his team is Na’Vi’s support Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev. Although 2015 can be regarded as the worst competitive year for Natus Vincere, SoNNeikO’s effort during the TI5 qualifiers can’t be erased from our memories any time soon. If there was a reason to even dream for a moment of a possible comeback for the Ukrainian squad it was all on SoNNeikO’s stellar performance.

The Peter "ppd" Dager and Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling story is well know by now. Even though EG chose to drop a six million dollars support, their supporting duo performed throughout TI at the highest standards possible. The strategic flare in ppd’s drafting abilities mirrors perfectly in his supporting role as he often takes the sacrificial role in key moments of the game only to enable a decisive split push move or to lay the perfect trap that wipes the opposition clean. Aui2000’s carry background makes him a unique type of support player. He is one of the fewest position four in the scene who can start as a casual support Naga and end the game carrying his team through the enemy structures with a six slotted inventory and farm that would put to shame any position one player.

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It’s hard to describe the joy of a fun when one of his favorites makes a super move, a play that seals the fate of a game or changes it completely. After each tournament we are left with great memories of standout team fights and game changing decisions. I must say that having to decide only on a couple of these moments was one of the hardest tasks for the GosuAwards committee and after long debates we decided on our nominations:

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Huge prize pools, large crowd, life changing matches are setting huge pressure on players shoulders. And this is when we witness some memorable mistakes or misplays. 2015 brought the biggest prize pools that Dota 2 has seen so far and with that we had a fair share of incredible in game mistakes.

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This category refers to the players that particularly made a big step forward in their professional careers and made remarkable progress compared with their 2014 achievements. All our five nominees have been in the spotlight at some point this year and felt the sweet-sweet taste of success.

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2015 is that year when the scene was flooded with newcomers. The new Major and the Shuffle lockdown period system allowed every team to try out some of the pub stars in all regions. Some of them worked hard to break the ice and entered the big scene in style.

Suma1L might have stolen the show, but a few more players have managed to impress this year and for sure we will hear their names more often in 2016!

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For all the good that we’ve seen happening on the Dota 2 scene this year, we’ve also had some historical low points, namely drama stories. Unfortunately, from time to time we forget for a moment that eSports should be about passion, fun and friendship and this is when drama emerges.

Jonathan "Loda" Berg vs Richard Lewis at DreamHack Winter 2015.

DreamHack Winter 2015 witnessed quite a nasty duel between the two individuals.To make a long story short, the two gentlemen had a physical confrontation backstage, which ended up escalating to the public through twitter. DreamHack went on to issue a statement against violence in eSports and both parties apologized for the situation created.

The anti|DC Ritsu Ravi "Ritsu" Kodippili leaked scrim information over Skype

Ritsu along with Eric "747" Dong from ROOT Gmaing and Mason Venne (formerly of High Council of Wizards and Priests) created a Skype group to share information about Digital Chaos with the purpose of preventing them to qualify at The Summit 4. Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao was first to publish via twitter a picture of the skype group in which the C9 player was leaking drafting information from their scrims versus Digital Chaos. His actions escalated into a second Cloud 9 disband in 2015.

Steven "Korok" Ashworth malicious bodily injury charge and conviction sentence

Ahead of The International 5 Steven "Korok" Ashworth was charged with malicious bodily injury, the alleged victim being his girlfriend. The trial itself didn’t interfere with the Wild Card competition dates in Seattle but that was the last time we got to see Korok playing an official game as two month after TI, on October 20 he was convicted. He is now under a 12 months sentence with ten months suspended time and one year of supervised probation.

Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling gets kicked from EG days after winning The International 5

A week after the grand finals of TI5 occurred Charlie Yang, the manager of Evil Geniuses makes a shocking announcement via twitter stating that they have removed Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling from the team. The announcement was quite surprising even for Aui who responded on the same platform “I have been kicked from EG after winning TI. I actually hate people”.

The Gaming Paradise fiasco

Gaming Paradise was, perhaps, the most disappointing event of the year. The project was made out to look absolutely amazing, suspiciously amazing one might say. It was almost like a small eSports heaven on the beautiful coasts of Slovenia.In theand it only proved to be a mess where the rent for equipment had not been payed and hotel expenses for participating teams were not covered. After a couple of disastrous days in the CS:GO tournament where games were delayed up to 12 hours Gaming Paradise announced the cancellation of the Dota 2 LAN.

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The "Most memorable tournament" acknowledges the events we'll always hold dear in our hearts. This is not about production, or prize pool, but about moments, emotions and experiences that fans will never forget.

Given the fact that from now on we will have at least three Majors per year plus independent Perfect World tournaments we decided to also include Valve’s Frankfurt Major and DAC.

ESL ONE Frankfurt

The ESL One Frankfurt returned this year on Commerzbank Arena with a bigger prize pool and on site audience activities. Although the teams that participated at this year’s ESL complained about the seeding bracket, the format only gave the viewers even more top notch DotA 2 games.

The $250,000 prize pool didn’t stop Team Secret to make a show with Techies picks for KuroKy which made the tournament even more interesting and worth remembering.

Dota 2 Asia Championships – DAC

The International from the East or The Oriental as many have referred to DAC was the first tournament of the year to boast a $3,000, 000 prize money. It was the breaking out moment for both Team Secret and Evil Geniuses this year and foretold a great competitive year.

Nanyang Championship

It’s hard to keep up with the many high quality LAN events that Dota 2 scene has nowadays. With the ambition to be the greatest tournament that South East Asia have seen, Nanyang managed to do just that. Spectators and players alike were mesmerized by the accommodating conditions KeyTV has offered for the teams attending the one week long LAN event.

It’s true that the first day of the main event was full of technical issues but after that everything went smooth and we got to see the best SEA teams playing on home turf and also witnessed Team Liquid’s comeback into the pro scene.

The Summit 3

Beyond the Summit broke all the conformist tournament rules and brought on the market a unique event that instantly caught everyone’s attention.

Starting with its famous redemption vote that electrified the entire community, the bad ass Ogre Magi mythical set from the tournament ticket bundle and and finishing with the great East-West rivalry that the BTS house hosted during the event, the Summit 3 was a truly memorable tournament

The Frankfurt Major

There are few tournaments in DotA that really marked the history of the game and will remain in everyone’s minds and hearts. The first ever Dota 2 Major has written history not only with the help of its huge prize pool or for its importance for professional teams sustainability over the course of one competitive year, but mostly because of one of the most amazing tournament runs in a the history of the game from a newly formed team, namely OG.

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For this year we’ve decided to split the hosts and the event interviewers into two separate categories. The way tournaments developed in the last year really demands us to look separately at these two jobs.

The interviewer of an event can easily be also called the live reporter who has his clear and sometimes impossible mission to bring us the stories from behind the scenes.

Unfortunately for the eSports industry this is still a fairly new job and far away from an easy one. To make a player talk about himself, his dreams and his background is quite the challenge at times but some of the Dota 2 personalities do have a special aura that helps them get the inside peeks.

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Toby "TobiWan" Dawson

When it comes to play-by-play casting a few names are immediately popping out in our minds and TobiWan is one of them. He is in the casting business since the first days of Dota and he didn’t miss any International. That alone should say everything about his incredible talent of hyping up the games.

Owen "ODPixel" Davis

ODPixel is a newcomer in the shout out casting arena but his unique style pushed him on top of the audience preferences extremely fast. His breakout moment was registered at the beginning of this year when he casted the three hours long game between Cloud 9 and SFZzz. His degree in Music Technology directly impacts his play-by-play casting work and only a few months after he made his entrance into the scene he was granted an invite at the biggest tournament of the year.

David "LD" Gorman

LD is one of the veterans on the casting market. Same as TobiWan, LD certainly knows how to hype a game and at the same time he is also a great analytical commentator. His hard work at Beyond the Summit studio brings us two of the most memorable tournaments of the year. Never pointed out for faking the hype and always on point with his commentary, David "LD" Gorman is the definition of an impartial caster that does his job close to perfection.

Austin "TheCapitalist" Walsh

Capitalist’s work on the talent desk improves with every tournament he casts. He is in a continuous search to perfect his skills and that is a great quality to have in this line of work. He will often go out there to get interviews and for the first time this year he joined the analytical desk at the Frankfurt Major. Austin is a full of energy type of person and that reflects a lot in his commentary style.

David "GoDz" Parker

Although we are used to look at GoDz as more of an analytical caster, this year he has been on all the possible panels. From shout out casting to hosting live events, David "GoDz" Parker had an incredible year in which he demonstrated his power to instantly adapt to any situation. He synergizes with his co casters immediately and he has the ability to put his own stamp on every tournament he gets to cast.

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William "Blitz" Lee

Blitz has been providing analytical commentary for a long time in the Dota scene but 2015 was quite a busy year for him. His professional gaming career makes his game analysis to be one of the best we could ask for. This year he is the analytical caster with the most TI casted games in the qualifier stage.

Ben "Merlini" Wu

With a long gaming career on his resume, Merlini has the necessary experience to deliver top notch game analysis time and time again. He is one of the audience favorites and rightly so given his insightful commentary and vast knowledge of the ever shifting meta.

Chan "WinteR" Litt Binn

WinteR is quite a new comer on the panel desk and he rapidly became one of the most pleasant voices to listen due to his great understanding of the game and his charisma. Coming also from a professional career which is still not completely on hold, WinteR is providing a team captain’s perspective with accuracy which makes him a very valuable analytical commentator.

Sébastien "7ckingMad" Debs

Another caster that speaks from professional experience is 7ckingMad. Bouncing between official games and talent desk the French brings excellent insightful commentary. He is doing this for quite some time and his presence on the panel desk of the most important tournaments of the year validates his work as an analytical caster.

Troels "syndereN" Nielsen

The Dane is a true veteran in the co-casting business. He’s been commentating alongside TobiWan from the beginning of his casting career and this year he was the analytical voice for the TI5 grand finals. He recently started two new projects in his life, one being the MoonDuck studio that already brought a new tournament format into the scene while the other is a rather surprising return to actually playing the game as a professional player.

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Whether on stage or on the panel desk, the hosts are the ones who have the duty of seamlessly guide the audience through an event. They play more of a moderating role and besides being extremely informed they also need to be capable of entertaining the crowds, to start and conduct the conversation topics between the guests and ultimately to build the hype for everyone watching.

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GosuAwards 2015 committee

Andreea "divushka" Esanu

Bogdan "MarelePisoi" Bugariu

Ben "PineappleCake" Tan

Nestor "jhoves" Abuluyan

Ernest "ernest429" Yim

Jodi "PizzaDog" Odgers

Ruben "Shark0killer" Schoups

Nives "Sana" Skomrlj

Toni "tonpa" Töyräs

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