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The voting polls for all the awards will be open until the 10th December, after which point we will tally up the results and post the winners on the 14th December. To kick off our awards we open with awards for Sportsman of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. Do remember to visit joinDOTA tomorrow, and every day this week, to cast your votes in the other award categories! Also if you do tweet about it use #jDawards2014.The Sportsman of the Year award is to pay honour the players who have gone beyond the call of duty to contribute to our vibrant community. The nominees that follow have been chosen based on a combination of professionalism, reputation, attitude and contributions to the DOTA 2 scene in 2014.Daryl Koh "IceIceIce" Pei XiangVici GamingDespite a DK training schedule that seemed more suitable to a military bootcamp than a professional gaming team, IceIceIce has always been a character at events. The Singaporean enjoyed huge success in early 2014 with DK, but still managed to stay grounded to give the community many memorable interviews at TI4, StarLadder and ESL ONE, as well as being the Western world’s window into the Chinese DOTA2 scene. Who could forget IceiceIce’s interview with team-mate BurNing, casting from the Couch at the Summit, his Cyka at Starladder , not to mention his trademark lack of footwear on LAN. IceIceIce made his mark on 2014, both as a player and a community figure, helping to produce content for the community and bringing us closer to the professional scene.Clinton "Fear" LoomisEvil GeniusesTo be side-lined by injury only to be replaced by a young fresh faced young talent in Mason would put even the best of us feeling downtrodden, but throughout his wrist injury Fear continued to support his team-mates, even if lashing out may have seemed like an acceptable thing to do given the circumstances. Fear also played a role in the Free to Play documentary released this year, actively joining the Q and A panel and presenting himself in the public eye with professionalism and restraint - albeit a few questionable tweets the rest of the time. He has also been a guiding light for the teenage line-up of Evil Geniuses, who following their defeat at TI4, saw the maestro return and the team have dominated the third and fourth quarter of 2014 under his watch.Johan "BigDaddy" SundsteinTeam SecretBigDaddy or n0tail as he was known earlier in the year, is easily one of the most loved professional gamers in the European scene, and for good reason. From his "so smart" commentary at The Summit , to his questionable Sand King play at DreamLeague Season 1, BigDaddy is always up for a laugh and as such as earned himself a good reputation amongst viewers. 2014 saw the end of the Fnatic line-up where BigDaddy made a name for himself, but he has continued to excel as a player in Team Secret, while still staying true to his reputation of being Mr Nice Guy. BigDaddy's attitude towards his fans and his peers has kept him a crowd pleaser for the entire year, not to mention his Meepo Plays .Jonathan "Loda" BergThe AlliancePractically a dinosaur in the DOTA scene, Loda is all sponsors could hope for in a player. Alliance were under a lot of stick at the end of this year for forfeits, roster changes and disappointing performances, but Loda did not bend or break, but kept a stiff upper lip and just cracked on. Not only did he lead his team to strong results earlier in the year, but also acted as a good ambassador for the game in 2014, taking on all his additional fan-related chores with good spirit. Well liked by fellow players, Loda deserves the respect he is given, staying humble despite years of success.Dominik "Black^" ReitmeierVici GamingBlack^'s year has been one big rollercoaster, called a blacksheep by former team-mates of LGD.Int and often flamed by the community at large, the German player found himself stranded in China without a team. However, he is proof that nice guys do not necessarily finish last, with his acts of generosity and hardworking attitude eventually paying off ten fold. Black^ stepped in for BurNing to help out Team DK, as well as playing a crucial part in the success of CIS. The victim of undeserved hatred weathered the storm, he stayed professional and now signs boobs for a living.Kurtis "Aui_2000" LingCloud 9Aui_2000 has a praise list from his peers as long as his arm, and is undisputedly one of the best support players in the world. He also is a very active community member, keen on sharing his knowledge with up and coming players both in interviews and podcasts as well as with his recent replay reviews on his YouTube channel . Despite earning a reputation for being a bit of a self-proclaimed whiner , Aui_2000 has matured over the course of 2014, addressing his only vice as a professional gamer. Players that are so keenly interested and rooted within the community are few and far between, and Aui_2000 has been a major part of the NA scene.Who was the Sportsman of the Year 2014?The Best Newcomer Award pays tribute to the players whose long hard graft finally paid off in 2014, and finally made their big breakthrough into the pro circuit to make major contributions to the success of their team. They may have been around for a while, but 2014 was the year they went H.A.M. If you are unsure who to vote for, then we've given you some background on each nominee below to help you make that vital decision.Rasmus "Chessie" BlomdinThe AllianceDespite joining Alliance as a stand-in, Chessie became the corner stone of Alliance's struggle to rise to their former glory. The Swede only played 37 professional matches this year but assisted in keeping Alliance's winrate stable at 52% after the loss ofS4 andEGM. WHat makes Chessie's contributions so remarkable is that Chessie was able to hold his own against top flight competition both online and on LAN. In October Chessie suffered a back injury during WCA in China, a huge blow considering the team had defeatedTeam Malaysia andVici Gaming 2-0 in the first two rounds. Chessie has yet return to compete for Alliance, but in an interview at DreamLeague MiSery said that the team were happy to wait for him to recover, a testament to how much of a player this boy could be.Fadil "Kecikimba" Bin Mohd RaziffInvasion eSportsInvasion's rise to SEA glory has had a lot to do with Malaysia player Kecikimba, whose play has helped to lead the way for Invasion to become the dominant force in the SEA scene, finishing 1st in the online stage of the Synergy League SEA region after a 2-1 win against Team Malaysia. On averages, this player is anything but: KecikImba has the third highest pro-dota KDA and damage to heroes with the eleventh best GPM of the year. The most impressive part of this player's performance is his stability, with a 58% winrate and a 63.5% winrate with heroes he played more than 10 times this year. Mushi might have to watch his back in 2015.Lasse "Matumbaman" Urpalainen4 Anchors + Sea CaptainMatumbaman was the talk of the town along with team-mate Jerax in Phase2 of the Dream League Season 2. Although he didn't define any heroes or shift the meta, he is a incredible versalite player. With the exception of Ember Spirit, he spent the year playing only one other hero more than four times despite his respectable 78 games. On October 28th, however, he discovered his affinity for dancing in the moonlight by playing Slark competitively for the first time. Since then, he's played Slark in 40% of his games with a 70% winrate against teams well above what would be considered his station. Lu "Maybe" YaoCDEC.DouyuWith 123 games this year, Maybe makes it look as easy. He's one of the year's most successful Brewmaster and Morphling players, with 81.3% and 88.9% winrates on the heroes. His stellar execution helped bring CDEC to Taiwan, where they earned 4th at the MSI Beat IT 2014 LAN finals as well as to LAN finals with the i League, WEC, and numerous online tournaments. With CDEC recently cresting into the top 10 teams in the world based on ELO alone, it's no surprise to see Maybe edging into the spotlight.Lee "Reisen" Jun-YoungMVP PhoenixMVP's transformation from StarLadder tourist in April to KDA champion in June and DreamLeague Phase 2 finalist in November has been remarkable. Reisen is the definition of success on a support, with clutch timing and great presence. His four most played heroes all have a 59% or greater winrate, and while it is difficult to find quick metrics for supports, he has the fourth best KDA on Enchantress of all time and four of the year's top 100 Rubick KDA performances, which is more impressive when you realize that Rubick is the year's fourth most played hero in professional Dota 2. If the name doesn't ring a bell, then be sure to look out for the next time MVP.Phoenix are out on the field.Chris "Ush" UsherNatus Vincere USThe new face of American farming, Ush has made his mark in the North American scene, recently departing Sneaky Nyx Assassins to play as a stand-in for NAvi.US. A prolific player, he's managed to land 190 games so far this year, with dozens of unrecorded games in community competitive tournaments like CEVO and Semipro Evening Cup Series. Despite playing few games, Ush has played more heroes than nearly any other player, including Arteezy, Loda, S4, XBOCT, iceiceice, Hao, Silent, or Burning, and has a positive win loss with over 81% of heroes he played at least five times this year. His immense focus on farming has earned him the year's third highest GPM at a staggering 1005 with professional Dota 2's fourth highest average GPM of the year.Steve "Xcalibur" YeTeamlessXcalibur made a name for himself acting as a stand-in for Fnatic at the Summit, replacing Era who was unable to attend the event. His rise to fame came overnight, as Excalibur helped Fnatic to defeat Team DK on the first day of the tournament, finishing with 10-0 on a safelane Tinker . Despite Fnatic finishing tied for last place at 5th-6th, it was the beginning of something special and he played for the team in numerous events in June. With Excalibur in the team Fnatic finished 3rd at ESL one Frankfurt and 5-6th at DreamLeague Season 1 on LAN, as well as 2nd place at the D2CL Season 3 and third place at the HyperX D2L Western Challenge online.Ludwig "Zai" WåhlbergEvil GeniusesZai is certainly the face of success, as a fundamental player to one of the four squads currently in the running for best team in the world, Zai ends his first year of competitive Dota 2 with a staggering 74.7% winrate. Although not "new" to the competitive circuit, 2014 was when he really came into his own, with even Arteezy admitting the Chinese teams now fear Zai more than himself. Zai has played 46 heroes this year showing a true diversity, imagination, and execution defining what a support hero really is. His wild success with Wraith King this year saw him undefeated in 17 games and helped permanently shift the hero's role in the professional metagame.Who was the Newcomer of the Year 2014?Disclaimer: As much as we would have loved to have everyone from the community listed as a nominee, it was unfortunately not possible. Therefore, we narrowed down the selection to who we believe was most deserving.Who did you vote for and why?This article was written byLawrence Phillips, joinDOTA's Editor-in-Chief.Malystryx has been in eSports since 2004 working as eSports Editor for Razer and was Editor-in-Chief of SK Gaming in the glory days. He misses the days of Warcraft3 but makes do with the world of DOTA 2. Location: Bristol, UKFollow him on @MalystryxGDS.