Hyun "ByuN" Woo, a Terran player from South Korea, accepts his StarCraft World Championship trophy in the StarCraft II Arena after his win over Dark. Brinson+Banks for ESPN

Go to: Play of the Year | Team of the Year | Biggest Disappointment

| Moment of the Year | Player of the Year

It's time for the ESPN esports end-of-year acknowledgements. In 2016, esports pushed the envelope far beyond expectation as millions of fans entered the space for the first time, investment grew like never before and the bar for skill was raised to new levels across all games.

Play of the Year

Looking back, the plays made by esports players across tens of titles and thousands of tournaments were some of the hardest to sort. But a few special moments stood out as some of the best plays made by an individual player, so here are our five nominees for best play of 2016 and the winner below.

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Nominees

Winner: s1mple's double no-scope

Consistency, clutch factor, and ingenuity. Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev of Natus Vincere is often considered one of the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players of all time. Rob Tringali for ESPN

Team of the Year

At the end of the day, winning -- championships, rivalries and climactic matches -- are what separate the good, even great teams, from the best teams of the year. Today, we look over the clubs that made it rain gold in 2016, and the one team that stood above all the rest to win ESPN's Esports Team of the Year.

Read full article here.

Nominees:

ROX Tigers

SK Gaming

SK Telecom T1

Team Liquid

Wings Gaming

Winner: SK Telecom T1

Bonus: "Why SKT T1 is team of the year" by Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger.

SK Telecom T1 took down Counter Logic Gaming 3-0 in the finals of the Mid-Season Invitational. Provided by Riot Games

Biggest Disappointment

It was a pretty noteworthy year for esports in 2016. There were big team investments, miracle runs and record-breaking prize pools, but for every few of those there seemed to arise equally noteworthy letdowns in competitions or wild organizational issues. In the third installment of our ESPN esports end-of-the-year acknowledgements, we look at the most disappointing moments in the booming industry.

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Nominees:

The death of Proleague

Immortals' rough 2016

Renegades and Riot

Life is banned for life

Luminosity and SK Gaming contract disputes

Winner: Life

In 2016, global champion Lee "Life" Seung-hyun was banned from South Korean esports for life and imprisoned for match-fixing. Provided by Helena Kristiansson/ESL

Moment of the Year

Today we celebrate the good in competitive gaming -- miracles happened, Cinderellas stayed out past midnight and underdogs found a way. These are ESPN's best moments of 2016 in esports.

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Nominees:

SKT's misfortune at the hands of ROX's Miss Fortune

Hungrybox resets the bracket at Evo

The wild cards break history

Digital Chaos' Cinderella story

A new rivalry emerges in Street Fighter V

Cloud9 ends a 10-year drought at ESL Pro League Season 4

Winner: Hungrybox resets the bracket at Evo

It was an emotional evening for Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma when he won the Melee title at the Evo Championship Series 2016 in Las Vegas. Can he repeat that feat this weekend? Gail Fisher for ESPN

Player of the Year

In 2016, esports athletes reached new heights, with some unlocking their inner potential and others compounding more moments, statistics and plays to their already impressive résumé of achievements. Legends were made, with some players achieving lifetime and career goals, including victories in front of tens of thousands of people.

From StarCraft II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Super Smash Bros. and League of Legends, these five players stood out as the ones who had the best year.

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Nominees:

Coldzera

Faker

Hungrybox

Byun

ZeRo

Winner: Byun

Bonus: "Why Byun is the 2016 ESPN Esports Player of the Year" by Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger.