While most of you have probably heard of the KeSPA Awards for Korean gaming — because Korean League of Legends is both better publicized in the west and just better — Tencent and PLU have also rolled out an annual award show in tandem with the Demacia Cup. The award show features several categories for players and teams in the LoL Pro League and at the top of the LoL Secondary Pro League ranging from MVP to best management. Some categories are voted on by fans, while others are decided by a panel of judges.

Last year’s award ceremony was a joke. EDward Gaming, the team that had won both LPLs and placed Top 2 in both regular seasons as well as raking in the trophies at several other LAN tournaments, didn’t win a single award. OMG received best club, Gao “Gogoing” Diping, Yin “Loveling” Le, Yu “Cool” Jiajun, Jian “Uzi” Zihao, and Yoon “Zero” Kyungsup won best player in each of their respective roles. Uzi won season MVP. Royal Club Huang Zu’s coaches won best coach. EDward Gaming had representatives nominated in ever possible category, but didn’t win a single award.

EDG didn’t even attend the ceremony and walked off stage after winning the Demacia Cup Grand Final that preceded it. Because of EDward Gaming’s lack of popularity, originating from the way in which the team formed, they lost the recognition they deserved. Naturally, I had a lot to say about it.

This year, EDward Gaming’s players and team once again have been nominated in every possible category. Ming “Clearlove” Kai leads the fan vote for best player by more than twice the votes of Jian “Uzi” Zihao, the runner up. This year’s award ceremony has a chance to fix the wrongs of 2014.

Just in case they don’t, let me introduce Kelsey Moser’s first ever Annual LPL End of Year Awards, where EDward Gaming win awards they deserve to win, just like everyone else.

Fan Votes

At the moment, the two categories voted upon by fans are Top Player and Best Caster. Clearlove has over 1.4 million votes, with Uzi in second place, possessing only 400,000 votes. Given Clearlove’s general consistency, his overall improvements as a jungler, and his function as the core of the team that won most of the events of 2015, I find it nearly impossible to vote in another player over him for the year.

I can’t weigh in on best caster because I don’t speak Mandarin Chinese.

Annual MVP

Nominees: EDward Gaming’s Clearlove, Invictus Gaming’s RooKie, LGD Gaming’s GODV

Official criteria: MVP points, Team performance

My pick: Clearlove

Unmentioned: Pyl, Acorn

EDward Gaming, Invictus Gaming, and LGD Gaming consistently placed the best in LPL events throughout the year. It’s only natural that the MVP should be granted to players from those teams. As Clearlove remained the constant factor in EDward Gaming when they rifled through their roster, possessed high form outside the World Championship, and led his team to the most tournament victories this year, it’s hard to pick anyone else.

From Invictus Gaming, I agree with the choice of Song “RooKie” Eujin, who at times appeared to be the only player on iG who cared. You can make a case for giving the MVP award to RooKie over Clearlove given that EDward Gaming’s main roster had stronger players around him, but considering Clearlove’s rotating top and mid laner as well as the obvious difficulties Kim “Deft” Hyukkyu experienced this summer, this argument isn't as strong as one might like.

While I agree Wei “GODV” Zhen did a lot of the carrying for LGD Gaming in the summer, he wasn’t the most consistent performer. Gu “imp” Seungbin showed strong form, but only truly became the team’s main carry in the summer playoffs. I’d prefer to nominate Choi “Acorn” Cheonju for his influence as a Teleport user or Chen “Pyl” Bo whose absence was quite obvious in the first week of the split when LGD played as if they had no heads. Both players had more consistent forms and did more for the team.

Best Club

Nominees: EDward Gaming, LGD Gaming, Snake

Official criteria: L.ACE club management scorecard, club performance, management and brand management

My pick: EDward Gaming

Unmentioned: N/A

Snake had extremely strong branding by announcing their gaming house, collecting the China Rare Earth sponsorship, and promoting AD Carry Yang “kRYST4L” Fan and Li “Flandre” Xuanjun as young players from LSPL. The team also made some of the smartest roster decisions, moving for players that worked best with the team over those that might just have bigger names. If this category only featured management decisions, Snake might edge out EDG.

I think Club Performance overall is much more fundamental in my personal criteria, and EDward Gaming beats out the competition in most cases. EDward Gaming also made much more gains in marketing and popularity this year relative to last year. Though their roster rotation decisions raised questions, some resulted from player injury beyond the team’s control, and they could yet payoff if AD Gaming qualifies for LPL this summer.

LGD only makes the list as a result of branding, merchandising, reaching and international audience, and club performance. Some of their management decisions and public relations were a nightmare, and they only beat EDward Gaming’s performance in a single tournament.

Best Coach

Nominees: EDward Gaming’s Aaron, Invictus Gaming’s Mafa, Qiao Gu’s Hiro

Official criteria: Team performance, coaching sessions, value added

My pick: Aaron

Unmentioned: Snake’s Jun

I don’t like giving out best coach awards as insight is usually required to make a fair assessment. As a third party, one can only go by what a team’s players and staff have to say about their coach, as well as what the coach can say about the game and the team’s results. This often will provide an imperfect picture.

That said, based on my limited insight, I don’t think Won “Mafa” Sangyeon should have been nominated. While his drafting during the spring and parts of the summer was the best in the league, he publicly admitted that he had stepped away from the team for extended periods of time because he felt disrespected. The fault of this likely falls down to Invictus Gaming’s management for not enforcing his decisions, but it also means it’s hard to consider him a viable candidate for the 2015 Coach award.

I’d rather see Snake’s Chen “Jun” Linjun or Liang “Sad” Wei nominated. Opposite Invictus Gaming, Snake often had atrocious draft phases, but the team credited their coaching staff for strategy and ability to see how each player fit into the team. Snake worked together cohesively, and their contributions shouldn’t be overlooked.

Naturally, I’d opt to pick Aaron to win. His track record as one of the best coaches in the world and his ability to get his team to work as a unit is definitely unmatched in China, and his teams often complement each other well in their construction and execution. EDward Gaming’s World Championship performance was disappointing in terms of their ability to perform on the patch, and he should take blame for that. He still surpassed every other coach in LPL this year.

Best Import

Nominees: EDward Gaming’s pawN, LGD Gaming’s imp, and Invictus Gaming’s RooKie

Official criteria: KDA, MVP points, team performance

My pick: RooKie

Unmentioned: Deft, Swift, Doinb, Ella

While Gu “imp” Seungbin ended the LPL season as the best Korean in the league, he wasn’t the best Korean in the league for most of the year. He had consistently strong performances, but he didn’t pull off powerful feats as his team’s core player the way RooKie did. As the undisputed MVP of iG, RooKie crushed his opposition and was a star for the entire year, even at the World Championship.

As much as I’ve dismissed Heo “pawN” Wonseok, he performed the best of EDward Gaming’s Korean players this summer while Deft struggled in the meta. He wasn’t EDward Gaming’s best Korean player for the entire year, as Deft took the title in the spring. Picking nominations from Snake or Qiao Gu, it’s fair to look at Baek “Swift” Daehoon or Kim “Doinb” Taesang, but nominating one without the over seems like an oversight, as their strength is in how they perform as a unit. Qiao Gu also only competed at the top in the second half of the year.

If I nominated one Korean player over pawN, it likely would be Snake’s Kwak “Ella” Nahoon. Often the unsung hero of Snake, his addition allowed the team to play around kRYST4L, and his vision control dropped chins. As a practical unknown, Ella has been criminally underrated all year.

Best new talent

Nominees: EDward Gaming’s meiko, Qiao Gu’s TnT, Qiao Gu’s Doinb

Official criteria: KDA, MVP, Team performance

My pick: meiko

Unmentioned: Flandre

As Feng “TnT” Qing has played in LPL before and has been a staple of Chinese League of Legends for years, I’m really unsure as to why he was nominated at all. I’d much rather nominate Flandre, as he showed several dimensions all year, developed as a team captain and shotcaller, and should continue to improve.

This category was very difficult for me to decide upon. I ultimately settled on Tian “meiko” Ye as I believe he had consistent play all year. He stood out even on a team of veterans with amazing talent. He could easily fit into another team without skipping a beat.

Doinb excels on Qiao Gu because that team complements him, especially Swift, who is a daring playmaker he can follow. Flandre’s consistently was a wash at times, even though he improved this year. meiko is definitely the most impressive new talent to join LPL in 2015, and I look forward to his development.

As a side note, EDward Gaming is winning most categories because that's what should happen when your team wins the most.

Best in each role

Nominees:

Role 1 2 3 4 5 Top EDG Koro1 Snake Flandre iG Zzitai M3 looper QG V Jungle EDG Clearlove RNG Mlxg iG KaKAO LGD TBQ WE Spirit Mid EDG pawN LGD GODV iG RooKie OMG Cool VG Hetong ADC EDG Deft LGD imp iG Kid OMG Uzi Snake kRYST4L Support EDG meiko VG Mata LGD Pyl iG Kitties Snake Ella

Official criteria: KDA, MVP points

My picks: Koro1, Clearlove, RooKie, imp, Pyl

Unmentioned: Acorn, Flame, Swift, Doinb, TnT, Heart

It goes without saying that I’m beyond frustrated that Bao “V” Bo was the only Qiao Gu player nominated for best in role. It's likely that averages for the year in MVP and KDA points will have biased results against players who only played in LPL Summer, especially considering TnT’s and Swift’s high KDA and relatively high MVP values. I really don't know how V made the cut.

MVP and KDA values also disqualified Acorn and Lee “Flame” Hojong, show rank as top three top laners for the year. Rotating in and out of LGD hurt their ability to rack up gratuitous points.

Lee “Heart” Gwanhyung, best support of LPL Summer, also got shafted as a result of KDA and MVP points. His ability to control a roster of young players and at times carry games was astounding. At one point, I thought his sheer will would drag Unlimited Potential into the playoffs.

As for my pick for players of the year, Tong “Koro1” Yang’s growth since last winter made him incredibly versatile, and had he not lost play time due to back injury, he would likely still be the impressive figure we saw at MSI. This award could go to either Acorn or Flame as well. All three of them suffered from periods of ups and downs or had to share a roster, but almost always delivered when they had the chance.

I’ve gone to great lengths as to why Clearlove is the MVP, but that doesn’t necessarily make him the best jungler. Lee “Spirit” Dayoon could have easily stripped the title from him, if not for his slow decline in the summer. You can’t really blame him for lack of motivation, but it happened, and I wish him all the best outside Team WE next year.

Best mid laner is a highly contentious debate. No mid laner in LPL remained consistently strong throughout the year, but I ultimately land on RooKie, who never had the lows of the others. While GODV soared in summer, and Cool dominated part of Spring, RooKie was phenomenal when he wasn’t too passive, and he never made the same hilariously bad plays as others in the category.

Similarly, AD Carry lacked an obvious choice. Despite never being the best AD carry in LPL at any given time until the end of LPL Summer, imp, like RooKie, never had the lower moments that Deft, TnT, or Uzi shared. imp was always solid if not fantastic, so he deserves best AD Carry of the year.

As much as I wanted to give best support to Heart, he didn’t have the same level of competition in LSPL Spring as Pyl did in LPL Spring, and he steadily ramped up his aggressive playmaking while Pyl had an entire of year of looking like Pyl. Ultimately, though it isn’t fair, team performance has to count for something when the race is this close, and Pyl lead his squad to an LPL victory.

Best Manager

Nominees: EDward Gaming’s San Shao, Snake’s left fog, OMG’s Jane Eyre

Official criteria: management, contribution to the club and results, personal influence, branding

My pick: left fog

Unmentioned: N/A

Like coaching, no one can really judge a manager’s contribution. Still, with the limited information I’ve been given, I did my best to assess the result.

OMG’s management making the list may come as a surprise, given OMG’s performance as a team this year. Recent information showed that OMG struggled to communicate among themselves and with their coach, which is ultimately a failing of management. OMG should be commended, however, for attempting to restructure this year and enforce decisions of coaches as well as their continued impressive efforts in branding. Should OMG’s work this year pay off next year, they’ll be commended.

EDward Gaming has lead some of the structural revolution to increase the competitiveness of LPL. They also have a club more committed to serious practice than many of the others, which is enforced by management. Still, most of EDward Gaming’s developments are continuations of their efforts from last year.

As I mentioned before, Snake’s management as a young club looks really strong. They’ve made smart roster decisions, despite not investing in large names, and their club has become quite popular in a short period of time. That’s why left fog wins the category.

Most Improved New Club

Nominees: Energy Pacemaker All, 2144D, Qiao Gu

Official criteria: growth, performance, management and operations

My pick: Qiao Gu

Unmentioned: Hyper Youth Gaming

I’m not particularly acquainted with club growth and popularity among LSPL teams, but Hyper Youth Gaming at least deserves a mention for qualifying for LPL over 2144D.

The obvious category winner is Qiao Gu. After splitting off from Stand Point Gaming, the team’s management made smart decisions to acquire players with less investment than larger organizations and went from LSPL to second place in LPL in the span of a year. Following their accomplishments, Qiao Gu stand to make money in a massive acquisition by Newbee.

If Qiao Gu doesn’t win most improved new club, I’ll never post a Ceng “U” Long gif again.

I promise.

That concludes my rendition of the End of Year Awards. Make sure to follow the main event during the Demacia Cup this weekend after the Demacia Cup Grand Finals—which EDward Gaming will probably win again.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore eSports who will continue to cover LPL in addition to EU LCS for—reasons. You can follow her on Twitter.