The Esports Awards took place for the first time last night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the final weekend of the Esports World Cup.
Samantha “Rivers” Rivera Treviño won the award for Streamer of the Year. The award for Personality of the Year went to Seth “Scump” Abner, who was also one of the evening’s moderators. And the first award for Lifetime Achievement went to Jens Hilgers, founder of Bitkraft Ventures, Bayes, G2 Esports and ESL.
I attended the Esports Awards to conclude the first day of the New Global Sport Conference (NGSC), which brought together leaders from esports, gaming, business, sports and entertainment to explore the future of fandom. The NGSC said it attracted more than 1,400 people to the event in Riyadh, just as the eight-week Esports World Cup was drawing to a close.
The Esports Awards saw a slightly smaller attendance, but I don’t have an estimate of the crowd size. The event started at 10pm and continued until the end, however there were a few small hiccups in the program where things didn’t start as expected. As the program continued around midnight on Saturday, the crowd started to get smaller.
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The Esports Awards took place in Riyadh amid fears that they were part of the kingdom’s attempt to engage in “sportwashing,” or associating itself with sporting events to cover up the country’s human rights problems and other issues such as the lack of acceptance of LGBTQ+ people.
This was offset by the need to find new sources of capital at a time when layoffs were commonplace across the industry. Those who attended or sponsored the event assumed, for reputational reasons, that the benefits of attending outweighed the risks, even as violence flared in the region between Israel and Lebanon.
In an interview, I asked Mike Milanov, chairman of Qiddiya Gaming and former COO of Team Liquid, about sportswashing.
“We are highlighting the positive. I think the progress that has been made in the last seven years since the change of ruler of the kingdom, since the crown prince took office, is equivalent to about 50 years (of change) in other parts of the world. That is very positive for me because governments in other parts of the world, similar to what we have discussed, have not been able to make quick decisions to build or finance something. The same thing is happening with such modernization initiatives.”
He added: “The most important thing we can do to break the ice is to bring people here. We are at the New Global Sports Conference, there are 1400 attendees and we are bringing executives, CEOs, CMOs, media representatives like you. So the Kingdom really helps everyone to form their own opinion. Saudi Arabia does a good job of not launching expensive campaigns about what to think about the Kingdom. I think opinions form naturally. The best thing is not to lump all Arab countries together when you form an opinion, but to come and see for yourself. That’s what I did. And right after that I started in Qiddiya.”
On the growth of esports, he said: “There is still a steady growth. There are two things happening. The total number of players is increasing, and the percentage of the total population watching competitive gaming is also increasing. There will be moments where there is a three-year spike, and then it settles down again.”
Other winners included:
- Malr1ne was named Esports Breakthrough Player of the Year.
- Teamfight Tactics was named Breakthrough Game of the Year.
- The “Ones to Watch” winners included Zip Creative, Alti Agency, Gaming Gladiators, Philippines, S8ul Esports, Full Squad Gaming and Nobru.
- S8UL Esports was named Content Group of the Year.
- Valorant was named e-sports game of the year.
- Gods Ft. Newjeans was named Esports Content of the Year for Worlds 2023 Anthem – League of Legends.
- Riot Games was named Esports Games Publisher of the Year.
- Liquipedia was awarded in the categories “Esports Reporting” and “Content Platform of the Year”.
- Team Liquid was named Creative Team of the Year.
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was named Mobile Esports Game of the Year.
- Red Bull was named Esports Commercial Partner of the Year.
GamesBeat is a media partner of the NGSC who sponsored my trip to Riyadh.
