This weekend saw the second edition of the eSports Game Awards unfold, hosted at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles before a noisy audience.
French Team EnVyUs and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive maven Kenny Schrub was voted the Player of the Year, besting some of the world’s top e-gamers like Syed Sumail Hassan, Lee Sang-hyeok, Peter Dagar and Olof Kajbjer.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was voted the eSports Game of the Year, but the main Game of the Year accolade went to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which edged out globally popular rivals like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Dota 2, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and League of Legends.
A product of CD Projekt Red/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the award winning game cost $81 million to develop, and racked up 6 million copies sold in the six weeks following launch. CD POrojekt Red also clinched the Developer of the Year award.
Optic Gaming (a Call of Duty and Halo team) was voted eSports Team of the Year despite stiff opposition from internationally respected teams that included SK Telekom T1, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic and Team SoloMid, whilst Lara Croft Go was acknowledged as the best mobile-based game this year.