The end of a year is a very special time for everyone, but for GosuGamers it also means the moment when we celebrate the eSports scene. For the Dota 2 crew, the 2016 has been an amazing year that pushed us all to higher standards and made us realize once more that we live and breathe for the game that for some is either a way of living or the island to which we gladly exile ourselves.
Two weeks before the new year starts, we gather to honor the best of Dota 2; the players, the teams, organizers, the casters, and the hosts who make the events unique and memorable. The GosuAwards are a long standing tradition for our community and your feedback is always a very important part of this process. We take into consideration all your comments from last year, and for the 2016 Dota 2 GosuAwards we are happy to announce a few personalities from the scene who did us the honor of joining the jury.
We are grateful for the insights on the scene that our guests provided this year and I personally hope this time around we will get to be in much more accordance with you, the Dota 2 community. We changed the categories a bit compared to last year, most prominently deciding for the "Supports duo" award to nominate the pairs as they played together, as opposed to breaking up the vote in two separate polls for position four and five respectively. We are also happy to introduce you for the first time to the “Workshop artist of the year" category as we truly believe that the Dota 2 workshop artists are at the core of what makes the game so beautiful. From hero sets, to loading screens and HUDs, the workshop artists are here to give us a unique experience.
With all these being said, we urge you to cast your vote for your favorite personalities. The pools are open from now until December 29th at 00:00 CET. At the end of the year we will reveal the GosuAwards committee and the community winners for these 15 categories (plus a few special surprises!).
- Andreea 'divushka' Esanu
Editorial lead of GosuGamers Dota 2 section
GosuAwards 2016 committee:
Andreea 'divushka' Esanu (GosuGamers)
Ben 'PineappleCake' Tan (GosuGamers)
Bogdan 'MarelePisoi' Bugariu (GosuGamers)
Isaac 'RedCrayon' Celis (GosuGamers)
Jarrad 'Balendrial' Adams (GosuGamers)
Allen 'Bonkers' Cook (Analyst of Ad Finem)
Jack 'KBBQ' Chen ( Chinese Interpreter and journalist from Beyond the Summit)
Jophy 'YaYa' Chen (Chinese commentator from Newbee TV)
Kyle 'Beef' Bautista ( Manager of compLexity Gaming)
The award goes to the player who made a particularly big step forward in its professional career and made remarkable progress compared to his 2015 achievements. All of our five nominees have been in the spotlight at some point this year and felt the sweet-sweet taste of success.
Ivan 'MinD_ContRoL' Borislavov - for being one of the constants of Team Liquid, and a stand out offlaner through the entire year. Second at Shanghai and the Manila Major, MinD_ContRoL has also won two premier events this year, claiming the EPICENTER and Dream League Season 6 trophies.
Vladimir 'No[o]ne' Minenko - for his incredible plays in the mid lane since he joined Virtus.Pro. No[o]ne has been a force to be reckoned with at Vega Squadron for almost a year, but something changed in his game play this autumn. With him in the middle lane, Virtus Pro qualified to every tournament they played for this fall and went to Boston Major as sole CIS representatives from a favorites seat.
Aliwi 'w33' Omar - for being one of the most remarkable mid lane players this year, a winning asset for both Team Secret and Digital Chaos. W33’s outstanding performance brought him the first Dota 2 Major Championship title in Shanghai, and even though he was kicked from Team Secret immediately after, he managed to flourish and grow even more with Digital Chaos. From a promising pub star last year, W33 has become The International 6 runner up this year.
Damien 'kpii' Chok - for stepping up his game considerably since he joined Newbee in March this year. Also known as a Dark Seer magician kpii (he might be more popular for some under the kphoenii nickname) or as the offlaner that turned around crucial games for Newbee at EPICENTER where he placed second or at the Manila Major where his team finished third.
Victor 'GeneRaL' Nigrini - for outshining many others this year despite Na’Vi being far from a top notch team for the most part this year. Dubbed by his teammates as 'Vitya the Machine', GeneRaL has put up some unforgettable performances this year especially on SandKing, and was one of the main factors in Na’Vi’s first tournament title in 18 months when the Ukrainian squad took home the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 trophy.
The break-out player category rewards those players whose first competitive successes came this year after an underwhelming performance in 2015. Similar to any other category, the nominations are based on tournament successes and not on any rankings or cash winnings.
Song 'Sccc' Chun - for becoming China’s most impressive mid lane player once he got promoted to the main squad of Newbee. From the bottom four finish at The Frankfurt Major last year with Newbee Young, Sccc left us all speechless with his Invoker plays at MDL Autumn 2016, where he placed second.
Djardel Jicko B. 'DJ' Mampusti - bouncing between offlaner and support roles with ease, DJ has been the most outstanding player on Fnatic this year. His Enigma, Earth Spirit, Slardar, Batrider and Io have been a big part of Fnatic’s success this year, starting with their incredible undefeated run in the SEA qualifiers pre Manila Major, to their fourth place in Seattle at The International 6.
Zhou 'bLink' Yang - for being part of one of the most impressive stories of 2016. Starting his career at the relatively unknown Speed Gaming team, bLink became the most awarded mid lane player of the year together with his team, Wings Gaming, in 2016. With his huge hero pool and his ability to push the heroes to the very edge of their limits, bLink has redefined the midlane role for the entire scene.
Chu 'shadow' Zeyu - for carrying his friends and teammates from tier two/three tournaments in 2015 to the greatest achievement a player can dream of in Dota 2, the Championship title at The International. At his relatively young age, only 19 years old, Shadow has grown before our eyes with every tournament Wings Gaming has played in since 2015 and teaches us all a great lesson about determination, dedication and humility.
Omar 'Madara' Dabachach - for his incredible form explosion this year. A member of the Greek squad that took Boston Major by storm, Madara has made a name for himself from the beginning of the year. Although Ad Finem are still looking for their break-out moment as a team, Madara is already a well-known and feared carry player in the European scene.
The Award goes to the best performing players in the carry role this year. All five nominees have had a great impact in their team success over 2016 and all have been in the spotlight at premiere events.
Johan 'N0tail' Sundstein - for bringing another two Major titles to OG this year, the Manila and the Boston Major trophy respectively. By doing so, N0tail has become the only carry player to have won three Valve events.
Lasse 'MATUMBAMAN' Urpalainen - for being one of the most consistent carry players through the entire year and for his remarkable plays at the EPICENTER, the Shanghai and the Manila Major. Not many carry players have a flashy play style as their role is not suited for such a thing, but MaTUMBAMAN has always been different in this regard. With every tournament he has memorable performances and an extraordinary appetite for fighting.
Chu 'shadow' Zeyu - for being the most successful carry player of 2016. Shadow has gathered no less than six Championship titles this year along with the most wanted one, The International.
Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev - for proving himself time and time again this year. Be it at Team Secret or Evil Geniuses, RTZ’s plays were top notch and he can be praised for key moments that brought his team a victory.
Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok - for his stellar performance at Digital Chaos, ever since he started with them in February when he made the big step of leaving Empire and the CIS region to pursue his dreams in the US. As carry for DC, Resolut1on became this year's runner up of The International 6 and finished top four at the recently closed Boston Major.
Dota 2 is team game but for most of the time the mid lane player is the one who sets up the tempo and can easily be responsible for winning or losing a game for his team. The Midlaner of the Year award goes to that individual who has truly made the difference this year.
Aliwi 'w33' Omar - for living up to his promise and transitioning from a 'three hero pool' player, as he was called by some last year, to this new point of reference when we talk about midlane players. W33’s amazing plays from the Shanghai Major, The International 6 and most recently from the Boston Major are some of the great moments that remain engraved in our memory when looking back at the 2016 competitive year.
Amer 'Miracle-' al-Barqawi - for continuing to be the same amazingly skilled player we got to know last year. At least for the first half of 2016, when he won the Manila Major, the DreamLeague Season 5 and the ESL One Frankfurt with OG.
Syed Sumail 'Suma1L' Hassan - for surviving a meta that did not emphasize any of his signature heroes the entire year with great success. The master of Storm Spirit had to show us a new face this year, from Timbersaw and Dragon Knight to Razor and Alchemist in the mid lane, SumaiL has still delivered impressive performances and kept his fame untouched as one of the greatest players.
Zhou 'bLink' Yang - first of all for being the mid lane player with the largest hero pool we ever witnessed in the entirity of Dota2 history. And second of all for being the most titled midlane player in 2016.
Kim 'QO' Seon-yeop - for being the driving force behind the success of MVP Phoenix in the first half of the 2016 year. Taking home the Dota Pit Season 4 trophy, QO can be found guilty of bringing Phantom Assassin into the mid lane, as well as starting a true trend of utilizing the cores versatility, switching them from Mid to Carry with every game.
The offlane role is quite a challenging one and demands great awareness, top notch skills and an open mind to the multiple game scenarios a player can be forced to face. From being the man to survive or even win its lane against an aggressive tri-lane to become the late game carry, the offlaners have seen it all during their careers. Our five nominees have all shone in their role and have been part of great success stories throughout 2016.
Saahil 'UNiVeRsE' Arora - for proving time and again he is one of the most important parts in Evil Geniuses’ successful mechanism. His relentless efforts in the offlane has got him the world wide recognition and, despite the Secret hiccup this year, UNiVeRsE redeemed himself once he returned at EG only weeks before TI6, where he placed once again in the top three.
Ivan 'MinD_ContRoL' Borislavov - for his outstanding performances through the entire year. Each and every game of Team Liquid from this year, regardless of its result has had, MinD_ContRoL as one of strong contenders for an MVP vote, an impressive thing considering how flashy and good all of his teammates were.
David 'MoonMeander' Tan - for winning his second Valve event title with OG back in June at the Manila Major, and for his winning plays at the ESL One Frankfurt on Beastmaster. Same with his Earthshaker plays from last year’s Frankfurt Major, a performance that is hard to wipe from our memories even now, over a year since the event. MoonMeander’s Beastmaster from this year is truly inspirational for those who aspire to a professional career.
David 'Moo' Hull - for establishing himself as one of the best Timbersaw players in the NA scene, and not just in any old tournament, but on the big stage of The International 6. Making a huge leap upwards from struggling with Team Archon at the beggining of the year, Moo has become one of the most popular players in Seattle this year and achieved an amazing second place finish at the most important tournament of the year.
Zhang 'Faith_bian' Ruida - for being probably the most flashy and for sure the most successful offlane player in the scene this year. Part of a team that is full of extraordinary players, Faith_bian has managed somehow to stand out at every tournament. His teamfight decisions and capacity to survive a fight that looks impossible to win from any possible angle makes him one of a kind in the offlane role and, without a doubt, he is already hall of fame material.
For this year we took a different approach for this category and we choose to nominate supports pairs as they played together, as opposed to splitting the vote poll into two separate categories (position 4 and 5) which had some of the community confused. So, without stressing once again on how crucial the support role is in Dota 2, here are our nominations for Duo Supports of the Year:
PPD and Zai - since Zai has returned to the professional scene, the support duo dynamic of Evil Geniuses has changed dramatically. The extremely selfless PPD partnered with the incredibly greedy Zai yielded great rewards for the Boys in Blue. Although they got to play together only for TI6 and SL i-League Starseries Season 2, the PPD and Zai collaboration saw EG place in the top three in Seattle this year.
LaNm and Garder - although Garder was brought to EHOME only in September this year, the duo has already made a great impression and changed EHOME’s play style quite a bit. As a rather aggressive support, Garder likes to make great use of Invisible heroes and he would often act as initiator for his team on heroes like Nyx Assassin or Earthshaker. That alone opens up a whole new game plan for LaNm and their duo has taken by surprise many teams, opening the door for quite a few upsets EHOME has achieved against bigger names this fall.
JerAx and KuroKy - playing together for almost a year, the supports of Team Liquid pushed the team to the top of the rankings. JerAx, as you already know, has left the ship in the meantime, but during his tenure at the European juggernaut team, he developed an unique synergy with his captain and support colleague. The JerAx and Kuro duo, with their well-timed rotations on the map, pushed TL into two Majors grand finals and won them the EPICENTER trophy.
Saksa and MiSeRy - both fearless and with huge playmaking potential, Saksa and MiSeRy are hard to break down into position four and five. They have found a great way of splitting the supporting duties in such a way that both will most of the time find the levels and farm to stay ahead of their opponents and they are both extremely aggressive, capable of initiating and controlling a team fight. Their amazing power of forcing the enemy into an extremely defensive play style propelled Digital Chaos into the TI 6 Grand Finals.
Fly and Cr1t - was one of the most successful and beautiful to watch support duo dynamics. Together they won the Shanghai and Manila Majors, the DreamLeague Season 5, the ESL One Frankfurt and emerged as runners up of the Summit 5 this year. More like PPD and Zai, the OG supports have been working on the same formula where one of them will play the ultimate sacrificial role while the other will take the spotlight with flashy plays, a formula that proved very successful for OG in 2016.
The Majors system and the Shuffle lockdown have changed the Dota 2 scene and 2016 is the first year to have completed a full circle of four shuffle periods. With the majority of the teams complying with the lockdown rule for most of the year, a few newcomers have found the opening to kick start their professional careers and some entered the big scene in style. The Newcomer of the Year award goes to the player who made the most impressive entrance.
Xu 'uuu9' Han - for making a very strong impression with his first international LAN appearance as carry of the renowned Newbee. Uuu9 debuted at MarsTV Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn with an outstanding performance against EG and OG, finishing without a single death on heroes like Sven and Lifestealer.
Anathan 'ana' Pham - made his debut mid-year at Invictus Gaming. However his true entrance on the big scene was made this fall when he was recruited by OG. His first elite event was the MarsTV Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn where he displayed great versatility, allowing OG to keep on switching N0tail from the carry to mid lane role.
Zheng 'MidOne' Yeik Nai - although he has contemplated a professional career for a few years now, MidOne was discovered by Fnatic this year after he became the first player to reach 8K MMR on the SEA servers. He joined the Malaysian power-house team at the beginning of the year and during his eight months at Fnatic, Midone has impressed everyone with his versatility and capacity of staying composed in very dire moments of a game. From a pub star to a top four finish at The International 6, MidOne has now switched continents as is playing the mid lane role at Team Secret.
Roman 'RAMZES666' Kushnarev - as the youngest carry player from the entire pro scene, Ramzes666 made his debut at the beginning of the year with Team Spirit. 16 years old at the time, Ramzes666 was the youngest attendee of the Shanghai Major and since then has improved tremendously, becoming the carry of one of the most respected CIS organizations, Virtus Pro. From a youngster with big dreams in March this year, Ramzes666 went to the Boston Major in December with his new team as main favorites.
Antonio 'canceL^^' Mihai - is one of the newest faces to arrive at the top level. Starting off with the Romanian project of bOne7, Kaipi, canceL^^ got noticed by compLexity Gaming’s captain, mellonz, and made his first big LAN debut a bit over a month ago at Northern Arena BEAT Invitational, where he left the audience speechless with his Invoker and Mirana.
The title is awarded to the team that achieved the most this past year. A few teams might qualify for this award but there can only be one Team of the Year!
OGUnique holders of three Valve events titles, OG had an amazing 2016 year. They secured the Manila Major title and they defend the Eaglesong trophy at the Fall Major which this year was held in Boston. However, they had a big bump in the road when it mattered the most, at The International 6 where they finished only on the 9-12th position.
Wings GamingIt goes without saying that Wings are the biggest story of 2016. Their rising trajectory started off with the Championship title of ESL One Manila in April. One month ahead of the International 6 they raised an alarm by winning The Summit 5 and amazed the world in Seattle when they became the team to win the biggest prize in eSports history, $9,139,002. Holders of a Guinness Book record on behalf of their achievements in 2016, Wings Gaming made history this year.
Evil GeniusesThe American pride EG, returning Champions of The International, didn’t have what can be described as one of the best years. Even so, they managed to secure a top three finish in Seattle for the third time consecutively and after experiencing some great transformations in the Fall Shuffle, they won with the revamped roster the first LAN event they attended, MarsTV Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn.
Digital ChaosFrom a struggling team at the beginning of the year, Digital Chaos transformed over the summer into the greatest NA organization. Picking up Team Secret rejects MiSeRy and W33 and building up a mostly European squad to compete under the USA flag, Digital Chaos was the second big surprise in Seattle this year, reaching the grand finals in a great style.
Ad FinemThe Greek team is another inspiring story of success. A joy to watch, even when they were fighting in the lower tier tournaments (which is a recent history of them), Ad Finem are the pure definition of 'hard work'. With the last Valve event of the year, the Greeks took the scene by storm and nailed a memorable performance at The Boston Major where they finished as runners up.
The nominations went to those tournaments which left a lasting impression on us, either for their storylines, production quality or community impact.
EPICENTER - for being the tournament to set the bar for any other event organizers. From the scene setup to smooth running without any delays and a top notch trophy, EPICENTER was a much needed breath of fresh air in a scene overloaded with tournaments.
The Manila Major - for a very well-planned and executed first PGL Major. Setting the broadcast standards to a new level, the Manila Major introduced new analytical features and created a unique atmosphere courtesy of the incredible live crowd.
The Summit 6 - for its unique approach and relaxed atmosphere. From finding a memorable team presentation frame to being the first tournament that gave us the chance to know Wings Gaming a bit better, The Summit 6 stands out as one of the most relevant events in the months leading up to the Boston Major.
The Boston Major - for unfolding an unforgettable story for both Ad Finem, who made their break-out in Boston, and for OG who have secured their third Major title.
ESL One Frankfurt - for evolving from a regular LAN event into almost a Dota 2 festival. The ESL One Frankfurt 2016 was a pleasant experience for the online viewers as no major delays happened and for the live audience who got to experience a unique atmosphere on site. Packed with extra activities for its visitors and placed in the large Commerzbank-Arena, ESL One Frankfurt is the event where you want to return again and again.
For all the good that we’ve seen happening on the Dota 2 scene this year, we’ve also had some historical low points, namely drama stories. Unfortunately, from time to time, we forget for a moment that eSports should be about passion, fun and friendship, all co-existing in a professional environment, and this is when drama emerges.
Team Secret
Unfortunately there have been so many low points for Team Secret this year that we could have had them listed as a full five individual nominations. Twice this year they were called out by the former players for not honoring their payments. First N0tail and Fly complained about this issue and, later on, EnternaLEnVy went public via a long blog post with numerous conversations with both owners of the team and their manager. The decline of the team, although we weren’t fully aware of it at that time, started pre TI6 when they had to qualify for the event via open brackets. The community majority still had faith in the Secret captain, a player with a huge experience, a TI Champion himself, a smart and charismatic person with millions of fans. But, everything went south for Puppey and his team when Envy posted a short video with the mighty captain raging and smashing his headphones into his monitor, not to mention the dark colors in which Envy painted his captain after nearly nine months spent with the team. Again, more than enough material to split all these episodes into five solo nominations for Drama of the Year.
"James is an ass"
That’s the sentence that opened day three of Shanghai Major, after the event host, James '2GD' Harding was fired along with the entire production crew. Gabe Newell made the official announcement via reddit and his words became the strongest meme in the Dota 2 community. "James is an ass, and we won't be working with him again" is what Gabe Newell had to say.
The Shanghai Major
The Shanghai Major was without a doubt the most disastrous event we've had in a very long time. The problems started on the very first day and unfortunately never stopped, not even after the Major was over. For many, the Shanghai Major is a drama that outshone any team and their achievements. The entire social media chat was about the endless problems happening in Shanghai. From more than five hours of delays, to a fired host and production crew, to toxic air in the player booths on the stage, and lost gaming gear, the Shanghai Major closed with a bang when players started to tweet a day after the event, pictures with the vandalized practice rooms from which keyboards, mouses, and even rOtk’s car keys were missing.
Sylar vs Ruru
A few days after the Shanghai Major, Sylar broke a story on his weibo account about the LGD owner Ruru and how she forced him into multiple contract renewals in order to receive his money and the transfer fee. Titled 'Do you have a heart?'--Sylar’s post walked us through a long period of time, starting after the TI4 shuffle (2014) when he was first approached by LGD, stretching all the way after the Shanghai Major. In response, Ruru posted a series of screenshots and reiterated the contract signing timeline. The screenshots were of her negotiations with Sylar and Sylar's conversation with LGD's manager when he requested that a replacement should be found for him. The screenshots were deleted shortly after, but the story remained and was one of the biggest dramas in the Chinese scene from this year.
The Boston Major visa issues
The Boston Major was a great success for the organizers but not everything started out nicely. Held in the US, the Major wasn’t easy to access for all the teams, some were forced to play with one or two substitutes while the directly invited team, Execration had to be replaced only two days before the event. Execration announced only two days before the event that their visa application was put on hold because of a missing paper from Valve.
This category awards the individual commentator that makes you jump from the seat and whose hype over a teamfight or individual play has stuck with you for days, weeks or even months after.
Toby 'TobiWan' Dawson - for being one of the most recognizable voices from the commentating desk. It almost feels there wouldn’t be a true LAN event or an International without Tobi having us all going insane over Dota 2.
David 'LD' Gorman - for his unique mix of maturity and infectious joy when witnessing a good play. LD is a rare combination of a caster that can hype a game or make you feel as miserable as the players feel when they make foolish mistakes.
Owen 'ODPixel' Davies - for his endless power to hype a game and for his capacity to lose himself in a good way, when commentating a well-executed move or teamfight. His recent 'performance' from the Boston Major Grand Finals speaks alone about this talented young man who at times literally puts music in our ears.
David 'GoDz' Parker - for being as good as a shout out caster as he is when he assumes the analytical role at the commentating desk. His expertise on the SEA scene makes his commentary stand out from the rest of his colleagues.
Austin 'Capitalist' Walsh- for his indubitable growth as a play-by-play caster this year. From a young man with high ambitions, Capitalist became in 2016 a strong figure at the commentating desk. Always interested in improving himself, Cap stayed in touch with his fans after most of the events via his video blogs, has analyzed his own casting performances and became better and better with every tournament up to the point where he is now a must-have caster for any successful event.
The analysts are those who understand a team, a player and a game in general far beyond what we can see on the screen. Their game knowledge and presence on the tournament panels enlighten and teach us a bit of Dota 2 every time. The award goes to the individual who offered amazing insight and successfully made us understand and predict the teams and players performance at important events.
Chan 'WinteR' Litt Binn - for being one of the most accurate analysts. A pro player himself, WinteR made a name for himself as one of the great connoisseurs of the SEA scene but his overall understanding of the game made him a great asset at every tournament. He has a very sharp mind and his professional career as a player and team captain adds legitimacy to his analysis.
Ben 'Merlini' Wu - for being one of the audience favorites and his always on point commentaries. An avid learner and always up to date with the latest patch notes, Merlini is a very opinionated analyst and delivers a sharp view on any game he casts.
Kevin 'Purge' Godec- for his continuous and admirable work on improving and developing analytical commentary. One of the most popular figures in the Dota 2 community courtesy of his hundreds of hours of video guides, Purge is the father of the new analytical segments used at the Valve events, "the Purge corner" or "the Purge segment".
William 'Blitz' Lee - bouncing from the coach seat to the commentary desk at times, Blitz is sharing his knowledge and understanding of the players in a very relaxed manner. A great ability with which he mesmerizes the audience every time he makes time to appear at the commentary desk.
Andy 'Draskyl' Stiles - a senior panelist and commentator, Draskyl developed a casual tone that makes his analysis extremely easy to digest. Draskyl stands out as one of the most accommodating analytical voices for the new Dota 2 fans and at the same time provides top notch insight, without making you feel lost in technicalities.
Whether on stage or on the panel desk, the hosts are the ones who have the duty of seamlessly guide the audience through an event. They play more of a moderating role and besides being extremely informed they also need to be capable of entertaining the crowds, to start and conduct the conversation topics between the guests and ultimately to build the hype for everyone watching.
Alex 'machine' Richardson - for making an amazing debut as a Dota 2 host. One of the most familiar faces from the CS:GO scene, Machine stepped onto Dota 2 territory for the first time as host of the Boston Major this December. Even for the avid consumers of Dota 2 events, in the end, Machine passed as one of "our own" due to his amazing ability to adapt to a whole new game. For his flawless performance in Boston, the Dota2 community welcomes him aboard with great warmth!
Paul 'ReDeYe' Chaloner - for being the true veteran of eSports that everyone loves and respects. ReDeYe’s presence at The International or ESL One or a Major brings, I would dare to say, a royal aura and ensures a great success for any tournament organizer.
Dakota 'KotLGuy' Cox - for his chameleonic power of transforming into either a chill host, moderating the most casual conversations you could ever listen between a few professionals, or a strong stage presence when he is getting to host an all suited up event.
Jorien 'Sheever' van der Heijden - for being one of the most valuable panel hosts and an energetic personality who earns the audience's attention in a blink of an eye. Able to survive any situation, Sheever has been this year the saving grace for many tournaments. Starting with the Shanghai Major when she suddenly got to be the tournament host alongside KotLGuy, Sheever has attached her image to DreamLeague and has been a great panelist at most of the Valve events from this year.
Andrew 'Zyori' Campbell - for his impeccable presence at the Northern Arena BEAT Invitational.
The interviewer of an event can easily be also called the live reporter who has his clear and sometimes impossible mission to bring us the stories from behind the scenes. Unfortunately for the eSports industry, this is still a fairly new job and far from an easy one. To make a player talk about himself, his dreams and his background is quite the challenge at times, but some of the Dota 2 personalities do have a special aura that helps them get the inside peek.
Jake 'SirActionSlacks' Kanner - for being the only person from the entire scene who leaves you with only two options: you either love him or hate him. There is no middle way with SirActionSkacks and his exuberant personality made him the interviewer whose content you have to watch this year, regardless of which side you are.
Kaci Aitchison - for evolving from an awkward presence to a well-documented interviewer and beloved entertainer of The International 6.
Dakota 'KotLGuy' Cox - for his great content from The Summit 5 and The Summit 6.
Jack 'KBBQ' Chen - for being the living bridge between the Chinese players and the rest of the world. Many of you might struggle putting a face next to his name, but truth to be told, KBBQ’s interviews from the Shanghai Major were the only extra content to come from the event, as well as his articles from the Nanyang Cruise Cup. With a journalistic degree in his pocket, KBBQ slowly but surely became an asset for any event. KBBQ signed recently a contract with Beyond the Summit, officially becoming part of their broadcast team.
Jorien 'Sheever' van der Heijden - for her well-conducted winner or loser interviews from The DreamLeague and the many hours of work put at every event she participated.
This is a bright new category that we are happy to introduce into our yearly GosuAwards. We find that for some weird reason, the Dota 2 workshop artists have never benefited of a true recognition besides the Valve’s International and some of the ESL sponsored events where they are invited to showcase their skills and interact with the Dota 2 fans. As art, in any of its forms is a source of endless deliberations, we tried with our first ever five nominations for the Dota 2 Workshop Artist of the Year to bring in front those who created some of the most popular item sets.
Stephanie 'Anuxinamoon' Everett - for being the most well-known item creator among Dota 2 community. Most of her work found a place in one of the many treasure chests, from The International to the Majors. Anuxi is also the creator of EternaLEnvy’s Phantom Assasin - Echoes Aria and Ember Spirit - Vanishing Flame items sets along with the Enchantress - Rustic Enrature for 1437 (Rose).
Chris 'Toasty' Archer - for his amazing artwork for heroes like Naga Siren, who now has a Chinese themed item set, the Eternal Princess, and for being one of the few artists to adventure on to creating a Bane item. The Self-Made Lucid Torment is the 2016 Fall Battle Pass reward for completing the Path of the Protector.
Konrad 'Konras' Krzeminski - for his outstanding items sets created over the years. Konras is responsible for some of the most popular creations, including the Dame de Carreau for Phantom Assassin, the Ember Crane set for Lina, the Eternal Nymph for Puck or the Rightful Heir for Riki.
Michael 'Hawf' Shilliday - for his relentless effort to create something completely new that would fit the Dota 2 universe. Although he doesn’t have too many items or sets accepted in the game, Hawf’s work is a continuous search for something truly unique.
Andrea 'motenai' Orioli - for being one of the most interesting artists out there. Almost all of his uploaded creations into his Steam Workshop made it in the game and are speaking about a wicked world, a territory of twisted dreams and amazing tales. Among many other, Motenai is the creator of the Darkclaw Acolyte - Dazzle set for Vanskor, of the Treasure of the Deep –Naga Siren set for Evil Geniuses and Priestess of the Divine Flame - Lina set. We could spend a day talking about this artist’s artwork for Dota 2 but we are sure that his Workshop profile speaks volumes about his talent.
