Valorant, Worlds 2022, Arcane Win Laurels at The Game Awards 2022

The Game Awards returned for another star-studded night of awards, announcements, performances, and entertainment on 8th December in Los Angeles as the gaming and esports world geared up for the much-anticipated event. In addition to the exciting announcements like Final Fantasy 16’s release to Hades 2, fans were also treated to the winners of the many categories at the Game Awards 2022. There were five esports categories in total that were recognized for the awards and here are all the esports category winners at the Game Awards 2022. Interestingly, Riot Games titles Valorant and League of Legends saw success at the award ceremony in the esports category, while Riot’s TV show Arcane also picked up a coveted award.

Valorant wins ‘Best Esports Game’ award

Valorant won the “Best Esports Game” category at the Game Awards 2022. Valorant was released in 2020 and to win such an iconic award in a short span of two years denotes the success of the game in general. The game’s esports scene has been stellar through out with its Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) circuit and Riot Games also hosts regular LANs that bring together talent from around the world. Additionally, Valorant esports also strives to create opportunities and support women and marginalized genders via its Game Changers circuit. The publisher has major plans stepping into 2023 as it has already announced a kickoff tournament for the VCT with the 30 franchised teams that it selected after various rounds of interviews and deliberations.

The nominees for the Best Esports Game award were:

• Valorant (Riot Games) - Winner

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)

• Dota 2 (Valve)

• League of Legends (Riot Games)

• Rocket League (Psyonix)

League of Legends Worlds 2022 wins at Game Awards 2022

Worlds 2022 was the winner of the Best Esports Event category. The nominees for this award were:

• League of Legends World Championship aka Worlds 2022 - Winner

• Evo 2022

• PGL Major Antwerp 2022

• League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2022

• Valorant Champions 2022

Organized by Riot Games, Worlds 2022 made its way back to North America this year and the tournament was held between late September and early November. Worlds this year highlighted numerous storylines and many LoL esports records were broken. The grand final of the event between T1 and DRX, held at the Chase Center in San Francisco, brought in a peak of over 5.1 Million viewers. The event is the most-watched League of Legends tournament in history and the second most-watched esports event in general. Notably, Korean team DRX had a Cinderella run and defeated tournament favorite T1 to lift the Summoner’s Cup.

Arcane wins ‘Best Adaptation’ at The Game Awards 2022

Best Adaptation is a new category that was introduced into The Game Awards 2022 lineup. As the name suggests, the category is focused on shows, movies, and series that are adaptations of video games that kept fans glued to the screens. 

The nominees for the Best Adaptation award are:

• Arcane: League of Legends (Fortiche/Riot Games on Netflix) - Winner

• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Studio Trigger/CD Projekt on Netflix)

• The Cuphead Show! (Studio MDHR on Netflix)

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Sammy Group and distributed by Paramount Pictures)

• Uncharted (PlayStation Productions, Columbia Pictures and distributed by Sony Pictures)

Arcane was the biggest hit of the year and it took the animation and story-telling worlds by storm. Though the League of Legends-based series was short with just nine episodes, it managed to capture so many beautiful emotions through its thoroughly planned script, screenplay, animation and effects, music, and art. Notably, Season 2 of Arcane is in the works as confirmed by Riot Games and Fortiche.

The other esports category winners are as follows:

Best Esports Athlete - yay

Valorant pro player for Cloud9 Jacob "Yay" Whiteaker won the Best Esports Athlete award in 2022. The other nominees were: 

• Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon (League of Legends pro)

• Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (League of Legends pro)

• Finn “karrigan” Andersen (CS: GO pro)

• Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev (CS: GO pro)

Best Esports Team - LOUD

Valorant team LOUD won the Best Esports Team accolade at The Game Awards. The nominees were:  

• Los Angeles Thieves (Call of Duty)

• DarkZero Esports (Apex Legends)

• Gen.G (League of Legends)

• FaZe Clan (CS: GO)

Best Esports Coach - bzkA

Valorant coach Matheus “bzkA” Tarasconi won this award. He was crucial in LOUD’s victory at the Valorant Champions 2022. 

• Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi (Natus Vincere CS: GO coach)

• Erik “d00mbr0s” Sandgren (FunPlus Phoenix Valorant coach)

• Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström (FaZe Clan CS: GO coach)

• Go “Score” Dong-bin (Gen.G League of Legends coach)

Note: AFK Gaming was one of the media outlets that was invited to vote and select the winners of the esports categories.